Gore Conditions (2015 - 2016)

telerider wrote

Thanks for the update Darkside Shaman and CY.  Sounds like how it's been skiing for most of January (firm and fast).  Did anyone dare poke in the woods after Tuesday's event?  Maybe warmer temps will soften up the bulletproof this weekend?

The woods are bulletproof now, but that may change with the warm temps this weekend. Keep in mind though that a lot of the blue ice, that is the base now, is hiding underneath and and is looking to bite your ass at any moment. But you all know what I'm going to say now, you won't know unless you go

heard they laid off the snowmakers for the season about two days ago.
Guess it's time to ski what's left

Harv
I'll be there Sunday for a race
Let me know if you want to take some runs first thing in the morning

Gorefarmhouse wrote

heard they laid off the snowmakers for the season about two days ago.
Guess it's time to ski what's left

Ummm.. not quite yet... they blew Lies yesterday, which was very good, and they were also blowing lower cloud, headwaters and upper Sunway. With the warm temps this weekend, most likely blowing is done, but I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU  to all of the snowmakers and groomers at Gore, as without them, we would have been shit outta luck this year

Sorry Coach I will not be in North Creek this weekend.  :(

Spoke to a snowmaker last night who said they were given the weekend off because of the weather.  If conditions permit and or are needed they will still spot and a headwall has not been ruled out yet.  We'll see what Ma Natch will do but I'm with Shaman in saying a big Thanks to our awesome snowmaking and grooming team

I wish I was out there today...Tomorrow is another day

Conditions report:

--Tahawus has nice cover, skied well in the morning.
--Sleeping Bear a lot sketchier, not as fun as Tahawus if you are going to ski North Side.  Saw a couple of people almost bite it.

--Twister was closed most of the morning for racing drills.  By the time we made it there around 1:30, it was raining.  Good cover however.

--Sunway has good cover, better than two weeks ago.
--Showcase had better overall cover than two weeks ago, but you can tell it is a thin layer of snow over a base of ice.

--Hawkeye skied best today.  Good cover, no real sketchy spots.  A lot of fun.
--Chatiemac scraped down at the top, good cover in the middle, scraped away at the bottom.
-Uncas has pretty good cover, we got up there after lunch and the snow was nice and soft.  Did not get over to Topridge but from the triple it looked pretty good.

--Cloud okay, Headwaters okay except near the quad.
--Tannery okay.

--Did not try Rumor or Lies but they looked like they had very good cover.  Did not make it over to Burnt Ridge.

Headwaters under the Strait Brook Quad:


Bad patches on Showcase:



The Arena, terrible condition for mid-February:




We got there around 9:30 and it definity skied better I. The morning.  It started raining around 1:45 and we bailed.

Petronio

Petrino covered most of it, but I'll add that Top Ridge had soft, sometimes sticky Spring snow by about mid-day. Rumor was only open from the goat path. The entrance from the path to the trail was a little sketchy. I skied it first thing, and once you got past the first few ice turns it was groomed out cream cheesy goodness. We skied it in the afternoon and it had gotten skied off. Lies was a bit of a mess. They had blown snow on it and left some misshapen whales with some ice in between.

Weather conditions on the mountain today: fog, wind, no wind, cloudy, sunny, bluebird, snow, and rain. It was 42 in the parking lot when I left and rainy with the sun out shortly after.

As you can imagine, this led to every possible mix of conditions (except blower pow) on different parts of the mountain or even different parts of trails.

Overall, a fun day.

Doesn't look good for them to make it much into April.  Maybe they can dismantle the terrain park for more snow to extend the season a little.

Skied Gore today due to my sons race
Most of the lower mountain is one gully washer away from being closed
It seems there is more snow in the woods than at WF but less on the runs

Coach Z wrote

gully washer

Which they'll likely get this week.

snoloco wrote

Coach Z wrote

gully washer

Which they'll likely get this week.

Sno, I like you, and I think some people give you too hard a time on this board, but can you please keep your schadenfreude (or whatever it is that causes you to focus on the negative, especially when it comes to Gore) off this thread.  This is a thread about current conditions.  You don't need to prognosticate about future conditions.  We all know it's a shitty season this year.

Petronio

+1

Conditions were better on Saturday although things got soft really quick. Sagamore and north side were good in the AM and Hawkeye and Lies were very good in the PM on Saturday. Front side was really wet by the afternoon. It snowed on and off on the top all afternoon.

I was really surprised how hard set the mountain was when I got there this morning. I didn't think it was going to get much below freezing overnight, but it must have have gotten fairly cold. We took adk express up and man showcase had a lot of big ice sections that looked not great. We did tawahus which was hard frozen granular. Down wild air (which was decent) and straight over to burnt ridge. I must have skied sagamore 15 times today. Stayed there in the AM and then when right back after lunch. Really nice carvable granular that had hardpack (not ice) underneath. It continued to slowly soften all day. Echo was also pretty good. Twister opened around 2 and we bombed that on the way out. Really nice cover there too.

I don't think the rain will hurt that much if its in and out quick and the temps stay cold. A prolonged stretch of warm though could be bad for the front but they have really done a fantastic job with cover on the open trails. I second Shaman's shout out to the snowmakers and groomers. I think they should have an annual party for them like they do at Sugarbush. I know I would pay hommage and throw some money into a hat.

Consensus from people who may know something or someone is that they will push for Easter (ie end of march) and then probably call it unless we get some epic snow. We only need a storm or two to turn things but just haven't caught a break. After spending most of last year skiing the trees its been a bit of a bummer this year, but I have still been having a great time.

Is snowmaking done for the year?  If not, they've got a window next weekend to fix things up one last time.

I was up for the Master the Mountain clinic this weekend (very awesome clinic imo with great value, but I digress).

It was really interesting to ski the different parts of Gore.  In a given day, there was frozen granular, some scattered death cookies (this morning on Uncas or Topridge), some actual powder up top by Hawkeye, and this afternoon some springish/hero snow.  Such a cool place. Oh yeah, and ice.  They opened Twister Sunday afternoon and it was really fun with good snow.

I had heard Sagamore was good, but no one in the group wanted to hoof over with the snow down low so slow.  How did you get over there?  A different way from a the traverse near the base lodge?  

Glad you enjoyed the master the mountain and skiing gore. It certainly was interesting how much the weather and conditions varied from hour to hour. There was one point on Saturday where the summit was socked in with wind, low clouds and cold and it was sunny and bluebird on burnt ridge. Wild.

With twister closed for racing you had to traverse over via cedars. The entrance is a little tough to find if you don't know where to look. It involved a little bit of pushing and skating, but once you got to the part with pitch it was pretty much a straight shot over. I think the traverse kept a lot of people away until the word got out and it got "crowded".

Cool - I 'll look for that.  Sounds like you can also use your speed from Twister to save some of the skating.  I probably should have thought of that : )

DomB wrote

Cool - I 'll look for that.  Sounds like you can also use your speed from Twister to save some of the skating.  I probably should have thought of that : )

It's really Echo that saves you a few skates.  If open, Twister's Little Sister cuts you over from Twister to Echo.

Danzilla wrote

Consensus from people who may know something or someone is that they will push for Easter (ie end of march) and then probably call it unless we get some epic snow. We only need a storm or two to turn things but just haven't caught a break. After spending most of last year skiing the trees its been a bit of a bummer this year, but I have still been having a great time.

That is really disappointing to hear, but probably a typical attitude of a state-run venture. Meanwhile, the snow guns are pumping on Superstar at Killington. Kudos to the snowmakers and groomers at Gore, but it seems like it's been a half-assed and scattershot effort from management this season.