Hi Everyone,
I've been coming to this site since therealcb days but this is my first post.
Since everyone said such good things about ELK we decided to go there for the President's Day weekend. It was my husband and I and my son and daughter (both kids are in elementary school). It was our first time at Elk.
We had a fabulous time - thank you, thank you, thank you.
The trails are magnificent. I love the fact that a blue trails stays a blue trail, a black trail stays a black trail. Normally we ski at CB. We like CB but its frustrating that all trails merge onto greens. Just as you get your rhythm you suddenly have to merge into a wall of people. Trails at ELK are all long cruisers.
Kind of neat how all the trails have Indian names - my daughter had to ski down a trail named "kickapoo".
Yes, ELK has a true bump/mogul run. Totally ungroomed. It looks like a giant cheese grater. The funniest thing is that two chair lifts ride right over it and its quite comical riding the chair lift and look down to watch the people try to get down the bumps. I would say only 1 in 10 people can ski it properly. A ton of kids on that trail. Its no fair - their small skis makes it easier.
The snow was fantastic - definitely better than what we have seen at CB. Yes, the trails do ice up by the end of the day but you know that beyond the ice is beautiful carveable snow. The snow was somehow "grippy". Get on your edges and you just carve down the trails.
So much so that all four of us found the blue trails kind of boring so my kids asked if we could try the black diamond trails. Now we've never skied a black before but I noticed riding the chair lifts that there was no ice on the black trails and I didn't hear that distinctive "scraping" noise when anyone was on the trail.
So we gave it a try and skied down Slalom. To our tremendous delight we all made it down with no problem. That said, my daughter got to the bottom and teared up. She said she was embarrassed because she thought it was scary. I told her she has nothing to be ashamed of - that was a looooong steep trail and besides not many eight year old girls can ski a black diamond. That made her feel better. She got her confidence back.
So of course they wanted to try the bump trail. I took a pass - I don't know how to ski moguls (yet) so my husband went down with the kids. They eventually made their way down - they practically crawled and fell down many times but they did it. Funny note - my daughter wears one of those helmet hoods so she looks like a cat with ears and a tail sticking up. She said someone on the chair lift meowed at her.
We skied Saturday and Sunday. Yes, it was crowded. The trails were congested yet somehow the trails were better able to cope with the crowds than say CB. I don't know if its because the trails are wider or Elk attracts more experienced skiers. I found that the people skiing/riding below me were more "predictable" in their movements so I never had that nagging fear that someone is going to collide with you.
Yes, the chair lifts are slow. But we ski at Smuggler's Notch and that place has the slowest lifts anywhere. Surprisingly the quad was one of the slowest lifts. Its not a high speed quad and its actually slower than the adjacent double. Even worse - the line for the quad was longer than the line for the double. You have to know which chair lift to take. For example - we found with the two center double chair lifts that the double on the right side was faster than the double on the left side.
And what's with having a safety bar but no foot rest? If you're going to have to take a slow ride at least have a place to rest your feet.
And you gotta love a place that has no shuttle buses but instead uses the human cattle car to transport you to the lodge. Its a flatbed truck with upright metal bars where everyone stands. It does fit a good number of people.
My major complaint is with the lodge/cafeteria. I know it was a holiday weekend but the cafeteria was jam packed and the lines were long. Elk needs a place like Cameltop that is open for limited hours to take the overflow. What was even more annoying is that ELK allows people to bring in their luggage to the cafeteria. Yes, luggage. I saw duffle bags bigger than my luggage and people stowed them under the tables and then acted like they "owned" the tables and hogged them all day. There should be a rule that if your bag can't fit in a locker than it stays in your car.
I'm glad someone on this board warned about the circular benches. What a pain - it meant you had to put your helmets and gloves on the tables creating more space problems.
And lastly - we were surprised that the ski shop didn't sell a toy elk. My daughter has a toy camel that says Camelback and a toy mouse from Smuggler's Notch. What - no elk from Elk?
And how's this to end your weekend. On Sunday at around 5pm the ski patrol shuts down the Delaware trail for about a half hour to regroom it. At around 5:30pm the same happens with Tioga. And guess which family just happened to be front and center at the top of those trails when they were reopened about a half hour later. Now I know why you are all so passionate about being the first ones down the trails in the morning. Nothing like putting down those first tracks (even in the dark).
Is is frustrating that only half the trails are lighted? Yes, but the lighted trails are more than enough to ski on.
I'm still on a high from last weekend. What a triumph for us. My kids have major bragging rights - they skied down a black diamond.
So again, many thanks for recommending ELK. It is definitely worth the trip.
