Gore Conditions (2016 - 2017)

Shaman Photo

Hooray! The snowmaking crew did a fantastic job on Hawkeye. Edgeable nearly everywhere, with only one or two slick faces on the downsides of bumps.  And there was a complete absence of silly-stupid humps -- it was all very skiable and fun.  They had guns on lower Headwater, and one gun was blowing freezing rain, but it can't be perfect.  The lower mountain is skiing very well; Uncas is pretty noisy if you venture away from the edges which were holding some of the new snow.  Lots-o-fun.

Skied Gore today - What a nice day. Every place was excellent. Hope the weekend does not bring rain.

PeeTex wrote

 Hope the weekend does not bring rain.

No worries mate, Jason said it wouldn't.

Skied at Gore today on my way back home from Potsdam.

Gondola, Sunway, Topridge, and Straightbrook open.  AE2 also made its season debut mid morning.  No lines anywhere.

Arrived at 9 (took longer than expected due to snowy roads), went up gondola and down Uncas to Straightbrook Quad.  Hawkeye was my pick of the day.  Fresh snow and soft bumps on it.  See, Sno doesn't ski only groomers.  Cloud was also nice.  Took 5 laps up there and went up Topridge to return to base via Foxlair-Sunway-Quicksilver for lunch.  Uncas and Foxlair sucked and were icy and windswept.  Other trails skied well.

After lunch, took some laps on AE2.  Showcase was open only to 2b because of racing on bottom portion.  This caused a major bottleneck on The Arena.  Also they were only doing racing on half the width of Lower Showcase, yet all of it was closed.  Crazy bad management on this one.  All terrain from last weekend skiing well, and they're setting the park up on Wild Air.  

After that, took gondola back up to Straightbrook, then skied more laps on Hawkeye and Cloud, and took a few laps on AE2 before leaving.

Good day of skiing with some fresh snow and no real crowds.

Hawkeye


Cloud

Great day today at Gore.  We woke up to 3-5 inches of snow outside the condo -- which did not happen once last winter.  I'll take that as a good omen.

We skied 9 to 3 with a break for lunch.  Showcase was awesome in the morning, with almost no one there and fresh snow on the trail. (There were some patches with ice cookies.)  Sunway, Arena and Jamboree in great shape given conditions two weeks ago.  Did not ski Quicksilver.

Uncas was better in the morning, was pretty skied off our second time down around 1:30.  Gore snowmakers have been busy at the top -- we lapped Cloud and Headwaters quite a few times, with fun side visits  to Mica Park for the girls.  Tannery also skied great.  

Did not ski Hawkeye, girls were not in the mood for ungroomed black.  A few people were ducking the ropes in the afternoon and skiing Lies and Straightbrook Glades.  

Petronio

Showcase at 10 a.m.:


Hawkeye at around 12 noon:

Went for a late start today given the cold early morning temps. Mistake. Conditions were not as good as the prior weekend. Hardpack with a thin cover of snow. Most trails were getting icy after lunch. Hawkeye held up better than most others and quicksilver was the clear pick of the day with nice whale humps.  Unfortunately they took a hit with the recent ra*n.Saw a lot of guns on topridge and scattered guns on sunway and base area.

Tom

Mountain held up much better today compared to yesterday, especially the lower mountain. Wild air and showcase skied really well today. Headwaters had nice snow but the trek over was more of a pain than normal. Snowmaking on topridge, sleighride and scattered elsewhere. I did see them drag a ground gun toward sleeping bear, so maybe thats next.Tom

Another nice day. Light snow all day. Not much additional accumulations, but no ra*n. Gondola down until around 1:00 PM and still the lower mountain stayed good.  Hawkeye was very nice when we got there around 2:00. Did a few laps then headed back down and it felt empty but still skied well. It shouldnt be long for topridge and they turned the gons off on sleighride so i would think thats coming online soon.

Tom

Was up there on Friday, last day before holidays. A lot of other folks had the same idea, probably the largest weekday non-holiday crowd i have seen in a long time, main lot completely full and the next lots past it had a number of cars in them. No real lift lines though-).

Weather was perfect sunny and around 30 degrees, gondola ran all day. Slieghride was open and they opened Topridge around 11.  Conditions were really nice after Thursday's snow. I thought Uncas was the pic of the day with packed powder all morning and only a few icy spots in the afternoon. Showcase got a little scrapped in the afternoon but Sunway held up well. Still some rocks and dirt at the bottom of Headwaters, below the Hawkeye intersection.

