Gore Conditions (2018 - 2019)

I guess it was premature to think Gore would run snowmaking for two days in a row.  

Well...where to start for today...I'd say forget about the fact that lifts did not operate until almost 11am, but as this is Christmas Day, many many customers were there to enjoy the morning sunshine and corduroy, and thus were denied the opportunity. Gondola was the ONLY lift scheduled to operate out of the base area today, and I must ask, what the fuck is management thinking besides holding payroll down. And thus as the gondola once again experienced electrical issues, no decision was made to finally put the chairs on AE2 until after 10, and then it took almost an hour to get them on as there wasn't enough employees to go any faster. So, in typical Gore fashion, AE2 starts loading and of course gondola comes back on line
Conditions were markedly better today, with Lies, and Topridge skiing well in the sun. I find it a interesting that this wonderful new and improved snowmaking system only allows snow to be made a little bit here or there, or that could be payroll issues again
If you have beginners in your family, you may want to rethink Gore this holiday, as the lower mountain is a clusterfuck, with no easy way down for beginners; as besides the super double chair not even being run today, no one can get off the chair at the midstation, as the landing area at the top of Jamboree was washed away, and there hasn't been any snow made there, and this is compounded by the fact that 3B is closed, so the only way down is via Otter Slide, which is barely more than a cat track wide, and while not an icy hot mess like the previous 2 days, the wet guns blasting away are a formidable challenge to beginners and low level intermediates.
So, the bottom line for today is, thank you and Merry Christmas to all of the Gore employees that showed up at work today, and worked hard to provide a fun day. But, Gore Mgmt needs to get their collective heads out of their collective asses and run the place like a successful business, which means showing your collective faces to the public instead of
A) hiding in their offices, while the employees selling tickets and at the customer service desk were getting screamed at by customers wanting to know wtf is going on, and/or
B) not even being at work today

Oh yeah and did anyone hear about the gore employee who took out a customer last Thursday while riding a snowmobile up a trail??? Yes, it happened, but once again just like when there is a problem with a lift, the motto is...Shhhh don't tell anyone anything, nothing to see hear, move along

Rant over, you may now continue with your yuletide celebrations

Darkside Shaman wrote

Well...where to start for today...I'd say forget about the fact that lifts did not operate until almost 11am, but as this is Christmas Day, many many customers were there to enjoy the morning sunshine and corduroy, and thus were denied the opportunity. Gondola was the ONLY lift scheduled to operate out of the base area today, and I must ask, what the fuck is management thinking besides holding payroll down. And thus as the gondola once again experienced electrical issues, no decision was made to finally put the chairs on AE2 until after 10, and then it took almost an hour to get them on as there wasn't enough employees to go any faster. So, in typical Gore fashion, AE2 starts loading and of course gondola comes back on line
Conditions were markedly better today, with Lies, and Topridge skiing well in the sun. I find it a interesting that this wonderful new and improved snowmaking system only allows snow to be made a little bit here or there, or that could be payroll issues again
If you have beginners in your family, you may want to rethink Gore this holiday, as the lower mountain is a clusterfuck, with no easy way down for beginners; as besides the super double chair not even being run today, no one can get off the chair at the midstation, as the landing area at the top of Jamboree was washed away, and there hasn't been any snow made there, and this is compounded by the fact that 3B is closed, so the only way down is via Otter Slide, which is barely more than a cat track wide, and while not an icy hot mess like the previous 2 days, the wet guns blasting away are a formidable challenge to beginners and low level intermediates.
So, the bottom line for today is, thank you and Merry Christmas to all of the Gore employees that showed up at work today, and worked hard to provide a fun day. But, Gore Mgmt needs to get their collective heads out of their collective asses and run the place like a successful business, which means showing your collective faces to the public instead of
A) hiding in their offices, while the employees selling tickets and at the customer service desk were getting screamed at by customers wanting to know wtf is going on, and/or
B) not even being at work today

Oh yeah and did anyone hear about the gore employee who took out a customer last Thursday while riding a snowmobile up a trail??? Yes, it happened, but once again just like when there is a problem with a lift, the motto is...Shhhh don't tell anyone anything, nothing to see hear, move along

Rant over, you may now continue with your yuletide celebrations

I think the message here isn't a rant at all.....as I was "ranting" over the "Master Plan" earlier in the year, I think its time that everyone start to see Gore Management running the mountain like every other successful and responsible ski area on the East Coast.

This is an operational issue, a mountain planning issue, and a marketing issue.  From Darkside's report today, to my mountain planning rant....to the absolutely uninspiring social media presence and lack of a web cam....it all adds up to someone in management not seeing the importance of overarching leadership.

