Resort or Ski Area: Elk Mountain, PA

Conditions: Soft, rain soaked, man made groomers

Trip Report:
I hemmed and hawed on whether to ski Elk in the rain, or wait and ski Greek on Sunday. With nothing to do today, besides Christmas shopping, I decided to head to Elk. I pulled into the lot a little after opening, 8:45. No cattle car today, parking in the upper lots was unrestricted. Much nicer booting up at the car and skiing down to the lodge.

I bought a morning ticket for $47 knowing that it would allow me to ski till close if I wanted. I didn’t feel too guilty stretching my time, $61 for a full day pass seemed a lot for what trails were available, Susquehanna, Tunkhannock, Lower Tunkhannock, Tioga, and Tioga Spur. I honestly think I could’ve skied without a pass today. I get on the chair and my phone starts playing Led Zepplin’s Fool In The Rain, how apropos.

The "snow" was quite good, usual Elk standards, nice soft, hero groomers. I’ve skied Elk a lot, never had poor conditions, ever. The staff, instructors?, and ski patrol, conducting rescue training, out numbered skiers on the hill probably 10-1. Kudos to Elk for opening at an obvious loss.

Everything was groomed, including Tunkhannock. It always seems weird skiing Tunk groomed, it almost never is. No VW bug sized bumps today. The only problem skiing today was poor visibilty. It was foggy most of the day. It was nice that you were usually the only one on the trail. All you had to do was trust in the "Force", and skiing by feel was pretty easy. It was fun letting my new RTM’s rip, pristine bases and edges preformed flawlessly. I skied until 3, taking two breaks for coffee, and to dry out a little. My Frog Toggs did quite well at keeping me mostly dry, seems as long as the rain isn’t very heavy, they’re adequate protection.
uploadfromtaptalk1417920119303.jpg
Susquehanna
uploadfromtaptalk1417920146844.jpg
Looking up a foggy Tunk
uploadfromtaptalk1417920185905.jpg
Looking down
uploadfromtaptalk1417920211350.jpg
A break in the fog, actually saw the Sun once.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2