Elk Mountain Ski Area
Elk Mountain ski area’s marketing pitch has long been “Like skiing in Vermont, only closer!” Hyperbole? We don’t think so. At Elk Mountain a high summit elevation combines with more natural snowfall than the Poconos to ensure excellent surface conditions all winter long.
The ski resort has two base areas. There is a small parking lot at the main base lodge (looker’s left side of the trail map), but most skiers end up parking in the lower parking lot near the secondary base. All ticket sales are in the main base lodge, so skiers pile into the famous “Elk Wagon” – a pickup truck with racks that look more suitable for cattle than humans – to be whisked up to the lodge. Some skiers find this converted haytruck ride to be a bit of pain, we find it to be a loveably quirky piece of Elk Mountain’s nostalgic charm.
There are four double chairs from the main base area. First time skiers head to the well-segregated Beginner Slope while more advanced beginners can head to the “D” Lift which goes farther up the hill and offers skiing on the East Slope and West Slope. The other two double chairs (“B” and “C”) run parallel courses to the summit.
From the summit stations of “B” and “C” lifts, skiers can ski either the looker’s left or right halves of the mountain. This is noteworthy because the looker’s left portion of the mountain cannot be accessed from the top of the other summit lifts. The looker’s left half of the mountain consists of Elk’s original trails (The 1959 Pennsylvania ski championships were actually held on the Slalom trail before a lift to the summit was complete!). Susquehanna is the steepest of the black diamonds on this side of the hill. Slalom works slightly off the fall line which makes it a little less steep, but a bit more interesting because of its double fall line. Three short and less steep black diamonds (Iroquis, Tuscarora and Mohawk) are a great starting point for intermediates looking to improve. The only intermediate trail on this side of the resort is Delaware, which is a gentle blue cruiser and also is home to the resort’s terrain park. The only beginner option is the oft-closed Lehigh trail – the longest at the resort – which does not have snowmaking.
The other half of Elk Mountain’s terrain feeds down to a unique side-by-side quad and double lift base near the lower parking lot. all of the runs on this side of the hill funnel into an open bowl (Snow Bowl) near the base . Expert skiers will enjoy strutting their stuff on Pennsylvania’s most challenging mogul run – Tunkhannock. Tunkhannock is steep even by New England standards and poses a real challenge to experts. Three parrallel black diamond runs (Wyalusing, Chippewa and Tecumseh) are the longest sustained expert pitches on the mountain, but are also probably the least steep of all of Elk’s black diamond runs. However, intermediates will particularly enjoy this part of Elk Mountain. Wissahickon and Lenape are New England-style blue cruisers that feel every bit as long any most Vermont trails. Adjacent to Wissahickon, the blue Kickapoo trail’s sharp switchback turns make it perhaps the most interesting run on the mountain. The lone option for beginners is Tioga, a solid if unremarkable green trail that returns skiers to the top of the “D” lift.