stever2003

I'd def have to make a few April trips it they did that. What a good idea! I'm hoping to head up to Sno for the first time ever on March 10. They'll still be open then, right?

I got one on Saturday. Start stockpiling them

I'll be there tomorrow, hopefully getting on the snow around 9:30-10am. I wear all black, my skis are white and orange Rossis, and I don't know if I'm sporting the white or blue Adidas hat yet. Say hi if you see me.

So what's up with this PASR day? Do we just drive up and ski because we're on PASR? Or, are there any events/meet & greets going on? What's the deal?

Indeed. There is plenty of uphill capacity and not enough downhill capacity.

Nice long runs, slow lift lines (which I am not stating as a negative, as it leads to my next item...), uncrowded trails, about 25 legitimate runs (as opposed to runs listed as an Upper and Lower, connectors, etc). Trails under the cover of trees. Beautiful landscape. The friendliest people I've ever experienced at a ski area (on Sunday when I talked to about 8 people during lift rides...one even gave me her name and her husband's company info so I could apply for a job after I graduate). It was awesome, best $50 I ever spent. *** Edit *** Though a student discount would be greatly appreciated (hint hint)!

Actually, that's not a terrible idea. I was broke (literally) at the end of the summer and on my break between classes and my third co-op (we do three 6-month internships at drexel) because i stockpile money while I'm on co-op, and then use it to pay the rent/everything else while in class. So, one night by buddy wants to go to Atlantic city. i wanted to but didn't have the money. Well, he points to my change can and says I should use that. I agree with him. So we drive around South Philly from midnight to 1am looking for an open supermarket with a CoinStar machine (I wasn't aware the casinos would have cashed the change in at the time). Let's just say there are some characters in South Philly supermarkets at 1 in the morning. One lady saw me walking in the story with a jar full of change and, knowing exactly why I was there, got real excited and pointed me in the direction of the machine without me asking. My coin jar yielded $50, and that combined with what I had in my wallet was enough for me to get to AC and lose miserably in blackjack. The end. Back to the present...I'm not happy with Blue Mountain and their student discount thing. I had no idea they had a student discount all last year. I went there 6 times last year. Like most other businesses do, I expected that they would have asked if I was a student each time I bought a ticket. Nope. And since I did not know they had a student discount, I dropped $29 on the Blue Blizzard card for this year thinking it would save me money. Instead, I discovered the student discount and have used it every time I hit up the Boot this year. I'd estimate that not knowing about Blue's student discount cost me $200 extra over the last 4 seasons. Even worse, on the website it says the student discount is for people ages 16-21. I turn 22 on March 7, so even though I'll be a student for the next 16 months (I'm in a 5 year program), I'm hoping they don't give me any shit about being over the age limit. I can't afford to ski there if they do.

It shouldn't be an extraordinary amount of money. But I'm not going to speculate farther, not knowing any facts about landscaping... However, as I said above, on thing Blue Mountain MUST do is regrade the entrance to the six-pack. It's tough to wait in any line for that lift because of the gentle downward slope, and once the liftie tells tells people to arrange themselves to get on the lift, everything goes to hell and people get mismatched. I can't stand it when the lifties get pissed that people aren't grouped in sixes to get on the lift because it's hard to do given the slope. Granted, sometimes people are just idiots (I saw one guy and his wife hold back from their group of six. Then he fell and the lift went over him. Once he recovered, he just sat down on the lift and then the liftie told him he had to move to the load line and wouldn't start the lift until more people got on that chair (to discredit the liftie, the this was around 8-9pm and the lines were short enough where it wasn't a big deal if he let them ride up by themselves, but that's another story. I think he just wanted to make a statement (though it wasn't a big deal))) (Wow, two nested parenthetical statements. I hope I said that correctly and nobody gets confused). But really, you can't always blame the skiers for not being able to load properly. Even I have trouble holding still on that slope.

Are there any deals? Discounts? I'm not sure I can get up unless there are. Will we get to do any racing?

I don't think the trail that you propose is at all necessary. That is the purpose of Shuttle, and Shuttle fulfills it well. This problem could be remedied by changing the grade on/around Shuttle so that you don't have to skate or push yourself on the last stretch before Home Stretch. However, it is not that big of a deal, and I do not foresee Blue making any changes. A more important change: flatten out the land at the entrance of the six-pack.

