Ride Delaware ? Posted December 13, 2010 Report Posted December 13, 2010 We arrived in Clarks Summit at 12:30 AM for a quick nap at the Comfort Inn, and were awake by 7 AM. We ate a quick continental breakfast, grabbed some gas, and were on the road by 7:40. After a quick text to OutCold, we learned we were about 10 minutes behind him. We arrived at the mountain at 8:10 and were relieved to learn that the upper lot was open to all patrons. In fact, we learned that Elk wasn't expecting the amount of customers they received, which wasn't that many in respect to many of the other mountains in PA, and didn't have the shuttle prepared to run early on. There were people parking parallel in the middle of the parking lot so that they wouldn't have to park in the lower lot and walk up the hill. By the time we left they had the shuttle running. The temperature was 24 degrees when we arrived. We booted up and headed over to the ticket window by 8:25. We scored our lift tickets for $58, then headed out to the lift. I shot this picture from the base of the double: While $58 seems like a steep price for early season, I thought it was well worth it. They reported 11 trails open which essentially provided 4 runs down the mountain. Unfortunately, they didn't have the quad open, but they were blowing snow there in the morning and should have it open soon. They had 2 expert runs , one intermediate, and one beginner run from the top. Terrain was in excellent shape for it being the third day open. It may seem to be a theme for the entire trip, but the terrain was groomed packed powder. Susquehanna was untouched when we got to the top and we decided to hit it immediately. We really let it rip on a perfectly smooth surface. Here is a picture from the top: After hitting Susquehanna we headed to the Delaware which had just opened that day. It was definitely the roughest trail of the day. It had only been groomed once or twice and was sporting some death cookies that would have made cookie monster jealous. We then followed that run with a run down Tunkhannock. This was the first time in my nearly 9 years of riding at Elk that it hasn't been bumped up. In fact, they actually had groomed it. It had some nice little rollers and smooth corduroy. Here is a picture of it from the top. You can see Afroman7 and OutCold on the left hand side: We took the Hiawatha down to the double lift and got in "line." Since it was the first weekend day of the season, training was in full swing. The only real line we encountered was when the ski patrol (10 people) and instructors (15 people) got in the lift line at the same time. Once we got to the top, we headed over to try out the Tioga trail. Since the trail begins at the top of the mountain, this was the last place they were blowing snow. As far as I could tell, they were blowing snow at the base of the quad, the Slalom trail, and the Schuylkill. This is where the Schuylkill and Tioga split: We repeated these runs in cycles of 4 until about 11:30 when we stopped to get some lunch. I scored a chicken sandwich, bowl of soup, candy bar, and gatorade for $14. However, if I hadn't pigged out, I could have eaten very affordably as I believe that Elk has some of the best value for food at any ski resort in the region. We took about 45 minutes and headed back out to no lift line. I was criticized by a lift ticket checker for not clipping my old tickets, but he let me go until next time. On the way up the lift we saw the Park Crew working on some rails in the mini park between the East and West slope. They were probably ready for today, but I don't know if they opened them for sure. We repeated the cycle twice more and decided to head out at about 2:30 after 20 runs. The snow was much softer after lunch and many of the death cookies on the Delaware were less substantial. We took the Tioga for the last run, headed down the Lackawanna split, over the Hiawatha, and stopped by the ski patrol shack where there is an access path to the parking lot. We left the lost at 3 PM to 35 degree temps, bluebird skies, and several Elk regulars drinking beer in the lot. After a 2 hour 15 minute ride we rolled into OutCold's house. It was an excellent ending to an excellent trip. We followed the snow all across New England and were not disappointed. I'm finally home in Delaware and ready for Killington again on December 20th... Quote
AtomicSkier Posted December 13, 2010 Report Posted December 13, 2010 nice report....conditions look good, but holy crap Elk is expensive. Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted December 13, 2010 Author Report Posted December 13, 2010 I couldn't tell you how many acres were open... They say they have 140 total, and a majority of the west side, where most of the longer trails are, was closed, so I have no clue... Yes Jeff, it was crowded, but it was worth the quality... It definitely would have been nice to have an early season rate or a lift ticket discount if you brought it back at the end of the season, but it is what it is... If they had the whole mountain open, the $58 would have been worth it no questions asked... Quote
toast21602 Posted December 13, 2010 Report Posted December 13, 2010 looks great man. hopefully we will get to ride together at Blue or elsewhere this year. i'm trying to meet some new PASRs to put faces to names and such. Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted December 13, 2010 Author Report Posted December 13, 2010 To start off, I believe it was about 2,100 miles... The funeral added about 500 miles having to go South and then North again, instead of just driving straight across VT then across NH... The conditions are in the eyes of the beholder... I mean, its tough to gauge. With all the natural snow at Killington, it definitely had the best surface and powder... However, Loon and SR had some excellent manmade powder and a much better diversification of terrain... Hunter was by far the "worst" of the trip since the surface got scraped off by the afternoon... However, the snowmaking trails had excellent snow. If I didnt have the funeral, we would have stayed at K-Mart to hit up the powder, and it would have been hands down the best. However, given the circumstances, all of the mountains had excellent snow for what they had to work with... If I had to list them, I would list as such: Killington Sunday River Loon Elk Mountain Hunter However, there isn't any day at any mountain that I would term as bad... Quote
jdrob2ski Posted December 14, 2010 Report Posted December 14, 2010 Great TR! Elk was really skiing great on Sat, best opening weekend I can remember. And with the cold weather back they should be able to have a good amount of the mountain open in the next 2 weeks. Quote
trackbiker Posted December 14, 2010 Report Posted December 14, 2010 Great report and pics! Elk is definitely worth the drive and the money when they are 100% open. Quote
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