moe ghoul

It's 7 nites, 5 day lift passes since some people gaper out and go shopping or some other activity instead of skiing all 6 days. The sixth day ski pass is available. When you add in all the BS taxes and take into account it's top flight accomodations, all transportation provided, a bombastic breakfast buffet each day, its a very reasonable price. That's the downside of club trips, you can't negotiate for less to save money.

Since sometime after 9/11. I don't know the particulars, but apparently they have access to criminal history thru NCIC or some other data base. Prolly a reciprocal agreement due to large numbers of cross border activity. I never looked into the details since I got a clean record...

If you can't get a room at Chet's, check out Arlo's and if theyr'e booked then Orazzi's is an OK back up plan for a cheap nite. Chet's is a mile from Elk and has a ski lodge/honky tonk feel to it. Food and booze prices are pretty cheap, room rates are reasonable. We're getting 2 rooms 2 bath for 60/pp per nite. But there's a deal where you can get 2 rooms with a shared bath that's 37.50/pp per nite. That set up was already booked so we decided to blow a few extra dollars to stay there.

Elk's worth the trip for a PA hill. There's a few places nearby to stay at. Check out their website for some ideas, or my Elk TR from last week.

DUI. He gets his license back on the 17th, but apparently Canadian customs has a clenched up sphincter for the smallest infractions these days. He coulda spent another 3 grand to try to get in, but how stupid is that? That's a lot of skitrips out west or in up north in the US. I still plan on going, but if there is a couple on the waiting list that wants to take our places, I'll drop out and go to Jhole

I just got off the phone with my friend who found out he can't get into Canada for the Banff trip 1/31-2/7. He's calling the Trip leader to figure out what to do right now, is there a waiting list to replace him, etc. I'm floating this out here in the event that anyone might be interested in going and could buy out his trip, possibly at a discount. The trip includes 7 nites at 2 Fairmont hotels, 5 day lift passes with the ability to get a 6th day for 56$, roundtrip airfare outta Philly and buffet bfast, along with a few ski club receptions and other little freebies. IF you want to check out the locations were skiing go to: www.skibig3.com Cost of the trip: $1708

Great pix. Looks like you guys got the goods!

Skiman needs to get some central PA peeps signing up on PASR, someone send that man a few PASR stickers for his helmet. I think you might be the only current poster that hits Roundtop on a regular basis.

-20 windchills in the Pokes by Friday.

Good to hear he's OK. A few months from now, it'll be the coolest story he'll tell everyone about. A future Heli jumping, BC hucker is born..............

How are the road conditions/reports in the A-town area? Icy shit may still be in the cards later after midnite. That's the only thing that'll put the brakes on an AM trip to Blue for me.

2 short vids from the MRV trip. One is at Sugarbush coming outta the woods on to Paradise which was pretty sketchy conditions wise. The other is at MRG. Vids are short due to Fred's camera abilites....or maybe his abilities, dunno. I tried embedding but that failed miserably. http://vimeo.com/2723722

Edit: embed failed

Ski woody.

Light powder in Philly, Blue looks good right now, this is the storm's sweetspot for the next 2 hours. DUMP!!!DUMP!!!!

Frozen precip (sleety) dropping pretty hard for the past 20 minutes in Philly.

I'm getting up at 5AM and seeing what's up accumulation wise. Right now there's some frozen precip coming down at a good clip in Philly for the past 20 minutes. DUMP, MOFO, DUMP!!!!!!!!

Looking more and more like a dud for Blue snow wise on current radar.

I never skied Sno, but driving down the NE extension we saw it in the distance. I got the impression that the steeps are on the lower half of the mountain. I'll try and check it out for a PASR day.

Woot! Low air levels are moistening up, dump. baby, dump. Lookin good for a PASR morning session Sunday. Anyone in the Manayunk area in need of a ride, PM me. Prolly stay until about 1-2 and head home. On the road by 6AM.

Storm is being stingy with the white stuff currently. Let's hope for something more impressive by tonite.

There is little to no ATT cell service in and around Elk, FYI. Wed: Arrived in the rain/sleet around 4PM at Orazzi's Blue Ridge Inn, check in is at 5, so we headed into Carbondale and pounded Rock n Rye shots and mugs of RR at Moran's Pub until about 6:30, then headed back to the motel and checked in. Small room, tiny bathroom, late 90's Ikea furniture. Dante the owner set us up with wings and O-rings at the bar, Sammy winter lagers and a big pizza to follow. Met a Mom/daughter team from Haverford that were staying there as well for the first time. Drank and chatted, crashed at 11. Light snow falling. Thurs: Overcast, mid-20's at 6AM, light flurrying as we left Orazzi's by 7 and headed up to Elk. Got to the upper lot by 7:20, had a egg, sausage & steeze sandwich and 1st chaired by 8:30. Elk does a fine grooming job and the mountain is about 70% open. Our first run was down Susquehanna, fresh cord, no ice, and it was hard to tell that it poured the day before. Headed over to the quad and lapped Tunkhannock, Chipewa and Tecumseh for most of the morning as light to moderate snow fell, few crowds before 2PM so we did a lot of laps. Brownbagged lunch around 1PM and finished the day by 3:45, skiing the same runs off the quad. Top of Tunkhannock was getting scraped off and icy by 3. Headed back to the motel, and just stayed at the bar with Dante and the Haverford gals, who we skied with that afternoon and a little bit on Friday afternoon. The only thing worth ordering off the menu that is "homemade" is the Chicken Marsala. Everything else on the menu is frozen or pre-fab food. Drank heavily with Fred and the gals until 11PM and crashed. It was still flurrying a bit. FRI: Rinse and repeat Thursday AM, we packed up our gear and checked out of the motel. Got to Elk in time for nearly first chair. 18 degrees in the upper lot when we pulled in, partly sunny, little wind. Everything was regroomed with fresh cord, and total accumulation over the past 24 hours was in the 2-3" range. They blew fresh snow, 3-5" on Upper Tunkhannock and we did 90% of our runs there that day as it was ungroomed and bumped up during the course of the day. Hooked up with about 10 peeps we know that showed up later that morning. Brownbag lunch and Caucasians in the bar for lunch, then a final 6 runs before calling it a day. We hit the road by 3PM, had a #9 at Chet's and booked a coupla rooms for a 2 niter in 2 weeks. Orazzi's Blue Ridge Inn is an adequate CHEAP place to stay, about a 15 minute ride from the mountain, located on Rte. 106 in Greenfield Twp.

I just typed up a TR and I got bumped off, so if it was saved anywhere, retrieval would be appreciated, it apparently didn't save the TR so fook it, I don't feel like typing it over right now. Had a ton of fun, Orazzi's Blue Ridge Inn was pretty quirky, we got some natural snow (not much, coupla inches) groomed cord, and Demo Day today found Upper Tunkhannock with 3-4" of fresh manmade that we assaulted all morning creating a nice bump field to play in. Stopped at Chet's Place on the way out today and booked 2 nites in 2 weeks for Demo day on the 23rd and cheap Buckman's lift pass. A few pix: 1st chair on Thurs. Upper Tunkhannock shots from today

K2 could have some fun with that picture.

Thanks for the real time report, I was checking out PENNDOT highway cams. Highways are prolly OK, but secondary roads are dicey. Gonna wait until after lunch to head out. So far, pre-season has been waaaaaay better than this BS. I really thought this winter would be different for a change.