Editorial: Gore Expansion (Comments)

As I read the posts from all contributors, two things rip the fall-line for me: Harv-thanks for providing the Forum and the Website-outstanding resource and always entertaining; threaders, redders (readers just don't rhyme, dagnabit!) and shredders- thanks for sharing your passion for all things wind-blown, manky, opaque armor plate, sketchy, gnarly' waaay outtabounds and of course, "I shouldn't skied that one". That is, if you like that kinda stuff. I do, I live here and don't know any better. The peaks and valleys that graph the Gore Mountain Ski Center's and the North Creek Ski Bowl's histories are oft discussed and have become local folklore, if not gospel, no matter how unintentionally inaccurate they are. (Hey, Mattchuck, how's that for a run-on sentence?) But I digress, the expansion over the time period 1995-2011 encompassing Rumor to the Interconnect has been one of continuous incremental improvement compared to the "Dark Ages" of the late 1970's to the early 1990's, highlighted by the first "Detachable High Speed Triple Chair in North America" replacing the "Coldest 23 (bound to be a discussion on that) Minutes In North America" in 1983 (older than many of our contributors, I'd guess). I'm all for it. Gore Mountain Ski Center has become a pillar of the local/regional economy as well as our playground and will attract more Skier Visits and those who will consider it as their "Home Mountain" if only via the law of large numbers. There will always be meltdowns, washouts, marbling winds as well as monster dumpers, Bluebird Days and epic Spring skiing. I trust you relish them all as much as I do and will continue to for years to come. BTW- ADK Jeff- When "The New Face of Gore" opened in 1999, the trail map did have Sagamore as a trail from the top of Bear going nowhere, never happened. The trails initially available from the top of the Gondi where Foxlair/Sagamore, Pine Knot and Scare View. There are now three additional trails-Topridge, Uncas, Ruby Run; four glades-Kill Kare, Cave, Pine Brook and High Pines as well as some other interesting descents serviced by the NWG. Thanks Harv. One good turn deserves another.

Not sure I follow.  Are you saying that Foxlair/Sagamore DIDN'T exist (following the same route as today's Foxlair) for the first year of the new gondola...

64ER wrote

BTW- ADK Jeff- When "The New Face of Gore" opened in 1999, the trail map did have Sagamore as a trail from the top of Bear going nowhere, never happened.

...or are you saying that Foxlair/Sagamore DID exist (following the same route as today's Foxlair) for the first year of the new gondola...

64ER wrote

The trails initially available from the top of the Gondi where Foxlair/Sagamore, Pine Knot and Scare View.  

I wasn't going to go this far to make the point, but here's Gore's trail map from '99 -'00, the first year of the Gondola.  You can see that a trail named Sagamore descends from the summit of Bear Mtn but does not follow the route of the actual Foxlair trail that was eventually constructed a year later.  

Now fast forward to Nov '00, when Gore announces "For the 2000 / 2001 Snowseason, Gore Mountain plans to open "Foxlair," a new intermediate trail that leads from the summit of the Northwoods Gondola to Sunway."

The point stands that Foxlair was NOT available for the first year ('99-'00) of the new gondola's operation.  Pine Knot and Fair View were the only routes down from the summit of Bear Mountain.  Foxlair was built the next year.

This exercise of accessing Gore's archived websites is also fun in that it reveals a bit of interesting Gore trivia:  Foxlair was originally going to be named Sagamore, and it was going to take a route that brings it to Sunway near Quicksilver rather than near Wild Air.  Perhaps others will poke around those archives and discover some other interesting trivia.

when it comes to the Foxlair, /Sag/Scareview debate idk, but the new guy is funny and speaks volumes.
Welcome to the site 64errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

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I give Gore good marks for the steady improvements they have made over the years. If it were up to me I would rather see more of an emphasis on snowmaking, but it's not clear there was any choice. Sometimes the money is available only for selected projects you have to do what you can while playing within the rules.

I think making tons of snow is a long term investment. The mountain would get a better rep for having terrain open early and ticket sales would increase over time. Buying the horsepower is not cheap, but neither is the manpower needed to operate the equipment. Unfortunately it is not an easy thing to do when the money is so tight.

tom

I had an interesting conversation with Jeff Palka (of Gear Source) this morning.  It didn't really relate to the interconnect as much as the Ski Bowl.

Apparently he is using the Ski Bowl to take skiers over for a few quick runs to demo gear.

That's probably good for his business at least.

I've been wondering - if you think the expansion was not the right move - are you more against the interconnect itself (Pipeline), or the redevelopment of the Ski Bowl? If the Ski Bowl was brought back on line, but was not connected to Gore, what would you think?

And if the expansion was done, without mentioning the idea that it would be "good for business" would that matter?

I think the Ski Bowl itself is great, and I think it was right to expand.  I think the value of the bowl is greater by having it interconnected with the rest of Gore.  But it's also quite good on a stand-alone basis, a destination unto itself.  Which is why I think there's merit in a low-priced bowl-only ticket.  Where the bowl falls short right now is HOW it's interconnected.  Same can be said for BR.  BR's great, but I think it's poorly connected with the rest of the mtn.  Improving those interconnections could turn Gore into an amazing ski area.