Gore Conditions (2016 - 2017)

snoloco wrote

  Top was all icy.

Yup

I don't give a fuck about wherever that was taken.  I was referring to the trails.

Skied with my dad today for the first time since I went back up to school.  We both started at the Ski Bowl as the main parking lot was crowded when I arrived at 8:10, and my dad didn't get there till 9 due to his longer drive.  Close parking right next to the lift is hard to complain about.  They had Peaceful Valley, Oak Ridge, and Moxham open.  Oak Ridge was closed past Moxham for much of the day.  The trail map says Moxham has snowmaking, but that's a lie as it's only up to the bordercross course.  They have one snowmaking pipe in the woods there, but no hydrants, so maybe they're planning to finish this summer.  That would be great as it's the best trail off that lift IMO.

Echo was closed for racing all day, so without Sagamore open, Burnt Ridge was completely useless except as a connector from the Ski Bowl.  This also put a large number of people on the North Quad, which constantly stopped and started all day.  If they're going to get the money from having the racing on Echo, then they need to put it back into the mountain and replace the North Quad with a HSQ.  They were blowing Sagamore, so soon Burnt Ridge will actually be skiable again.

Twister and Showcase skied really well all day and we lapped them multiple times.  No line on the AE2 and not much of a line on the gondola, although I didn't ride it all day.  With racing on Echo, the lower portion of Showcase was open, so no more single runout shit show on The Arena.  That part of the trail is really fun, and if you straightline over the hills it feels like a roller coaster ride.

The North Side trails were pretty good, but the lift was the most crowded I've ever seen it and stopped at least twice every ride and slowed down at least once every tower.  Didn't spend much time over there as a result.  It was probably a result of Echo being closed and everyone from the Ski Bowl having to come up through there to get back to the main lodge.  If Echo is going to be the main race trail, they need to upgrade that lift as it will be the only way out of Burnt Ridge.

Everything off Straightbrook was really icy and not much fun.  Hawkeye wasn't good, and I could see Open Pit was in similar condition.  Didn't look at Lies.  Hulaballo was ok, but not really worth a repeat.  Never skied any of the Topridge trails today.

snoloco wrote

I don't give a fuck about wherever that was taken.  I was referring to the trails.

Sno, you are becoming increasingly disrespectful and belligerent, making this place not enjoyable anymore. Why should anyone give a f about your day if you aren't open minded enough about theirs.You never specified trails, and I found it to be otherwise.

freeheeln wrote

Fixheeln rocks the woods.  

The Gore parking lot was crowded on Sunday but lines were no where to be found, I hit the gondola multiple times with ZERO lines, no one was on the mountain.  Showcase and Wildair were both very good, top ridge was excellent.  The top wasn't very good, lies was flat loose granular.  The new terrain park glade was great and when they dropped the rope on the high pines glade it was the best run of the day, did it a few times.  Dark side glades looked good but I didnt hit them, I did go down lower steilhang which is always interesting.

MikePom wrote

Milana blowing off the top of the Ski Bowl Glade on Saturday afternoon.

freeheeln wrote

Sno, you are becoming increasingly disrespectful and belligerent, making this place not enjoyable anymore. Why should anyone give a f about your day if you aren't open minded enough about theirs.You never specified trails, and I found it to be otherwise.

1000% agree. If you skied Gore this weekend and didn't have a fucking blast then you need to find a new sport or go to fucking deer valley. I skied both days with my sister and her boyfriend who are lower level intermediates. We hit a few slick spots here and there but overall these are the best midwinter conditions since 2015 and SMOKE any day I had last year. Got a chance each morning to ski on my own and man everything was good. The crowds on Rumor on Saturday came and went in waves and it was sweet. Yesterday it was empty. Cave was still great at 2pm yesterday. It would have been nice to have ropes dropped sooner on trails such as north star/powder pass and chatterbox since they were already mostly skied out by poachers by the time they opened. Not sure what was up with that? Maybe "saving" some things for the Sunday skiers? Took my sister and boyfriend on the grand tour down to the ski bowl and back. Coverage was good in both directions. Eagles nest was a little slick but not bad even with the intermediates. Great great weekend.

