I went to Elk last Sunday and Sno Mt on Monday for the FF county days off. Never had been to either resort. Quick trip report for those who haven't been.
Door to door from Herndon to North side of Scranton is 4 hours with a 10 minute Micky D's stop. Got a Days Inn hotel for 51$ on Hotwire for 1 adult and 2 kids, hotel had Continental Breakfast, and a pool, the Jacuzzi was under repair. Pretty good deal though for 51 bucks.
Sunday at Elk was great. Skiers left are several nice cruisers and winding trails. Some whales developed and very little ice, which only appeared around 3:30. Skiers right from were the steeps. There was very little ice on these runs too. The snow was a little more frozen and chunky on the steeps. There is a nice winding cruiser on the far right with a terrain park (surface lift). We were skiing some courderoy as lat as 1pm. They had their double lifts open around 10am, but we never waited more than 3 minutes. If you know which runs you want to ski, work your way to the correct lift at the bottom. You can get to any run from any lift, but it seems to be uphill both ways on the top of the mountain from lift to run
The lodge was your typical PA resort lodge with a locker room and open storage, the food was not too expensive, and the restuarant looked pretty nice (we brought food though, so all we got were fries and hot chocolate).
Sno Mt (Montage) was empty on Monday. When we got there at 8:20 there were 15 cars in the lot, and the shuttle bus drove up to meet us. A Sno employee meet us at the lodge and told us about the resort (very nice). Sno is much more open than Elk and they were working on building what looked like a superb terrain park all morning with their snowcats. Skiers left from the top is easier runs with a nice terrain park with lots of features, and the another one that was under construction. Vert on the left was about 500'. Skiers right was just a bit steeper with some nice drops. On the right you continue much further down the hill to the steepest terrain of both the resorts (total vert on the right was 1000'). We were on groomed runs cutting the cords till we left and my youngest was able to handle the entire hill (he is an intermediate), so anyone who can handle white tail can handle Sno on a groomed uncrowded day. The lift from bottom to top was not running so to make it from the very bottom of the hill required two lifts. Getting off the first lift requires a traverse to another lift for a trip to the top, or you can stick to the steepest part of the hill and make lot's of 500 foot vert runs.
The Sno lodge was an open area and the food again was reasonable. The bar was big and friendly looking, but pretty empty on a monday at noon. Looked like it could be a rockin place on a Friday night. I got a discount card from a radio station, if someone wants it, reply to the post and I will mail it too you.
Both places make much better use of 1000' feet than Whitetail does, but thats not Whitetails fault. Elk feels more isolated and a little more "New England" than Sno. From the top of Sno you have a great view of Scranton Internation Airport.
All in all you can easily occupy yourself at both hills for 2 days and it was a great trip for one big kid and two little guys to hand out, eat, swim and ski.