I agree that they're slow, but I would argue that it is a good thing. The trails were not at all crowded, despite regulars saying they've never seen so many people at the mountain. I'm thinking to myself right now that I cannot remember any instances where I had to dodge any noobs or had a snowboarder barreling down on me. Slow lifts were worth the sacrifice for the uncrowded trails, and I still fit in 18 runs in about 6.5 hours.

Hey NJSki...it's good to hear that you're alright. Everybody in the area was extremely friendly and it's not surprising that people came to your aid. I agree, the cafeteria was a mess. We tried going into the bar/restaurant, but we didn't want to be seated for a meal and nobody was moving from the quick food/drink tables (there were a few guys sitting alone at tables who looked to be chilling there for the day. That is somewhat frustrating). We found a family that was leaving and they let us take their spot. Got our food, ate, and were on our way in about 30 minutes. The best value on the menu had to be (just like at Blue Mountain) the chili. Can't beat it at $3.50. Like you said, there were beautiful bumps on Upper Tunkhannock....it was the first time I was able to ski moguls. I try to learn but could not find any bumps for my skill level until yesterday. It was fun, and I talked to a few people to find out their tips/tricks on the bumps. Doug, you are absolutely right. Yesterday was truly a fun day. I miss it already. I hope all of you can take some time, put up a little extra money, and take a trip to Elk Mountain.

Ya, I don't blame you. Though, today's lift lines were daunting. But once you got in line, it moved along. Elk definitely has a top notch operation going on up there.

I remember about 6 years back, BB had listed an 8 foot base on their website. This sounded ridiculous until I got to the mountain, and there was 8 feet of snow underneath of me. I fell off the side of what I think was called Merry Widow then...I had to climb up a few feet to get back onto the trail, but not before digging my gear out of the snow (I lost a pole in there too).

Hi all. I went to Elk Mountain today for the first time ever. I just wanted to post a report to let everyone know how great it was. Elk Mountain regulars, I'm sorry if I'm exposing your secret. My two friends and I arrived at Elk around 8:45, booted up at the car and got the shuttle to the lodge. Everything LOOKED crowded (ticket lines, lift lines), but in reality, I don't think I stood in any line today for more than 5 minutes. People up there are very friendly, all the regulars seem to know each other, are always saying hi to each other. It was very homey. We rode the main lift (double) for the first three runs, each of us sitting with a random person every time. Then, since we were a threesome on the quad, we always had someone on the lift with us. We struck up some good conversations with these other skiers and everybody was extremely friendly. We talked to some more experienced skiers about tips for moguls, or how to tweak certain techniques. It was a very enjoyable experience. Oh ya, we skied there too! Logged 18 runs (6 off the main double, 12 off the quad). The snow was INCREDIBLE, to say the least. I was skeptical when I heard that they got 20 inches of snow last week, but the snow was unlike anything I've ever skied on before. The runs are very nice...the scenery was amazing. I read on Elk Mountain's history that they planted 13,000 trees back in the 80's...it was really cool skiing under the cover of trees on some trails. But, most of all, as I already said, the snow was AMAZING. Soft, powder, not too packed. My friends and I were snowing each other, we could shoot snow over each other's heads. Also, on the trails to the one side (Lackawanna, Lenape, Wissahickon) there were a lot of spots where you could ski through some trees. I mean, a LOT of spots. I know you're not supposed to, but they were all well travelled, and since they were not roped off and there was so much snow, we decided not to pass on the opportunity. Today was truly a day where we made the experience our own. It was just a truly fun day of skiing. One funny incident that occurred...there was this little jump on the side of Lower Tunkhannok (skier's right). It was toward the bottom, there was a nice smooth dip before it, and then the takeoff and landing were very smooth and nice. I hit it, landed, and turned around to watch my friends. Eric went off next, and he's new to jumps, so he fell back and landed on his ass. Ry was next, but he chose to pass the jump in exchange for the perfect opportunity with which he was presented: snowing Eric. Ry went around the jump and proceeded to bury Eric in a cloud of snow, then skied over and joined me while Eric recovered. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen....people were congratulating Ry from the lift. Just another fun addition to a perfect day. Elk is probably the best mountain I've ever skied at. Lift lines were not bad (and people were saying it was more crowded than ever). Slopes were not at all crowded. Snow was perfect. Moguls were nice (P.S. I learned how to ski moguls ). Parking wasn't bad. People were friendly. Lift lines were extremely well managed. There wasn't a single bad aspect to the day. I've read some posts from people in the Blue Mt. and Bear Creek threads, and I feel bad that they had bad experiences this weekend. Please, do yourself a favor, call up a few friends, take off from work, and drive up to Elk. The snow was great this weekend and should be nice for a while. I've never been more satisfied with spending $50 on a lift ticket (but if you're reading this, Elk Mountain Management, a student discount would be greatly appreciated by us college kids). I'm going to take off from work on my 22nd birthday (March 7) for their Wednesday college discount. See you soon, Elk Mt.

