Gore Mountain Adirondack Express Replacement.

campgottagopee wrote

x10003q wrote

 
Gore competes with S VT and the suggestion by others that a 17 minute fixed grip quad should replace the HS triple (vs a HSQ) is just a bad idea. The money that might be saved by installing a FGQ would certainly be lost over time by the number of people that might not return to Gore.

Do you really think so?? I've heard this mentioned before, but I never, EVER consider lift systems whenever I plan a skiing trip. The only thing that matters to me is terrain and snow, lifts never even enter my mind. Guess I'm just different than most....to me lift rides are a real hoot.

Once high speed chairs became commonplace it mattered. A fixed grip lift ride of 17 minutes is usually longer as they are harder to load and unload and stop quite a bit. If there are cold temps and wind a 17+ minute ride is a nightmare. They also limit ski time. I would rather be skiing than sitting on a lift.  A fixed grip replacement at Gore  would jam up the gondola even more as many people already favor the gondola now vs the Ad Express.

Thankfully they have chosen a HSQ. I can't wait. The only question now is how fast are they going to run it.

Call it Camp T-bar.

Or back the bigguns and bar.... which could also be called a T Bar.

x10003q wrote

campgottagopee wrote

x10003q wrote

 
Gore competes with S VT and the suggestion by others that a 17 minute fixed grip quad should replace the HS triple (vs a HSQ) is just a bad idea. The money that might be saved by installing a FGQ would certainly be lost over time by the number of people that might not return to Gore.

Do you really think so?? I've heard this mentioned before, but I never, EVER consider lift systems whenever I plan a skiing trip. The only thing that matters to me is terrain and snow, lifts never even enter my mind. Guess I'm just different than most....to me lift rides are a real hoot.

Once high speed chairs became commonplace it mattered. A fixed grip lift ride of 17 minutes is usually longer as they are harder to load and unload and stop quite a bit. If there are cold temps and wind a 17+ minute ride is a nightmare. They also limit ski time. I would rather be skiing than sitting on a lift.  A fixed grip replacement at Gore  would jam up the gondola even more as many people already favor the gondola now vs the Ad Express.

Thankfully they have chosen a HSQ. I can't wait. The only question now is how fast are they going to run it.

I get what your saying. As Gorgonzola pointed out, the 2 hills I've called home  (Greek and Smuggs) have always had old slow lifts, guess I'm just not used to high speed anything. I just don't feel fast lifts make the skiing any better or worse....they're just fast. Snow and terrain is what makes skiing imo.

Got it. Slow lifts on a short hill matters not while no Vod Kanockers at the T bar does.

Snowballs wrote

Could that be because most areas have some decent lifts ? Suppose the terrain and snow equated, and all the lifts at one area were slow doubles with looooong lines and another nearby area had fast, high capacity lifts with short lines ?

OR suppose one had a single bartender, huge beer lines and one had many bartenders with no beer lines !

+100

In the other industry I follow which is the amusement park industry, people want the park with the best rides.  They usually don't go to ones that have a mediocre collection of rides.  The Great Escape is basically a dumping ground of coaster rejects from other parks.  Their wooden coaster, The Comet is awesome.  The rest are mediocre.  Everything except The Comet runs only one train and loads ridiculously slow due to outdated station equipment and understaffing.  On the other hand, Great Adventure has an awesome collection of amazing coasters, some of which are record breakers.  They run 2 or 3 trains on all their coasters and most of them can be loaded and unloaded pretty fast due to better staffing and up to date equipment.  Great Escape is always much less crowded than Great Adventure for this reason.  If you switched their locations around, the same would still be true.

True Sno. However the Great Escape is IMO a great little park for the area. The season passes are cheap and the water park alone is worth the season pass price.

Soooooooo......

Speaking of the Great Escape, bigguns and bars......

Way back in the day, Charlie Woods the founder of the Great Escape, then called Story Town, used to look out at his parking lot and see all the men standing out there while the wives took the children into the park. He wanted to find a way to get them in the park. He added a bar and had a woman with very large bazoombas and a low cut top tending bar. Charlie said she would lean forward and lay them up on the bar when asking a customer what he wanted. That was all it took. Soon the men were in the park spending money.

CONTENTS DELETED

Snowballs wrote

True Sno. However the Great Escape is IMO a great little park for the area. The season passes are cheap and the water park alone is worth the season pass price.

