Elk Mountain Opens for Ski Season

Herrick Township, Susquehanna County - Let the skiing begin! After months of waiting and weeks of preparation, Elk Mountain officially opened for the ski and snowboarding season Tuesday.

Despite a rainy and gloomy-looking day, dozens of people filled the slopes.

"Yesterday I found out so I just came down to hit the slopes," Matt Horbath of Throop said. "It's a pretty good time here."

Many of the die-hards on the first day have been waiting months to run down the slopes.

"First time of the year!" Joe Chieffallo of Olyphant said. "I'm pretty excited to start up again, get some good runs in. Hopefully it will be a good season this year!"

Workers at Elk Mountain say they started making snow right after Thanksgiving but several warm streaks set them back.

Four slopes are currently open.

Managers say they've been getting bombarded by calls with people asking when they are going to open.

"We kept reassuring them that we're going to open as soon as we can, so, today was as soon as we could," Bob Deluca from Elk Mountain said.

With colder temperatures expected overnight in the next few days, workers say they should be able to get more slopes open.

"We were actually pretty surprised," Sean Mason of Delaware said. "The fake snow is holding up pretty well. The course they have open is a pretty fun one."

"The snow is actually a lot better than I expected," Dillon Hamil of Forest City said. "I thought it would be slushy considering the weather but it's not. It's good snow. It's soft."

Elk Mountain managers say they don't know exactly when night skiing will begin. That usually begins the day after Christmas but that will be weather-dependent.