Snow making was going on on Open Pit, Sleeping Bear and the bottom of Wild air  (where it splits). Looks like they should have a lot open for X-Mas week. Forecast does not look too bad some warm rain Monday night and then snow making weather the rest of the week, snow possible Thursday.

My family and I skied Christmas afternoon.    That was a first for us, and the conditions were great. Sunshine and zero crowds.  Conditions held up yesterday for the most part.    Even Hawkeye skied well throughout the day.    The lower mountain, though, was were the best snow was to be found. Showcase was great start to finish.  That said, terrain was limited.

I was reading Loco's  thread on grading Christmas week conditions and terrain availablity at various mountains this morning.   And unfortunately I have to agree with his  Gore mountain assessment. My wife and I were surprised at the lack of available terrain, especially given the frequent notices on the Gore mountain site of the snowmaking expansion over the last several years.   They may have purchased the guns, but they certainly don't seem to be using them.    Yesterday we only saw snowmaking on open pit, the arena, and that J bar area behind the lodge.  

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that recent weather was amenable to snowmaking over the last two weeks or so.  Couldn't they have at least opened up Chatiemac and twister?    I realize that twister is a long trail, but that's a trail loved by beginners/intermediates, and is necessary for upcoming racing.

Look at Stratton and Mt. Snow.   Despite having the same weather pattern as us, they have so much more available terrain than Gore (% wise).  And we have an unlimited supply of water.  Yes, I know it costs money to pump it.  

This is my ninth year as a season pass holder at Gore. I love the mountain. We've got such varied and interesting terrain. It's just a shame that we can't ski most if it until February.

Apologies for the rant....

Hardly a rant.

Be curious to hear the theories on why Gore is behind Mt Snow or Stratton for percentage of terrain open.

Skied Gore Christmas morning, lower mt runs were fun, fairly well covered, and empty.  Good few hours, then went over to the Snow Bowl for some snowshoeing.   Nice set-up over there.  Maybe two people XC skiing and our small group.  Can see us using that again in the future as included with our ski pass.  Very cool segment of Gore and really hope it does well.   Needs some marketing.   Was also disappointed on the amount of available terrain on the main mt.  Skied Christmas Eve also, top including Uncas not impressed.  What's going on with my favorite hill?

Why the hell are they blowing Open Pit instead of trying to get a second route up to the summit.  One thing goes wrong with the gondola and everyone is stuck on the lower mountain.  Whiteface is water starved this year, but they seem to be doing a much better job with terrain expansion than Gore.

 Today was better than expected. Hero snow pretty much everywhere but the summit. Didn't seem to lose too much snow with the rain yesterday. Lower mountain was a blast to ski. Just had to be a little bit careful with the crowds. Felt a bit  like playing Frogger.  

Skied with a mountain host who's theory was  that the mountain didn't have enough employees to run the snowmaking at capacity.    Hate to think that's the case.

Anyhow, it was overall a  successful outing.  Sure beats working.  Heading up to Whiteface tomorrow to see what they have to offer.

CMR,

No apologizes needed.  Gettin'  bit by the "Gore - Bug" is like rooting for Jim Kelly , QB of the Buffalo Bills, back in the day.  When he was bad, he was awful, when he was good, he was awful good.

Happy Holidays To All,

Ski You On The Hill.

I have to agree with CMR. I have skied every day since Saturday and I keep wondering how they have so little terrain open. We hear about all the snowmaking upgrades and they have had some favorable weather windows. What is up? I am a Gore homer and I think the grooming crew does a great job but I am scratching my head at the conditions this week.

mattchuck2 wrote

If you know nothing else about Gore, know this: the mountain is great despite the way it is run, not because of the way it is run.

The people who work there are good people, and they try hard. Some people who work there are great!!! But other mountains kick Gore's ass every year in early, middle, and late season operations. Not sure why that is, but it just is.

They had basically a week of snowmaking temps from 12/19 to 12/24.  Only opened one trail (Topridge) during that time.  Whiteface opened Paron's/Follies off the Summit, as well as Brookside, Easy Way, and some other lower mountain terrain.

I find that Gore tends to do a "thin cover expansion" where they cover each trail with the absolute bare minimum amount of snow to open it, then move on.  While this allows quicker terrain expansion under good temps, get one thaw and you essentially have to start from scratch and resurface everything.  Whiteface seems to cover trails pretty deep before moving the guns elsewhere, so they don't usually have to resurface everything after a thaw.

So, not only did Face cover way more terrain than Gore but they laid it down much deeper ? That makes the discrepancy even greater and Gore's production even paler.

This is starting to be like that season 5-ish yrs ago when Gore's snowmaking was really, really bad most of the season. A broken compressor or something. They hardly blew at all. Horrible year.