Gore Mountain Terrain Park Location

The same person on the gondola at Gore who told me about the ADK Express replacement also told me that 20% of the people who ski there ski on the terrain park only.  I think that this might be one of the reasons that the line is always so long at the gondola since most of the people who ski or ride the terrain park take the gondola.  That is why I think that Wild Air and Sleighride is not a good location for the terrain park as it contributes to excessive gondola lines.  I think that if they made Burnt Ridge and possibly the North Side and or the Ski Bowl all terrain parks there would be less gondola lines.  Maybe even add a lodge and a road to the base of the Burnt Ridge Quad so terrain park skiers and riders could skip the main base and the gondola all together.  Echo and Sagamore would make great park runs and would be the main park and the North Side or the Ski Bowl could have all of the larger features.

Your reasoning does not make a lot of sense to me. The express serves the same terrain and is actually better for boarders due to less skating and walking - although both boarders and skiers use the jumps. It is the weather that drives the Gondi line and users of the terrain park have as much right to be warm as the rest of us.

 Many terrain parkers are kids who are not up there alone, the current arrangement gives everyone as well as families easy access to the facilities where they can meet up together. It also puts the jumps within easy access to base first aid. In addition, people riding the Gondola like to watch the jumpers. Gore tried dedicating the ski bowl as the terrain park - it didn't work so well. Likewise we had a halfpipe in the Arena for awhile, didn't work so well. I think it has evolved to a pretty good compromise as it is.

As far as Burnt Ridge, Echo will most likely be FIS homologated which would bring bigger race events to Gore.

Your thoughts are worth debate so please don't take offense to an opposite opinion.

Burnt Ridge is closed a lot midweek. That would be a major problem for those who like the park. It is also lower elevation. That makes it harder to open when the season starts and makes it harder to operate as a park during a bad season like last year. It is also a pain to get to especially for boarders.

There should be a warming hut/snack bar/restrooms at the bottom of the Burnt Ridge Quad.

x10003q wrote

There should be a warming hut/snack bar/restrooms at the bottom of the Burnt Ridge Quad.

Interesting thought - maybe another Yurt?

Good spot for a waffle house! It might increase traffic to the Burnt Ridge side of the house too.

Not sure if trolling or just stupid. I'll reply as if you're serious because I have nothing better to do.


You really think that the majority of the line for the gondola is park kids? On a busy weekend look at the lines. Honestly park kids are much more likely to take the triple to avoid the long lines. Also if you take the Gondola you still have to get down to where the parks are. Sometimes it's a maze trying to get down foxlair and then trying to get enough speed to cross traffic to showcase. If Fairview is close you could take ruby which NOBODY wants to take.


Wild air was never really an epically special trail. They've got the park there under the gondola where people can see it and that seems to work for them.

Lol at the thought of the majority of the gondola line being park kids.

bean valley wrote

Good spot for a waffle house! It might increase traffic to the Burnt Ridge side of the house too.

This idea makes me hungry.

Is there a road to BR other than cedars?

Love the idea of a little restaurant at the base of Burnt Ridge. I'm a big fan of Telluride, which has gone full bore in favor of smaller, more European-style on mountain restaurants instead of big sprawling cafeterias. For example:

http://tellurideskiresort.com/TellSki/info/on-mountain-dining.aspx

Alpino Vino

I gave Alpino Vino a very kind mention in my magazine piece here:

http://nyskiblog.com/magazine/#nabble-td4023597

I_BUILD_PARKS wrote

Not sure if trolling or just stupid. I'll reply as if you're serious because I have nothing better to do.


You really think that the majority of the line for the gondola is park kids? On a busy weekend look at the lines. Honestly park kids are much more likely to take the triple to avoid the long lines. Also if you take the Gondola you still have to get down to where the parks are. Sometimes it's a maze trying to get down foxlair and then trying to get enough speed to cross traffic to showcase. If Fairview is close you could take ruby which NOBODY wants to take.


Wild air was never really an epically special trail. They've got the park there under the gondola where people can see it and that seems to work for them.

Lol at the thought of the majority of the gondola line being park kids.

I may have exaggerated what I said about lots of the park kids being in the Gondi line.  But I still notice that many of the park kids take it.  I do see lots of them on the triple as well.  Wild Air and Sleighride are probably the best trails to have the park if they want it on the main mountain.  Moving the park to Burnt Ridge would require a major investment and would probably never happen.  On the other hand it would relieve some stress from the main lodge and base area which is a mob scene during some weekends and especially the holidays.  Most of the time it isn't really a problem though.  The reason that I started this thread is because Gore has the terrain for an all-park mountain area and I think that most mountains that already have taken this approach have been very successful as a result.

I like Wild Air for the park. As a skier, Showcase is essentially the same trail so I don't miss Wild Air. And watching from the gondi is nice. I would rather move the features from sleighride onto wild air and have it a park from top to bottom.

tom

I agree with TomCat on moving features from L. Sleighride to Wild Air.

L. Sleighride is a great cruiser trail

WildAir is wide and long enuf for both park (let's say skier's right only) and cruising (skier's left).

Gore really doesn't even have many park kids. Even in the heart of the parks on the main trails from 07-09 it wasn't anything close to being overrun by park kids. If you want to see a mountain in that condition go to mount snow on pay your age day.

As far as an all park mountain... There are a lot of things that gore could do to improve their parks, that doesn't mean any of it will ever happen. Parks are the last thing on their minds at that mountain. Unfortunately it almost needs to be on the back burner for people to buy a season pass there. The mountain itself is great. Varied terrain of all abilities, ridiculously nice glades and a solid vibe. With the separate peaks you can get up to one area that has good snow and low crowds and ride it all day. That's what I love about gore.

As far as the parks, they've had so many opportunities to do something with them and just decided not to. Many of the glens falls/toga park kids I know frequent mount snow and killington instead.

Gore knows that it will always have decent business based off of the rest of the mountain. They don't need a good park to succeed in their eyes and probably won't ever make a large effort to build one. You need to show the park kids that you care about them to keep them coming and they just haven't done that. The way things are leaves kids feeling let down and motivates them to drive somewhere else.

If they really wanted to make a change it's possible, but that would require some massive changes that I just don't see happening.

The problem with that is that lower sleighride has no outlet. If you take lower sleighride, and run into a rail, you could make the claim that these things were just lying in the middle of the trail.

Especially with an inviting blue trail just dumping you out there. I'm not saying it's not doable, but these days insurance concerns are a big part of terrain parks.

If they have both of those trails as parks, there isn't a problem as you go through the fence that has a sign explaining the risks associated with terrain parks.