man, you're doing this all wrong! ppl move FROM pa TO the west
def a good call to look around clarks summit rather than in the valley. much nicer town, better school district (abington heights), a little higher elevation.
@tinymoose and I are pass holders at montage. we like it there b/c it's uncrowded, it has a nice variety of terrain (including some legit steeps), 1000' vert and the base lodge has decent food/beer options.
Jack Frost is our other usual haunt. not nearly as tall as montage (500' vert), but you can ski anywhere inbounds, so that's where we get to do most of our tree skiing in PA. JF also has it's own little microclimate and it typically gets snow when the other hills get rain (or nothing at all). it's good for a solid half day of skiing in normal east coast conditions....lots of nooks and crannies to discover on days when they get dumped on.
Elk mtn is OK, nothing really challenging there; it's basically a good mtn for intermediates. unless their signature bump run (tunkhannock) actually has bumps on it, the advanced skier will easily get bored after a few runs. the base lodge is out-dated and does not have adequate capacity to handle the typical visitor traffic there....and that's saying something b/c Elk is in the middle of nowhere and is usually not crowded. also, the lift tix at Elk seem a bit over priced for what you are getting. oh, and they don't allow skiing in the trees and will pull your lift ticket.
