Gore Mtn 4/13 - 4/14/13

I drove up early Saturday morning. The Adks were frosted and glazed like a donut. Skepticism rose.

As I passed through Speculator, my phone beeped with a text. Darkside Shaman said not to hurry, the mountain had yet to soften.

A group of friends greeted me at the Gondola. They had spent all morning lapping the lower mountain, which had softened nicely.

DS was up top and said it was improving, so up we went.

Visibility was the biggest challenge. Clouds hung low and goggled misted up. But the snow was becoming soft and carveable. After lunch we tried out the woods. Spring time can be sketchy as there was a lot of debris on the trail. We moved some of it, skied around and over a lot of it. It was all good fun. Not a great day for photos, but I did get a couple.


Straightbrook


There was a benefit for a wonderful local woman diagnosed with with cancer. It turned into a wonderful party and the showing of love and support was immense. There was great food, music, dancing and lots of donations that were auctioned. A good time was had by all and the benefit was a huge success and is helping a beautiful woman facing uncertain times.

Sunday found a number of us going slow. But those who got there early got to make first tracks on a coating of fresh snow. The lower mountain skied like butter. But it was more wintry at the top and snowed on and off throughout the morning. The clouds broke up in the afternoon with bursts of sunshine.







This was my last day skiing at Gore. It was a really great season for me. I skied 16 days at Gore and every one was fantastic. The regulars are wonderful, fun-loving people who enjoy skiing as much as I do. It makes every visit to Gore special.

Thanks to EDeO, Mel, Russ, Ellen, Tommy, Melissa, Mark, Mark, Evan, Mary, Michele, Jim, Martha, Kirby, Beth, Jeff, Eric, Ike, Paul, Bill, Matt, Jay, Derek, Dean, LeeAnn and all the others for a great ski season.

We were calling it "untracked slush" - really fun surface to ski on. Saturday was okay, but Sunday was great. Trees were awesome. A little firmer on the Dark Side, but soft and sweet off the straightbrook. SB glades, Darkside glades, KHS, and Chatie glades were great (but not open, for some reason, so of course I didn't ski them... ). Stuff not on the map was great too (highline and cleavage were the runs of the day). Awesome to be skiing trees on April 14th. And judging by the snow depths on the dark side, we should be in the trees next weekend, too...

Couple of pics:

Unnamed Lower Mountain glade on Saturday... Nice Snow, not very good coverage:



Coverage under Dark Side chair Saturday:



Unnamed line on Sunday:



Cruising on Chatie - No bare spots:



Still great coverage up top:

Cornhead and I skied Gore on Sun. 3/14. Skiing was great. More like mid-winter than late spring skiing. I thought the surface was just a little sticky/grippy/heavy. This was only the second time I have skied Gore. We mistakenly missed a turn driving in and ended up in the town of Speculator. We drove up Rt. 88 from Binghamton got off in Central Bridge onto Route 30 north (we never tried this route before - is supposed to be a shortcut) and missed the turn onto Route 8 and ended up in Speculator by mistake... we had to turn around head back down route 30 and turn onto Route 8.

Gore says they will open next weekend, 3/20 & 3/21 with pricing to be determined midweek.

Some pics from Sun. 3/14:

Straight Brook (upper peak) area - shows Chatiemac, Hawkeye, Rumors and Lies trails:


Pic taken form Chatiemac trail looking over at Uncas and Pine Knot.


Pic taken from Headwaters trail, looking up at Rumors trail, which was closed, but is much, much, much, much, much steeper and longer, than it looks in this photo:

I had to look twice at the photos. They are color pix but it seems like Upstate NY has turned to black and white. When I lived there it was very colorful. What happened?

PDQ, I saw you at your car as you left, green Subaru wagon, right? Sorry I didn't say hi, wasn't sure it was you. What an awesome day! Couldn't believe it was mid-April. It was fun how the surface changed as the day wore on. It was good there wasn't too much fresh snow on top of the groomed, it was heavy. It was just enough, skied great. The stars aligned for me yesterday, I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to watch the Masters golf. We found it on the radio while on 87 South, then the channel faded. I figured some station in Albany would be airing it. Nope. We then had dinner at Brook's in Oneonta, fabulous, as always. I then found another channel with the golf on as we drove down 88. That channel began to fade, I pulled off the highway and started down rt 7 in search of a bar. Luckily, we found the rt 7 tavern in Bainbridge. We were able to catch the final playoff hole there. What a day, couldn't ask for more!

lolkl wrote

I had to look twice at the photos. They are color pix but it seems like Upstate NY has turned to black and white. When I lived there it was very colorful. What happened?

The state is strapped for cash.  To save money we furloughed red, greens and blues until the end of the year. It was all part of the Pixel Clif debacle.

bc was in great shape as well. Still plenty of snow "West of the North"


Me


John

Noah John wrote

lolkl wrote

I had to look twice at the photos. They are color pix but it seems like Upstate NY has turned to black and white. When I lived there it was very colorful. What happened?

The state is strapped for cash.  To save money we furloughed red, greens and blues until the end of the year. It was all part of the Pixel Clif debacle.

that there is funny noah