can somebody post a report after skiing today? i'm headed up to elk for the first time and i'm really looking forward to it. i like how they're leaving a few trails ungroomed....hopefully that remains for tomorrow when i'm there.

Ya, I've been looking for it on their website but I also don't think they will have it this year. I like East Mt at Jack Frost, but the runs are too short so the only way you'll get me to go there is with a discount or free ticket. You've got to be a fool to pay $46 for a JFBB ticket when you could pay the same for tickets Blue, Camelback, or Sno.

ouch too many people took that too seriously. sorry fellas.

somebody posted that on tuesday...i was home sick from work so i spent about 2 hours learning everything there is to know about detachable lifts/gondolas and other people-transportation systems. it's a good read, for all of you who haven't seen it yet. (i'm an engineering student, so i need to know how shit works. for all you liberal arts students out there, yes, i WOULD like fries with that).

Haha you went snow tubing. When I snowtubed 10 years ago I remember looking over at the skiing area and thinking about how cool skiing looked. Tubing is a big waste of a few good acres...lolz Sorry, I don't really mean to hate on tubing. It was fun and a good activity for people who have kids or don't wanna pay for skiing or worry about getting hurt. However, I think you're over-reacting. Considering that the tubing area is only so large, they can only handle so many customers. Though, I would argue that the flaw with that logic is they don't monitor the exact amount of people in the tubing park at all times, and theoretically there are probably not as many people tubing as there are tickets that were sold. And two more customers shouldn't be a big blow. Regardless, I think your reaction, while not unjustified, is a little too extreme, and I beg you not to rip up any free passes that you are given. If you feel that you are going to rip up and compensation provided by BC, please PM me, and I'll send you a self-addressed envelope with which you can send me said compensation.

Hopefully my work can call a snowday. Except then i don't get paid since i'm only intern . But apparently, they lose $70,000 a day if they close for snow from paying all the career people.

Last year, there was a run of two booters and some rails, then a turn to the left, then 3 rails across the trail. Then there was the big wide turn to the right, followed by the big ass booter which my friends and I called The Season Ender. I haven't been in the park yet this year (been sick for while and we weren't interested when we were there 2 weeks ago). I think it would be fair to call the double option near the end The Season Ender this year...unless there's a bigger jump that I'm not seeing from the lift. We could always call the school bus The Season Ender.

I'd head up there if I wasn't sick. Maybe next time.

I'm at 32nd and Race. I don't hit up your area unless i'm going to Allegro's, but if you're throwing any parties give me a shout. I'm also in Electrical Engineering, it's pretty rough (send your brother my condolences). Every term I try to get a day off, but their scheduling doesn't allow for it. So much for trying to work while in class. What kind of music are you into? We have shows at our place, usually about one per month, very good stuff if your into the music. We do stuff in most genres, we have a metal/hardcore show coming up this weekend (Feb 10) with a punk/hardcore/indie show in 2 weeks (Feb 24). 3 of the bands have played here before, they're all amazing. Come check it out if you're interested, I love getting new people into these bands. Same goes for anyone else in/around Philly. http://www.myspace.com/planbhouse. Btw. A hot tub? Do one of you own that or did it come with the place? I'd like to get a kegerator over here but nobody wants to spend the money. Also, check out Yards Brewing if you're not already aware. Best beer in the city, you should definitely put one of their kegs in your kegerator and give it a shot. They give free tours on Saturdays (free beer ).

Hey Brian, welcome to the site. I'm a junior in engineering over at Drexel (fourth year out of 5 though ). My GPA is also nowhere near a 4.0 (it can't be if you're ever gonna do anything fun). Do you have a season pass or just buy lift tickets? I'm interested in buying a pass for next year but am not too sure how often I can get up there. Any ski area is a hike from Philly, the round trip is about $15-$20 between gas/tolls.