Gore Conditions (2016 - 2017)

This is not looking good. At least I have a few trips out west planned.

Zero snowmaking despite perfect weather, absolute embarrassment and disgrace

No exceptions!

NorEaster27 wrote

Zero snowmaking despite perfect weather, absolute embarrassment and disgrace

Orda's getting even with Snoloco, heard his rants and his ski agenda.

Darkside Shaman wrote

Ok mother nature fucked us!
Upper Mt hard and fast!
Making snow on Uncas, but unfortunately other than a few on Foxlair and Sunway, that was it for snowmaking.
LIft 6 ran today but other than Little Cloud nothing else open despite what the DAC said all day that Lower Darby was groomed and open. They will have a difficult time grooming out LD and Hullaballoo as there are huge whales that will be the making of large death cookies when groomed.
Burnt Ridge not open today, supposed to open tomorrow, but they have not groomed Echo which will result in same as above.
Sleeping Bear was a low level expert trail today.
Tahawus, ha ha, refer to my previous comments.
Lower Martin was ball bearing sugar snow.

Bottom Line: if you go this weekend, go early and leave before noon or do not go at all

Hmmm, we were planning to come up tonight to ski on Sunday.  Have to leave Sunday night.  Wondering if it is worth it.  But weather is only getting warmer, so this might the best conditions for 2-3 weeks.  I guess we just have to pray for some Feb snowstorms after the warmup.

Petronio

NorEaster27 wrote

Zero snowmaking despite perfect weather, absolute embarrassment and disgrace

Conditions were bad (i.e. Echo head wall was shiny ice or literally piles of frozen ice cubes), but they made up for it by starting the snow guns on Top Ridge at about noon along with one fan gun at the bottom of Uncas and not being able to handle the crowds in the Saddle, the Base Lodge and the Tannery Bar, so...

I heard the Russians hacked into Gore's snow making and effluent plant. They cross connected the urinals with the snow making water intake so that they could give everybody a golden snow shower.

PeeTex wrote

I heard the Russians hacked into Gore's snow making and effluent plant. They cross connected the urinals with the snow making water intake so that they could give everybody a golden snow shower.

This makes more sense than whatever logic management is using right now.

Uncas was good....

I want snoloco's report, but I think he is on strike.

I had a hard time being enthusiastic about skiing today. Uncas was ok and Echo wasn't terrible, but nothing was very fun. It was annoying not seeing any snow making until midday. I may be wrong, but wasn't the point of those new permanent guns was that they could make snow on more than 1-2 trails at a time?  I had family that wanted to visit this weekend, and  I told them not to bother. They thought it would be OK, because the temperatures are cold enough for snowmaking.  I then had to explain that Gore only makes snow on one or two trails at a time.  They asked why, and the only thing that I could respond was "because it's Gore".

"Fake News"!!!!  Kellyanne Conway and the president elect just tweeted that the conditions were the best ever.  Sad!

We arrived at the mountain after noon and ate lunch on the patio.  No rush to get to the mountain on a Saturday morning after a long work week.  

Intent on summiting, at around 1:30 we loaded on the AE2 and dropped straight into Wood In and the Dark Side.  As I relished the speed of the traverse I remained vertical only to see my daughter Milana and wife Karen tear past me in a tuck, obviously also enjoying what is often a painful necessity, not a desire.

On the High Peaks Chair, as I looked down at the late afternoon glaze of sunlight reflecting off of what was obviously a glaze indicative of the past week's weather I knew what awaited us.  Lies was closed, As we descended Cloud to Hullabaloo, the trail was littered with bodies succumbed to liquefaction now solidified into a morbid reminder of last winters nightmare.

Hullabloo was fast, hard and skittish with large rather solid looking whalebacks at the Woodlot intersect.  As I proceeded in caution, my mind replayed the comments of lifty Jim as we loaded the High Peaks Chair "We really need a good snowstorm".

Late in the day as Karen and I ascended the Top Ridge Chair, we looked at each other and simultaneously commented, on what a great day it was on the mountain.  As I looked at her I knew, its not the snow that matters, its being under the sky, feeling the wind on my face and enjoying an amazing landscape that matters.

Foxlair, Sunway and Otterslide were surprisingly workable on the way down and I enjoyed mounds of sugar on trails edge.

It was a great day of skiing.


https://youtu.be/RkmdSdgCV9Q/

MikePom's vid, looks fast:

Thanks for the fix Harvey!!

Skied with a group of kids under 10 today. The lower mountain was an icy, crowded mess. Saw an out of control kid dump it face first on Showcase and hit his head so hard that he blew the lens out of his goggles and then slid a good way down the trail. We left at about 1. I got home and saw on FB that they had been blowing snow up top. That may have been good, but we didn't make it up there.

The North Creek Ski Bowl was amazing today.  Very few folks in the bowl and the snow conditions were perfect.  Soft under foot, no ice and still vast expanses of fresh corduroy even in the afternoon.

Under bluebird skies we taught our friend Alexandra to ski and she did fantastic!  

The Ski Bowl experience today was a welcome reminder that the interconnect is soon to be opened and we'll be able to escape from the human pack up in the base lodge.  Word from the lifties was that they Hudson Chair could be spinning next weekend!

Wow. Whinerville. I hope your all playing with sno. Vagisal is going to start advertising in this thread.

We were in the AE II at 8:15 this morning.  That was some wind coming over the saddle that early!  

Management has clearly decided (or been told) that max open terrain is the prime directive, conditions be damned.  Why are they blowing Pine Knot and Chatiemac when other, already-open trails are in dire need of snow?

In any case, we had a fun day.  The sun came out and warmed our faces, the vista was beautiful, and we skied.

In terms of conditions, there may have been a time today -- maybe an hour or an hour and a half in duration -- when the snow softened up and had not yet been scraped away.  Only exception was Topridge under the guns.  That was fun.

Otherwise, it was:


Petronio

Petronio wrote

Management has clearly decided (or been told) that max open terrain is the prime directive, conditions be damned.  Why are they blowing Pine Knot and Chatiemac when other, already-open trails are in dire need of snow?

Sharpen your edges and toughen up .  Chatiemac is my favorite trail on the summit, so I'm glad to see it getting attention.

That being said, they do need to build base depths in many areas, particularly Pete Gay, Twister, and some of the summit terrain.  Much more so than Whiteface needed to and has already done.