I am not saying that it is a terrible park, its coaster lineup just can't compare to Great Adventure or Six Flags New England which are the other 2 Six Flags Parks that are closest to it.   It it what it is, a small family park that caters to vacationers that are in the Lake George/Saratoga area.  I often hit it when I am in the area since my pass at Great Adventure is valid there.  I don't usually go on water rides at amusement parks.  Both times I went to Great Escape last season, I couldn't go to the waterpark.  It doesn't open till noon, and I had to leave at 1 the first time, and the second time was at the end of October, so it was closed.  Great Adventure has too many coasters that are must rides, so I haven't gotten to do any water rides there either.

I double posted by accident.  That is why the post above is deleted.

I know Sno. Just wanted to plug the GE. Living in this area, it was a wonderful park to take the family too. When we went, season passes were only $60 each !

It's kinda like the North Pole in Wilmington, which is a much smaller yet a very charming place.

x10003q wrote

Gore is not a stand alone business. It is part of ORDA which is part of NYS's efforts to provide jobs, tax revenue and tourism to areas of NYS were jobs are lacking. NYS claims that they get more out of ORDA thru tax revenue and jobs than it costs to finance the venues.

Let's see if I understand this correctly, NYS hires some seasonal workers which it lays off after ski season is over so they collect unemployment. Bet they don't count that when rolling up the net gain. If they are making so much money then why can't they make a few investments that will keep these folks employed for 12 months. There are a lot of things NYS could do to help the whole area if they really wanted too.

The biggest economic impact is related to the lodging and food spend in LP which generate year round $$$.  It also helps working class locals that are in the building trades get thru the winter with jobs.  

They chose a HSQ so this is kind of a mute issue

Given the choice of a no line fixed grip chair or Long line Gondi I'd rather ride the chair than stand in line.  I'm sitting instead on standing plus you blow time getting gear on and off.  Plus on a HSQ if it's cold the wind chill factor can get crazy.  Riding the Face lift is way more brutal than riding the summit chair at Whiteface when it's cold out.  This is not an anti Gore thing.  I have said many times I prefer the fix grip Lookout and Summit Chairs at Whiteface.

Just go to Windham and see how well it works with their two summit lifts.  A beat to crap HSQ that is on its way out (hopefully) as the main lift, and a painfully long and slow triple as the backup that I refer to as the cripple triple.  I wasted so many hours of my life on that triple.  I don't know how it took me so long to figure out that the HSQ gets you there faster, regardless of the line.  The triple is an operational nightmare.  It once slowed 12 times in a ride and it usually stops a lot too.  Never mind the fact that you get to see the HSQ speeding by you the entire ride on the cripple triple.  

Whiteface's Little Whiteface lift is fine as a fixed grip.  Ideally it would have a loading carpet and be able to run at a slightly higher speed, but it is ok the way it is.  The Summit Quad is very long, but the runs have so much vertical and loop around so far, that it seems to work fine.  Also it would be nice if it had a loading carpet to speed the lift up slightly.  Keep in mind that both these lifts serve mostly expert terrain at a mountain where the crowd is high ability as well.  Gore attracts a lower level crowd than Whiteface (the Gore skiers on this site are experts), and the new ADK Express serves beginner terrain.  These are just more reasons that the HSQ was the right choice and should be a great addition to Gore.

Him not so loco. ^^^^

Some removal progress.  This picture proves that the original ADK express is being scrapped, not relocated.

snoloco wrote

This picture proves that the original ADK express is being scrapped, not relocated.

This is not an all or nothing thing.

All of AdkEx 1 can't be reused. If it could there would be no need to replace it.

Towers, tower machinery, and some electrical could all be reincarnated.

How about a bet? One lift ticket at any mountain for me if the Adk Express towers end up on the Dark Side.  A lift ticket of your choice for you if they don't.

Maybe by the time the bet is settled you could buy me a beer.  

Sorry no can do.  My parents would never let me bet this much money let alone pay it if I lost.

snoloco wrote

Sorry no can do.  They would never let me bet this much money let alone pay it if I lost.

I can promise if I win I won't ask for a Stratton Ticket.

Harvey wrote

 

I can promise if I win I won't ask for a Stratton Ticket.

LARRY - LARRY - LARRY

Harvey wrote

I can promise if I win I won't ask for a Stratton Ticket.

But many mountains are almost as expensive.  My parents still would not allow it, or pick up the tab if I lost since I do not want to spend upwards of 70 dollars of my lawnmowing money.