Old Geezer

The end of a season is always a mix of feelings, you know deep down the good times are fleeting and won't last. How many days did they go beyond the usual 100?

I'm impressed. The pics you post of your place are so cool, no other word better describes it. Did it ever rain?

Having owned ski houses (or condos) in the past I'll say a few things. - When you have a ski house you have lots of friends, many you never knew about. - There's about a one or two year lag between when you acquire the house and when the list starts to grow exponentially. - sleepover is just an acronym for eat all his food and drink all his booze. - Freeloaders and guests are two different animals. I can spot the freeloaders a mile away.

In their defense yesterday the "snowfall past 24 hrs" showed 6-8 ins. Today it shows 0. No I'm not a fan of their website.

The cameras are very helpful this morning.

Nice ot hear the skiing is good. I'm guessing that would be the SRBC, Susquehanna River Basin Commission. I heard they are still having a spat with the community that owns part of the bigger lake /pond they use as a water supply, maybe that is part of not having enough water?

Rummy, you have a lifestyle worthy of envy going on there.

That is what you expect the inside of a ski chalet to look like.

Very impressive. Are those pics with the light snow cover from this season?

Did some work in the abandoned mine lands over the mountain. Used to meet various folks in that place in the mornings, work crews, local officials, etc. Everyone knew everyone else. After one or two times it was like you've part of the community.

In Hegins, there was a country restaurant at the main intersection of the road going up over the mountain and the highway through the village. That used to be a meeting point, show up for breakfast and go about the days work, circa late 70s, early 80s.

There are whatever webcams at your favorite ski hill. If the cameras are off line for the season, like they are now, then look at the PennDot system of road camera feeds: http://www.511pa.com/Cameras.aspx For example, one weather service is showing widespread snow across northern and northeastern PA. Yet the PenNDOT cam at I-81 Lenoxville exit is showing overcast, wet roadways, and no rain or snow falling. You're welcome!

What is the PA equivalent of VT's Heady Topper? Yuengling?

I think I called it out last year, or the year before. Elk may be the only ski area where re-painting the stripes in a parking lot is considered an annual improvement. That's why you gotta like the place, it stays the same year after year.

Elk's website shows 12 trails open today, and the notice of Spring Carnival on Saturday March 18. In the department of bad but expected news, today their webcam shows some brown spots with pooled water near the ticket window / lodge entrance. This weekend might be the last change for top to bottom skiing there.

Nice report, thanks. Will be interested to hear a conditions report since the weekend warmup occurred. Elk's website says 'granular, groomed.' Yes, I presumed as much. Is melt-water openly flowing, how many brown spots on the trails?

Anyone got a Friday/weekend conditions report?

Looking at the pic today, they have wheeled snow guns lines up on the west slope.

If Elk's webcam is to be believed they have a decent looking snowfall from Sat Nite/Sunday. It's clearly not man made snow.

It is entertaining to see their descriptions of improvements every year. One year real soon Elk will be reporting painting the lines in the parking lot as an annual improvement. If I could have convinced some of my ex-wives of these tall tales, "Honey buns, I made some home improvements this weekend, I mowed the lawn!" I'd be s better man for it.

In line with past year's threads, 15/16, 13/14, what amazing improvements has Elk done for this season?

Back on track: Elk Mountain may be the only ski hill in the world where painting the floor in a 50-year old picnic lodge is considered an annual improvement. For you historians, that would have been last season or -2 seasons ago. Wait another 25 years and they'll do this "improvement" again!

Plus the ski school slope, and minus lower Tunk, these are the usual/minimal trails they open with. Based on some quick math, they will have to stay open until April 21 to make the 100 day guarantee "add on" season pass holders have the option to purchase. On a related topic, what did they do with the usual Xmas week camps/clinics/training sessions, postpone or cancel?

I just opened and force-refreshed their website. And I saw, for all of a second or two, a picture of a grooming machine maybe doing grooming. I say maybe because the pic appeared and them immediately disappeared. Can that website get anymore unusable and unfriendly? Someone is trying very hard to out do themselves. The conditions page shows 03/30/2015. Exactly the opposite of what people want to see when deciding if they should drive to VT or maybe stay in PA for the upcoming holidays. It would bring me great joy this festive holiday season to kick in the rear end the people responsible for that website.

Lots of the links do not work. In a full browser or from a smart phone. Yes, they have the GPS coordinates of something, ... the parking lot(?) but try clicking through to the weather forecast, or god forbid, a conditions report. Whatever Elk is currently doing to open, making snow, setting up beach chairs in the 60-degree weather, or something in between, you certainly cannot find out from their website. They do have the prominent feature to "sign up for e-news", however some website that cheesy and amateurishly thrown together is not getting my emall address.