The Halfway House is an enclosed concrete pavilion with about 45 picnic tables in it. While designed mostly as a place to party during a ski day, after 5:00 Elk Mountain allows groups such as Devon 50 to use the tables as cots and to camp overnight. There are toilets in a small basement under the halfway house and enough heat to keep the ambient temperature at about 45 degrees overnight. (It is cold if you are not prepared!) By 11:00 PM everyone was in the sack and lights out was called.
Saturday we woke at 06:00 AM (temp 12 deg. and sky clear) and were packed and ready to ski by 07:00. Since the halfway house is "public" area from 07:00 AM to 05:00 PM we had to pack up all our gear and store it during the day. At 07:00 we skiied down from the halfway house to the main lodge for breakfast.
Mr. Cavanaugh gave everyone a breakfast coupon, a lunch coupon, and a lift ticket. We ate breakfast, put on our skis, and headed out for the opening of the lifts at 08:30.
The weather was fine and the snow was great. Most of the locals agreed that skiing had not been this good in years. It had snowed constantly for the week before so the slopes were in great shape.
We met again as a group at dinner time since Mr. Cavanugh had the meal tickets. We ate about 05:00 PM since everyone had a good workout on the slopes. After dinner, those of us who had warm clothes headed back out for night skiing. The less physical oriented went back up to the halfway house to thaw out. Usually there is a movie and some snacks. The night shift came back in by 10:00 PM and once again, lights out was at 11:00 PM.
Sunday morning was exciting this year. A blizzard was starting and we decided to leave Elk Mtn. by 10:30 in the morning to try and beat the snow to Philly. At breakfast we made arrangements for who was leaving with who and when. We then headed out for an hour or so of skiing. By 10:30 Sunday morning, everyone was on the road home. It was another great ski trip but some people never got home! They were stranded for two days at the driver's home until the streets were plowed enough to get them a ride!.