Gore Conditions (2016 - 2017)

Petronio wrote

youngest threw up

You've gotta keep skiing when you're sick if you want to be core.  

Just kidding, hope she feels better.

From your picture, it does not appear that they are blowing Showcase.  The report says snowmaking on Uncas, Tannery, Sunway, The Arena, and Bear Cub.  Are they blowing Lower Sunway, or just the portion that is currently open?  Like Whiteface, they need to get a second route to the base to end the WROD.

They were blowing lower Sunway, from the QS split down.  No snowmaking on upper (which was really good btw)

Conditions really nice today, except for the bottom half of Quicksilver (before it merges with 3B), which was not good at all. They're blowing snow everywhere. PLEASE blow some snow on Quicksilver.

They also had a big snow gun blowing snow across Jamboree right near the Sunway chair. Hitting that snow at speed was like jamming on the brakes.

Dont understand why gore let lower quicksilver become a gravel groomer. How hard would it have been to throw a gun or two on that very bad section.

YES!

I was told by a snow maker that lower Quicksilver is a warm spot and when snow making temps. are marginal it isn't cold enough to make snow there.

Duck T. R. wrote

I was told by a snow maker that lower Quicksivler is a warm spot and when snow making temps. are marginal it isn't cold enough to make snow there.

It was cold enough today and you could hear snow blowing on Sunway at the same elevation.

Still, the temps at night should be cold enough to blow some snow there.

Whiteface had one dangerous spot near the base on Saturday where there were rocks and mud.  On Sunday, they put 3 guns (two fans and a ratnik) directly on it and covered up all the rocks within a few hours.  Don't see why Gore can't do something similar at the thin spot on Quicksilver.

You have to charge the entire line to run even one gun. Some lines take 45 mins to charge, and when you're done you drain the line onto the ground or back into the river.  It ends up being most effiecient to charge a line, blow for two days and move on.

When you have one route open maybe it makes sense to charge that line to fix chocolate corner, I don't know. But I'm sure there is motivation to get a T2B green route going too.  Wouldn't be a simple thing to do but maybe a fan gun at the corner of Quick and 3B would make sense.

Until today Quicksilver has been the only way down and it has gotten worse with every passing day.  It's at a point where it doesn't just diminish the skiing experience but it's approaching dangerous.  They really need to give this trail some attention (and like it was pointed out, the nights have been more than cold enough).

I think that they generally do a great job at Gore but there are times when I think that there is an obsession with the number of trails vs. the quality of the trails.  I personally would much rather have fewer good trails than a bunch of marginal ones.

Other than that the skiing was pretty good today.  Another section of Sunway is open now giving an alternative to Quicksilver but it had poor coverage in places, was very chucky most of the way and didn't seemed to be groomed very well.  The top was much better though and Foxlair was the best I've seen yet (today was my 6th day there this season).  They also got rid of that gun at the bottom that was spraying "glue" across the trail causing a very abrupt slowdown that could have resulted in a wipeout if you weren't paying attention.

Snowhunter wrote

I think that they generally do a great job at Gore but there are times when I think that there is an obsession with the number of trails vs. the quality of the trails.  I personally would much rather have fewer good trails than a bunch of marginal ones.

I think (I hope) they're limited right now by what they can accomplish below 2000' and what the interconnected guns can do. We know the groomers can perform magic if they have something to work with, but the guns are blowing glue down below. They're trying to get Uncas and Tannery going for the weekend. That will help immensely.

Number of trails vs. quality might be on orders from the Governor's office. King Andrew loves his press releases.

Gore definitely should double their snowmaking capacity.  Whiteface and the Vermont mountains have been resurfacing and expanding terrain for days.  Why can't Gore spend one night building base depth on Quicksilver?

Whiteface has been pushing terrain expansion at a steady pace, being careful to get everything covered well before moving on.  While they opened Essex on Saturday, after about 18 hours of snowmaking, they kept the guns on till today to build base depth and avoid losing it in the event of a thaw.  I'm guessing now they can move the guns elsewhere.  If you do a rapid thin cover expansion, you risk losing everything if you get a r*in event.  

I skied today and didn't see a problem with quicksilver, Nothing dangerous about it

I said approaching dangerous.  I was actually thinking about all the traffic that I've seen on there most days (today was by far the lightest I've seen this season) combined with the thin cover, narrow stretches and almost slush in some places.  I skied it fine but I could see issues with larger crowds being funneled down this trail, that's all.  One of the days before the rain when it was in much better shape it was a zoo in sections and I could just imagine what it would be like with that same crowd and these conditions.  Just my observations/opinions, I don't expect everyone to agree.

Agree that Quicksilver was crazy dangerous over the weekend - to people and skis. It's probably less dangerous with less people, but seriously, WTF is up with lower sunway?

I saw them blowing on it Saturday (piles looked good), and assumed it would open Sunday to ease traffic on Quicksilver (which was already getting raw on Saturday afternoon). Then it didn't open Sunday and Quicksilver got worse. Now, three days later, after a couple of inches of natural and 3 nights of awesome snowmaking weather, it's still not open, according to the trail report?

They need that trail open ASAP. I'm assuming they can't move to Showcase before they get Lower Sunway, which only adds to the urgency.

EDIT: Ahhh, nm. I thought "lower Sunway" on the trail report was Sunway below QS, when it looks like it's Sunway below the Double. At least they have an alternative to QS now. Thank God. Now get to work on Showcase!!!!

Lower Sunway only marginally better than Quicksilver and only because it hasn't had the same amount of traffic. Leaving Quicksilver as it has been is unacceptable. The place was empty today . Until they deliver acceptable conditions I would expect it to suffer from low ticket sales. On top of that they moved guns on to Wild Air, so resurfacing isn't even an option.

Harvey wrote

 Wouldn't be a simple thing to do but maybe a fan gun at the corner of Quick and 3B would make sense.

No electricity for a fan there. The best bet is a double or triple rat. It's a tricky spot because the snowmaking lines cut out across 3b from above the headwall instead of going down it. In order to blow on the headwall they have to stick a gun pointed down it, which is tricky because the trail is narrow and twisty there. Or you blow from 3b which requires lots of hoses and 3b to be charged. Maybe/hopefully a spur or something will be looked into for that spot if quicksilver continues to be the early season route in the future.

So....was looking to hit Gore on Friday, however seems as the experience would be very similar to last Sunday, if not worse....due to lack of resurfacing and really no new terrain, am I hearing this correctly?

Web site says Bear Cub opening tomorrow!