Gore 1/12 Snowstorm?

Woke up this morning to a two hour delay for the kid (kid is spoiled and gets a ride to school everyday...won't ride the bus)
Powder day! so the kid gets three choices:  Find a ride to school, take the bus, or go with me...pretty easy decision.
We got to the mountain just after 8:30 because of the roads...pretty sloppy.



First run was foxlair to sunway to quicksilver...sweet! 4 or 5 inches of dense fluff (I know it is an oxymoron but it really was)  Then off to Topridge.  For a brief period a mix fell from the sky and stuck to your goggles...perfect timing to go down Topridge (which was listed as closed last night).  The pow was silky smooth and you couldn't see very well.  Smooth turns and then air underneath me...whalebacks I didn't see made this an incredible trail.  Uncas next...really sweet.  the left side had snow mid calf and you could go pretty far left and not hit anything underneath.  Then up to the summit and what a weather change.

 

High winds blowing up the mountain.  We decided to head right over to lies.  The top  (1/3rd maybe)was scoured but the wind was so strong you hardly had to turn going straight down the middle...then the lower part...sweet powder with deep pockets on the sides and in the middle with some face shots more than a foot deep.  Skied Hawkeye a couple times...nice and soft.  Saw Darkside at one point and he pointed the way to some more powder   The summit was very windy so if you poked around you found some nice deep powder.  the kid laid some virgin tracks on headwaters but eventually we went back to Bear and the kid lapped Topridge (after several runs it was too skied for my taste) and I lapped Uncas...I was able to lay 4 sets of virgin tracks right next to each other on lower uncas in probably 15".  I think the wind continued to fill in the tracks but it also continued to snow...hard at times.  If I were to guess, I would say there was +/- 10" but with the wind you could be on scoured ice or 15+ depending on where you were.  Great day today with my primary skis but tomorrow with my rock skis it will be...

Hey, look at all that SNOW!!!!

Glad you got some....jealous here

Finally.  I'm looking forward to glades this weekend.  The Gore site indicates that Chatterbox is now open.  

Looks fantastic.  Way to get it Suds! and .... from a deskbound pencil pusher.... thanks for the report!

Why the question mark?

Feels good even though I missed it.  

Woke up this morning to a couple of inches of fresh snow and it was coming down pretty good.  Took off for Gore at 7:30 looking forward to some fresh powder!  Pulled in to find very few cars in the lot:



I made it on the second gondola car with hopes of shooting down Uncas and working my way to the summit.



At the top of the gondola I found that they hadn't dropped the ropes yet to anything that accessed the top so I took a quick run down Fox Lair, Sunway and Otter Slide in search of first tracks.  Otter Slide was track free but I paid the price by having to skate a bit at the bottom.  There was a nice few inches of powder and I couldn't wait to get to the top.  By the time I got back up to the top of the gondola they had dropped the ropes to Uncas and Pine Knot so I took off down Uncas for the first time this season.  Great run!  Lot's of powder and whales and barely tracked.  It was a blast.



Next I headed to the top to check things out.  The wind was blowing hard as I worked my way through the drifts and across bare ice in an attempt to try out Open Pit.  Just as I reached Open Pit I fell in a large drift as I was scoping things out and not paying attention.  After brushing myself off I decided on a Cloud/Headwaters run instead.  A few minutes later I'm back at the lift and working my way back to the top.  Next up:  Hawkeye.  Bad timing on my part.  It had been snowing steadily but suddenly changed to freezing rain as I took off down the slope.  Deep drifts, wind scoured ice and blinded by ice covered googles made for a tough run down the top half, in fact it was more like surviving than skiing.  Stopped half way, managed to semi-clean my googles and the lower half was a lot more enjoyable.  After this I lapped Open Pit a few times and then took a break at the Saddle Lodge.  My legs were hurting as I'm not used to the powder and as out of shape as ever so as I headed down Showcase and Lower Sleighride I considered calling it a day as I wanted to save something for Whiteface tomorrow.  When I got to the base I realized that I wasn't done you so back up I went.  The freezing rain had been very brief and it was snowing hard again and the wind had picked up even more at the top.  As the day progressed I adjusted to the powder and had more and more fun (although my legs kept telling me enough already!).  I made a few more runs and left the mountain with a smile on my face.  Next stop:  Whiteface tomorrow!

If you were out there today you couldn't help but have a smile on your face. REAL SNOW!!!!!!  

 
First up was a quick warm up run down Foxlair,Suyway,Quicksilver. Pow,pow,pow everywhere

Back up to try Uncas which was super sweet.


As we were riding up the summit lift you could hear woowhoos coming from Lies so we said that was next.  Like everyone said the wind was blowing straight up Lies. It felt like I was on the weather channel stand on the top of it. Bracing yourself to the wind. The top 1/3 was blown down to the manmade, but the bottom was SWEET.

Boy I hate that Thursday crowd.


The only thing that sucked about today was the drive up, once you passed Lake George and the fact I had to leave at 1 cuz my wife had to work.  

IT'S GETTING BETTER    

Wow, love the triple TRs... thanks guys!

The best part was there weren't too many more people on the slopes...we may have been the only three

Thanks for the great reports. It is good to see the photos also. Winter looks to be finally starting.

 I vote Suds Dad of the Month.

sweet, thanks for the report!

Did the Shaman have any visions about skiing the woods?

Not yet...almost...today's weather helped bigtime

Raymo40 wrote

REAL SNOW!!!!!!  

Dig this photo.
 

Raymo40 wrote

Who's on ... tele?