Gore Conditions (2016 - 2017)

I'm still trying to convince myself not to feel guilty about the amazing conditions in the Ski Bowl this weekend.  It should be cold and frozen, but this preview of Spring really felt good.  The soft snow inspired me to break out my Monoski and it really was turning nice for me.  Run after run on the 46er, one of those days that you just don't want to end.

At one point while catching my breath, my team blew past me over the headwall, and I knew deep down that though no one wants to see the winter fade, they were all eager for some hearty Spring skiing.


Boot strap view of the 46er headwall and my Monoski.

Harvey wrote

Yes I skied the whole headwall before I walked back up.  I'm hoping history will forget that footnote.

Tammy posted on Facebook that today was an all-time skier visit record for Gore.

It's all good. Hope the rest of the day was fun! Whiteface was packed too on Sunday. More people than I have even seen in Lake Placid.

MikePom - saw your crew rip the gnarly side of the 46er Headwall. I was impressed!

Another great Ski Bowl day.  Stuff softened after 10am and it was off to the races.



46er peaked late am, Oak Ridge just got better as the day went on.

 
BRLKED rocks Oak Ridge

Great skiing with Brant Lake Ed and Robin the girl wonder.

Good to see it softened up and you enjoyed the day.

We skied yesterday and Sagamore was ballistic ice, Echo was some what skiable. Moving up mountain, Top Ridge, Lies, Rumor all closed.  The only saving grace was the good old Ski Bowl, once again a life saver.  Though the 46er wasn't skiing as good as it was over the weekend, it was still soft and offered good runs.

The coming warm up is scaring me.  Much to early for the melt down to start!

Poor Gore really took a beating this week...

I'm afraid to ask, but not being on mountain this weekend.....How bad is it???

MikePom wrote

I'm afraid to ask, but not being on mountain this weekend.....How bad is it???

Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?

Two weeks ago, winter wonderland, EVERYTHING OPEN ! .....

Now...

YUKON CORNELIUS wrote

Poor Gore really took a beating this week...

and to make it worse, it happened at the very ending of snowmaking season.

Unreal.  

As is often the case, conditions ended up being surprisingly good - especially as the snow softened up.  Chatiemac, Lies and Rumor were soft with sweet carving, and 46er was still skiing beautifully.  Obviously no glades.  Plenty of spots with chattery hard-pack from the rain and thaw-freeze cycle, but all things considered it was very enjoyable.  (Oh, and there was a bit of quick maneuvering to avoid random muddy spots - especially over at the ski bowl).  Didn't get slushy since the sun never came out.  Only annoyance was that they corralled everyone off the mountain by 3 PM - assuming due to the wind and impending storm.

I fear for what this line of rain and the flash freeze will do, so I'm very happy to have been out today.  A bit worried for what the rest of the season may bring now...

MikePom wrote

I'm afraid to ask, but not being on mountain this weekend.....How bad is it???

Ski Bowl Trees are toast. Pipeline connection will be gone if it rains tonight. Maybe the Burnt Ridge trees too...

Hawkeye Headwall and Topridge have big, open spots. Various washout spaces all over the mountain.

Large areas of ice too. Very strange, variable conditions today.

I always find it interesting that there can be such a wide range of opinions related to ski conditions. I skied this am and didn't find it very enjoyable due to very foggy and variable conditions such as crevasses, rocks, mud, ice flows. There was great potential for injury. Also, very depressed to see the loss of snow. I've skied better conditions on the last day of skiing in april at gore. There are so many bald spots i don't know how gore will manage.

Most of the mountain got 4-5" of dense snow last night.

Hopefully they were able to get that to bond to the base and achieve some form of measurable damage control.

Had a surprisingly good day today.  It took them an hour to get a lift running due to icing everywhere, but once Adk Exp loaded at 930 my son and I were surprised to make fresh tracks in 3-5" on Twister.  Wind was strong and lots of ice on the saddle but once the Gondi followed online things kept improving.  We caught patrol dropping  the rope on North side and we did fresh tracks again on Tahawus which again surprised us with the amount of powder.  We then did the circuit of Wood In to dark side to Open Pit and then Chati and Hawkeye.  All had some ice  and bare spots but could be avoided staying to the sides.  All in all a great return to winter with the trees all white again after we were depressed by sat's rain in Glens Falls.  Much better than expected - would have stayed longer but had to come back to the mud.  Hopefully they can groom what they have this week and stop the hemoraging.

Capdistski wrote

Had a surprisingly good day today.  It took them an hour to get a lift running due to icing everywhere, but once Adk Exp loaded at 930 my son and I were surprised to make fresh tracks in 3-5" on Twister.  Wind was strong and lots of ice on the saddle but once the Gondi followed online things kept improving.  We caught patrol dropping  the rope on North side and we did fresh tracks again on Tahawus which again surprised us with the amount of powder.  We then did the circuit of Wood In to dark side to Open Pit and then Chati and Hawkeye.  All had some ice  and bare spots but could be avoided staying to the sides.  All in all a great return to winter with the trees all white again after we were depressed by sat's rain in Glens Falls.  Much better than expected - would have stayed longer but had to come back to the mud.  Hopefully they can groom what they have this week and stop the hemoraging.

Had a fantastic day yesterday. Part of it was probably due to the low expectations I had going in. Based on the warm Saturday temps and the rain I figured we would be ice skating. The trails on the front side were in amazing shape and stayed that way all day (minus the noted wind swept hard pack/ice). Nice packed powder made for great carving on Twister, Showcase and Quicksilver. North side trails were also really good. I did one run over on Sagamore and it was the worst of the day. They either groomed it too early or too late resulting in very odd lumpy conditions with a light sugar coating on top. I only made a few runs up top. The summit definitely got more snow than anywhere else.  Not quite enough to get back in the trees but close. Another 4-6 event would put upper mountain glades back in play. They also need to touch up some high traffic spots with snowmaking (ie Saddle and Arena).

Curious why they didn't put either the gondola cabins or the adk xpress chairs in the shed for the night? They knew rain and funky weather was coming and they seemingly could have avoided the delay in lift ops.

Danzilla wrote

Curious why they didn't put either the gondola cabins or the adk xpress chairs in the shed for the night? They knew rain and funky weather was coming and they seemingly could have avoided the delay in lift ops.

Likely due to the threat of lightning and having all those people working around all that metal.

PeeTex wrote

Danzilla wrote

Curious why they didn't put either the gondola cabins or the adk xpress chairs in the shed for the night? They knew rain and funky weather was coming and they seemingly could have avoided the delay in lift ops.

Likely due to the threat of lightning and having all those people working around all that metal.

Duh. Good point. Forgot about the lightening threat. I'll go back to my day job now.

Nice to see Gore firing up the guns again.   Patching together the base might do wonders to stretch out the season if we don't get any March storms.

Good call on the part of Gore management.

MikePom wrote

Nice to see Gore firing up the guns again.   Patching together the base might do wonders to stretch out the season if we don't get any March storms.

Good call on the part of Gore management.

I give them credit for blowing snow, but they are going to have to blow a hell of a lot more to make conditions close to adequate. Ma Nature did a number on Gore again. I blew an edge off my ski today on Echo Headwall in the ice/ice chunks/small rocks. You have to walk with your skis off from the top of the Burnt Ridge chair to the skiable part of Sagamore. We need a storm to drop about 2 feet.

Ouch. Thanks for the update. How's the rest of the hill? East side in OK shape? I'm on the fence for tomorrow. Kids have ski/race school but I'm not sure its worth it with the wind chill and the cold. Might just do Sunday.