TR 12/6 - 12/7

[elkskibum]

Opening Weekend 08/09:

 

After seeing how much snow Elk had on the trails thanksgiving weekend I was hoping the first weekend would be a good one. Got out on Saturday around 930, and was impressed at how much snow was being made: upper and lower Tunkhannock, the terrain park next to west, the lack spur and hiawatha, and the Wissahickon. However on Sat only Tioga and Susquehanna were opened. (normal for early/ mid december) The snow was pretty good for early december; good base, no real death cookies or weird snow, just good ole fashioned pa hard pack perfect for carving. As the day wore on Susq got kinda icy, which was expected considering it was the trail everyone was skiing.

 

Sunday they opened up the upper tunk and lower to the hiawatha (so they could open up new trails but not open the quad yet). However, they more than likely rushed opening these trails, as they were quite firm and fast. (with some cookies) Upper Tunkannock had a huge amount of snow on it, but when you flatten out the piles right before the trail opens, well im sure everyone knows what happens;) Nevertheless the snow quality was good and it was nice skiing some variety on only the 5th day of operations.

 

Both days the slopes were not that crowded, as im pretty sure that everybody skiing or riding was a season pass holder or employee, and it seemed like everyone knew what they were doing, so little problem as far as crowd control. The amount of terrain they have open so early in the season is great, and even with the warm up tues and wed they are in great shape for a fun December. I gotta give them some credit, with all the cold temps it must be tempting to open trails as fast as possible, but they really try and get a good solid base down before opening the trail. (For instance on sat the wales of snow on tunk were huge, it prob could have opened on friday, yet they were still blowing snow) All in all a good weekend to get the ski legs in shape and they should have a good amount of terrain open at this rate for christmas week.

[julz m]

text book TR. all ya' need is some pics...