Great conditions at Mt. Ellen this morning! Elbow was excellent. Not too crowded until we left at 10:30. It was chilly out and a bit gusty early.
I thought in general the natural trails were better at LP yesterday than ME today, however Lower FIS at ME was quite nice today. Lookin Good woods were nice too.
It was gusty in a couple spots, but overall I didn't think it was too chilly. Skied 8 until just after noon. Never waited more than a couple minutes in line. I thought it was funny that the Summit lift had a longer line than NRX several times when I passed by it. I think that speaks to there being a decent amount of people that are not regulars at the mountain. When I left ME, cars were parked maybe 1/4 of the way down the access road. I've certainly seen much worse. When I got back to LP, they were directing people to turn by where they wanted to build the new employee housing to park. I saw a shuttle coming up from the Sharc, so could have been parking over there.
On another subject, had dinner at Joy last night. Good food, but would like to see them add a few more items to the menu. Nice well thought out wine list too all reasonably priced. I appreciate that they take reservations too. They did a nice job making that space seem pretty cozy too.