Start running the mountain the way it deserves to be run.....thats the bottom line.

Thanks for the report.  Last ten years have done Xmas day there to enjoy peace and quiet during this holiday period.   We are out of town this period but very curious. Ok so the mt can’t control the weather.   Am I demanding more or is this site’s regulars overly demanding?   Or is it really really getting beyond silly.    

Some have reported silliness at WF but this gore thing week after week after month after year...well guys what’s the deal?

Not sure what is going on this year at Gore.  
- Seemingly not ready for winter, faucet in lodge not working,bar not ready day after Thanksgiving
- Repeated lift failures Gondola, high peaks, AE Express and Topridge. All of which have been down for hours on days when they have been suppose to be open.
- Unable to get alternative lift running quickly when one goes down
- Uncas not being mowed in the summer and being a mess of twigs when they opened it.
_ Two days when I was there including X-mas eve when i expected lots of snow making guns to be running few were, unbelievable after the rain last Friday to only have one snow gun going.
- Not having Sunway, the only novice way down ready by X-mas after all the cold weather we have had this year.

Seems to be epic management failure.

On a brighter note I think the grooming has been really good this year

I'll add another preseason failure. Trees which have fallen onto trails were left there, perhaps with hopes that snowmaking would cover them. There appears to be total lack of preseason trail maintenance. The few glades I've skied so far also appeared to have debris. I'm also worried about the frequent and often prolonged lift closures which have affected every lift but burnt ridge a that's only because they haven't turned it on.

Maybe Gore management went into a state of delirium after the early season snows and summit opening over Thanksgiving and decided that global warming is really just a myth and this is all just a figment of our imagination, and they no longer needed to blow snow, and that mother nature would just take care of everything for them?

Oh that photo.....just ohhhh

That's just sad. I've been skiing the northeast for decades and understands the often brutal whims of the weather, but I don't understand the apparent lack of effort this year at gore by management. Look at Harv's description of Hunter to see what good management can do with the same weather conditions. What's going on!?

Aw come on, what is everyone complaining about?  ORDA has given us this!

Seriously, it is pretty sad what is going on at Gore this year.  It feels as though the bare minimum is being done when it comes to the actual slopes.  Every year there is all this bragging about new snow guns, etc. and yet I'm not seeing any improvement.  If it wasn't for the early season dump the start to this year would have been a total disaster.

Poor trail maintenance in the off season, lifts breaking down, lake of proper grooming (see Ruby Run a few weeks ago), lack of beginner trails at the base (both of these interfered with all skiers on the mountain), poor resurfacing, etc, etc.

With all that said I've been fortunate to get some good days in at Gore this year but I just can't help but think what if.....??????

(Note, I was at Mt. Snow a few weeks ago and the difference was night and day.  I know that Gore will never operate like a Vermont resort but they could strive to be a little competitive.)

I skied Stratton 4 days after the rain storm and it was terrible.  Very icy, very little open.   Gore doesn't have a monopoly on shitty mountain operations.  Killington on the other hand did a great job and has the best grooming in the NYC range of resorts IMHO.  But Killy stands alone, I doubt much is skiing very well right now.

That is a pretty nice looking bar, I hadn't seen it yet.  Still it will be jammed to the hilt, how do you think will it work?

No matter how pretty it is, if I can't get learn how to get the bartenders attention, I won't go in.  I just don't know how to do it.

Regarding Stratton or where ever, this month has been extremely tough everywhere.  As frk said I was somewhat blown away at Hunter on Monday. Very thankful I was having so much fun.

Nice new look to the bar, wondering how much the price of a beer will go up now.

Pretty good day today - summit was good in the morning before it got scraped off.  After a couple hours up top we lapped topridge in late morning.  After lunch the clouds came in and we lapped Tahawus for some reason...my 13 yr old hates the North Quad but he was enjoying the run enough to keep going back a few times.  Good to see guns going all day on Quicksilver.

Trivia question from my family’s late night Christmas dinner after several bottles of wine:  which Gore trail name sounds most like a 1970s-80s gay bar?

We had one of them in our town called “rumors”. My wife says “Pete gay”.

I feel like that's a trick question.  What trail doesn't sound like an 80s gay bar name?


Sleeping bear is my pick

Yes that was what we realized - it was a very long and funny list.  I think Twisters Little Sister was our fave - amazingly enough Pete Gay didn’t even come up!

Cunningstunts wrote

I feel like that's a trick question.  What trail doesn't sound like an 80s gay bar name?

This was my thought exactly.
Go down the list - just about every one would be a possible gay bar name.