Gore Conditions (2011-2012)

well put freeheelin,,but u were scared,not me,well mayb once.when we do that tomorrow it will b a piece of cake,yummmmm cake.good too have you for the hole week...

good day up on the hill . surfaces not as nice as monday guess all the efforts went into the race course? top ungroomed kinda slippery. burnt ridge groomed but with the races going on nearly impossible to get back and forth unless you are creative there is  some really nice skiing around if you know where to find it.

little light snow allday made for some nice sliding around today. all things groomed skied very well. thought  the ungroomed skied even better.todays big mountain adventure lead us out to just some beautiful terrain that is going to be a big hit ,skiis so well .  noted local dignitary once again creates a gem

Conditions have been firm and carvable all week. Had a great afternoon with the wife yesterday lapping burnt ridge. The only open trail that has been sketchy is chatty. Snowshoed with the kids this am for about an hour over at 13th lake (which is frozen). Got to the mountain around noon and it was snowing. Snowed steady all afternoon with very low visibility. We mostly stayed on the front side which was great. Probably picked up 1-2 inches and it made a big difference. Hoping it will keep up overnight. Should be a great day tomorrow.

Nice Danzo!  Post some pics from tomorrow.  I want to see what snow looks like, you know, the kind that comes from the sky.

Adk Jeff wrote

 you know, the kind that comes from the sky.

Got me there.

thurs was another fun day making the most of the conditions .hickorymartha hope you enjoyed yhe tour with noted local dignitary and crew, was nice to see you guys enjoying yourselves getting about the whole mt

Freeheeln, shaman, etc. thanx for giving the hickory chicka a great tour.  Now about those ptex gouges.......

im sure there just a flesh wound, besides you got time your only tuning one pair of skiis now.yea its alil bony but were makin the most of what we got. just think what mine look like ive been up all week with outlaw  , noted local and the others weve been everywhere.get ready folks there gonna drop ropes post thin cover signs and let us have at it .from a reliable source there gonna blow lower darby hullabalu. looks like chati glades may also open along with natural north .skiing was pretty good today firm base everywhere some new over it , quiet even.lots of smiles

gouges,what gouges,ya know you would never no there there if you dont look..freeheelin,been a good week,and we made the best of it for sure.but im wooped,sure glad its the weekend,need the rest..oh and by the way ,watch out for that tree in tahawas glades,thats was a good one.

freeheeln wrote

get ready folks there gonna drop ropes post thin cover signs and let us have at it .from a reliable source there gonna blow lower darby hullabalu. looks like chati glades may also open along with natural north .skiing was pretty good today firm base everywhere some new over it , quiet even.lots of smiles

I hope it holds out till Wednesday, when we can finally make it up there.  The weather forecast for the week is not looking good, but I have my fingers crossed that the trails will still be there.  I'd love to ski Hullabaloo again before it closes for the season.

was a real good week.lots of fun ,lots of laffs.we got everything we could out of the mountain,think we put tracks every where, i bet nobody finds them all.broke out alot  of stuff . think we opened some eyes to skiable terrain maybe unskiable too.we shouldve gone for the one we missed  earlier in the week when we had the chance .yea that was" notable" tree in tahawus for sure

Unfortunately cannot insert photos from a certain "smartphone". Legs are sore. A few inches made a huge difference. Soft in the am followed  by soft scratchy around noon followed by crunchy at end of day. It was snowing again when we left. Glades were good early. Bell to bell today. Should be good this weekend.

dare i say the best it's been all year. i know the bar is set very low. the one inch of powder last night was smooth. top of the mountain might get 1-3 inches this afternoon. snowing when i left at 2 pm. it was great to ski upper darby and lower steilhang with natural snow. it brought back many memories of skiing before snowmaking.

I was amazed at the depth you could carve the cord - half a ski width in a lot of places.  And I was still finding cord in the late morning.  Some of my picks include Tahawas Trees (open!). Echo was fantastic. Lowest elevations skied very well.  High peaks chair went down just as I was about to Wood In. What up- anybody know? If you'd have told me yesterday where I spent my time today...

Spoke to Mike - plan at 7am today was: blowing tonight, tomorrow night on Hubba and Lower Darby. Some refreshing on the top of Bear, after that and then ... done for the season.

Good to hear!!! Glad you guys ripped excellent snow!!

Outlaw, love that picture. Were was it taken? I would love to have it as a screen backround if you would send me a larger file.

Done?

I know that the typical M.O. is to scale back big time after President's week but this is a uniquely bad year.  Does this mean that they are just giving up?  How about trying to keep a good portion of the mountain skiable for at least the next few weeks?

I appreciate the news but I'm disappointed to hear it.  I know many won't agree with this but there should be some sort of commitment to season pass-holders and regulars to continue to try and provide a good product if mother nature allows for it.  I made a commitment to the mountain when I bought my ticket, I know they've done a heck of a job with what they've had to work with but to just declare they're stopping without knowing what the rest of the winter has in store is a kick in the butt to those of us who committed to the mountain.

We rode the Straight Brook Quad with Mike Pratt on Friday and he said that they hope to stay open until Easter.  He said that they have made the snow they need for the season and will just move it around. It certainly did not seem to me that he was thinking of ending the season early.

This has been standard procedure since I've paid attention - snowmaking stops after presidents week.  Other mountains do this too -  Gore is not alone.  I don't see this as giving up. Just moving to the next part of the season. Right now Gore has the best coverage it's had all year. I'm sure the goal is to stretch out the investment in base as far as possible.  The money has already been spent, might as well.

While it stinks that most of the base is manmade (ie not much free snow from the sky) much of what hangs around for spring skiing is manmade snow. As always the quality and quantity of the rest of the season is weather dependent.