Also had a fantastic lesson with Brian Johnson on Sunday morning. Took my bump skiing up 5 notches. Really great stuff.

It was good yesterday. Not a pow day, but pretty damn good. Seemed like everyone was in good spirits there.

Conditions were good today. Light crowds meant trails did not get skied off. I stuck with the groomed stuff as the ungroomed was set up pretty hard. Today was my first trip down echo and it skied really well. Snowmaking on Sagamore, but didn't see any guns anywhere else.

tom

Pretty much the same today as yesterday although as long as it was groomed in the last two days it skied well. Hullaboo and lower Darby were much improved.  Topridge was very nice. Lower mountain and north side skied well all day. Echo not nearly as good late in the day. Overall another great day.

tom

Just because I'm still on such a high from the great skiing during the squall on Sunday morning, I decided to post a pic that kpomography took of me in the birch grove at the run out from the Ski Bowl Glade.  It was by far the best moment I've had at Gore since before last years melt down.  This is Northeast Skiing, love it or leave it...we're tree huggers!



MikePom in the Birch Grove

Snowed all day, lightly in the morning, nuking in the afternoon. Everything I skied (not many trails)was pretty good, couple of things were incredible. High traffic woods were a bit quick. Rumor closed, Sagamore open ,lots of whales, looked to be beyond my ambition level late in the day.

Got a late start today. When I arrived, gondola, top ridge and straightbrook were all down. Gondola came back around 2:00PM but the others remained down as far as I know. Was hearing that there was some electrical problem and it sounded like the running lifts were running on diesel.

Sagamore was very nice, lower Darby OK and Hullaboo not so good. Echo was very icy but everything else available skied very well.

tom

Heard a truck hot a power pole cutting off much of the mountains power supply. Trails were mostly in super shape and woods were really good. Northstar was the run of the day several inches of powder and no one skiing it. Echo was the only bad run really icy, guess they iced for the races they had on it the last two weekends.

The gondola was loading when I got there Thursday, but it was shut down before we booted up.  I heard Lies and Chatiemac were good, but I never got there.  +1 on Northstar.

That power failure story didn't make much sense to me, and I couldn't find out what actually happened.  The north quad ran on diesel all day.  Were they running a back up generator for the other lifts?

Today's report is that all lifts will be open.  They were almost all open yesterday too, just not all at the same time. Are they really back to full operations today?

mm

Another great day today. Echo closed for racing so I never ventured over to burnt ridge or ski bowl. All lifts running and conditions were very good all over the mountain. Thanks to those for pointing out North Star - great again today. Steeper slopes did get skied off late in the day. Last run down showcase and it still skied great.

tom

46er and Hudson open this weekend.

snoloco wrote

46er and Hudson open this weekend.

 They were blowing on 46er tonight. Is this the first time? I thought so.

They installed the plumbing for last year, but nothing on that side ever opened or was blown.

Sagamore and Hudson are also open.

We started at the Yurt this morning.  They blew on the 46er this week and it was whale backed from just above the headwall down to the Hudson intersection.  Later in the day they dropped the rope and opened the headwall for the first time I've ever seen.  Though I didn't take a run down the headwall, it looked like a lot of folks enjoyed it.

 
I'm taking my hat off to the Gore Patrol for treating everyone to the opportunity.  It was a lot of work for them to get it open.


Multiple runs in the woods off piste in the bowl were really rewarding, then we headed over to Burnt Ridge and did Barkeater, Boreas and Abenaki.  Barkeater skied the best of them all and it was by far my best run of the day.

Tomorrow we summit to hit glades on Gore summit.


Milana airborne in Barkeater