Gore 3-11-2017 (-1F)

We knew it was going to be cold on Saturday. The forecast called for single digits. We all agreed we wanted to ski anyway so I got up early and dragged my two sons out of bed around 6 AM. It was another quiet morning for me; both kids slept for most of the ride. We got to Gore by 9:30 and parked at the main lodge. My car told me it was -1F. We got out of the car and stretched our legs; junior unzipped his bag and started pulling his snow pants out. "What, are you crazy?" I asked, "I'm not gonna make you freeze, head for the lodge."




He laughed and looked relieved. We grabbed our bags, skis and a cooler of drinks and snacks and set off across the parking lot. We found a spot on the lower level and I let them drink hot chocolate while I brought our Warren Miller BOGOs to the ticket desk upstairs. I had prepared for the cold temps. Everybody got an extra insulating layer and a balaclava. Also, before leaving the house, I threw a bunch of Hot Hands chemical heat packs in my back pack. Years ago my wife had purchased a big box of them and they'd been sitting, ignored, on top of my bookshelf ever since. Both my kids got a set of foot-bed shaped Hot Hands attached to their socks. For myself I busted out my NorthFace Denali jacket and EMS Backcountry gloves, both of which usually make me sweat and don't see much use except on the very coldest days.




Sufficiently bundled up, we headed out to the gondola. I let my ten year old pick the first run. The snow was good. There were icy spots, including a big one near the top of Foxlair but overall I was happy with the conditions. One of the nice things about the cold is that the snow that gets scraped off and moved around by skier traffic doesn't get heavy or mushy. Avoiding the ice and finding soft snow to turn in was easy.




I ran into trouble when I led the boys onto the Adirondack Express quad instead of the Gondi. It was windy in addition to the cold and they both reported brain freeze by the time we reached the top. I let them hit the lodge to warm up and made my way over to the StraightBrook area for some solo runs. Conditions were better over there. Chatiemac and Hawkeye both skied great. After a few runs I headed back. The boys were ready to go but wanted to stick with the Gondi. I agreed.






After a late lunch it was more of the same. Junior had been bugging us all day to ride the Poma in the learning area. After discovering the Snowdon Poma at Killington and spending a whole day on a rope tow at Mount Greylock Ski Club a few weeks ago, my kids have become big fans of surface lifts so we spent fifteen minutes or so at the end of the day goofing off over there.




Then my ten year old asked if they could hike up the learning hill on the other side of the lodge like they did last year. Happily, I agreed. The J-bar wasn't running so there was actually lots of untouched corduroy over there.




The temperature climbed a little over the course of the day but not much. It remained bitterly cold and windy. Sticking with the gondola all day cut down on our terrain options a great deal. We spent the day skiing a very small portion of the mountain but getting my kids out of the wind between runs improved our experience immeasurably. They had fun. Overall, it was a good day in spite of the single digit temps.


Sent from my iPad

^^Yeah man.

Brownski wrote

My daughter does the same thing, always pushing to ride the Poma in the learning area. I don't get it but I usually humor her.

I'm thinking your boyz are going to end up just like you Brownski.

Nice.

Harvey wrote

I'm thinking your boyz are going to end up just like you Brownski.

Oh my god. Not sure that's a good thing...

Looks like you made the best of a bad temp situation -- braver than me!  I generally won't put the girls out with the wind chills below zero.  Glad you had a good time.

And now, with the new snow coming and mild temps for next weekend, we have family and school play obligations and can't make it up to Gore!!    Have not been up since Presidents Day weekend.

Petronio