trackbiker

American Dream

Surprised nobody noticed that yesterday was actually the 24th. I know because it was my birthday. 🙂

How much syrup do you get out of 8 gallons? How long does it take to boil down?

I've seen them blow snow the day before closing. But that was a number of years ago. It looks like they're watching the wallet a bit more these days. i.e. Not replacing burned out lights, not keeping lift spares on hand or not expediting non standard spares. I wouldn't doubt that they want the books to look good while Vail and Alterra are on a buying spree.

Love days like that at Elk. Have fun!

There's usually a breeze blowing through it. Just hope that you're upwind.

Train derailment video from Nesquehoning on Sunday. Derailment Video

What do you care? You won't go there anyway. You'd ski on crap at blue and say how excellent it was before you'd go to Elk and ski on real snow.

Since I bought a weekday three pass this year they sent me an email today saying I could buy a season pass for $399.00. Ain't gonna do it until they improve the worst grooming in PA, stop blowing wet snow once they have a base down, and invest in keeping spare parts for the lifts on hand. The 6-pack's been down or running at slow speed for how long now? I probable still wouldn't buy one since I ski at a lot of other better places on most weekends. (Greek Peak was great this past Saturday. 14" of snow. 6" of wet snow then 8" of fluff on top.)

They're rebuilding it bigger and better next summer. New Mid Mountain Lodge

Elk will be much less crowded, the grooming will be much better, and they may even get some frozen precipitation while Blue will get all rain Thurs-Fri. It's always worth an extra hours drive.

Cool Pic. Was that station on the other side of the tunnel?

I've been flying out of Philly for years and I travel a lot on business. The only time I was on a plane in years that people clapped was last year from Philly to Orlando. Back in the day people used to clap when the plane landed all the time. But now that planes are pretty much flying buses you don't get the clapping. Maybe they clap more on "vacation destination" planes as opposed to business destination planes?

That only happens anymore when you land in Orlando with a bunch of fools on the way to super crowded and overpriced Disney World.

Stopped at Rek-Lis a few years ago on the way back from Bretton Woods on a weekday. The brewery at that time was a small shed in their back yard. One of my friends called to see if they were open and the owner said, "If you stop by I'll open." Their new place is cool and their beer is good. The Woodstock Inn has a nice smaller bar down a short hallway off to the side near the middle of the building. You can usually get a seat there when the place is crowded.

I asked yesterday and the lady ( I think Victoria?) answered it would start at 3:00. There was no one even working on it last night. Skiing was pretty decent but mostly stuck to the Little Gap side due to the lines at the quad.

Since "Coming Soon" has not been coming soon for literally years now, I would bet they don't want to spend any money keeping spare parts for the lifts on the shelf . I'm thinking the grooming sucks because they don't want to pay any extra for training when they buy a new groomer.

Heading to the ADK this weekend. Otherwise I would be there.

The grooming at Blue has been the worst in PA for years. They never let the snowmaking whales drain before pushing them out. That's what creates all of the cookies.

I agree with Powder. It's different than the other places and has a cool vibe.

If you get there early like you said you might even get a "private lesson" in the group lesson. The typical first timer doesn't show up until later and it takes time for the rentals, etc. so you may be the only one in the lesson. Blue has a learning area at the bottom of the mountain that is completely separate from the rest of the mountain with a chair lift and a magic carpet. I don't think the lines ever really get long there so you should be good. The run is relatively long for a beginner slope so that is good too.

Hey rummy, They don't have any new trails listed as open today. Do you think that they'll be opening a few more for the weekend? If so, which ones? I'm thinking of going Sunday morning.

I used to ski Montage on a Saturday or Sunday morning when they had the $30 half day ticket. They did away with it last year. They lost my and a lot of other peoples business when they did away with that. I'd see a lot of people with the half day tickets in the morning that, like me, aren't going to pay for a full day ticket there.

Blue Mountain Firing Up Snow Guns on Friday Night