Gore Mtn, NY: 12/28/11

Ski Day 7: After 4 inches of snow last night, precip turned to rain and then sleet. Temps were steady at 33 all night and hadn't moved when I woke up.

I dropped Neve at Holiday camp and took a run on the bottom. It was pretty slick and there were death cookies around, but the coverage was still there.

I ran into Mike Pratt and we skied a few runs together.  We talked mostly about snowmaking, and the weather.  They were charging the system on Wild Air, Sunway, Quicksilver  and Showcase.  A water pipe break on Showcase slowed plans to blow on that trail.

Apparently the set of nozzles (see the pic that Fuje poste) on the new Ratniks are design to be used at various temps.  At marginal temps, it's the bottom 4 nozzles. As it gets colder you add in Stages 2 and 3.


I also learned a piece of information that was relevant later in the day. With regard to the Ratnik ground guns ... it's not that they can't make great snow at margin temps - they do.  But they use SO MUCH air to do it it costs a bundle.  The thing that I learned is that the painfully loud sounds that come from those guns are when temps are marginal and they are blowing mostly air.

After skiing the bottom with Mike, he took off and I did one run on Topridge. It was 70% fun bumps and 30% icy death.  Mike told me that first tracks on it were excellent as you could carve through and turn on the snow fell last night.  Some of that was left on the sides, and it was worth skiing.  

I never made it to the summit.

After Neve's lesson we rode the triple up to the saddle to get lunch.  To her that's a treat.



Turns out that Neve is afraid of something.  A Ratnik ground gun blowing an air rich mixture. We ripped down Sunway, and I made a bad decision to hit Quicksilver.


Ratnik gun on Quicksilver

Those guns scared the hell out of her.  I was very sad to see her cry, but I have to say that even in tears she was still making her turns.  I was ashamed of myself and proud of her at the same time.

We did this group hug thing about halfway down the gauntlet.  She said "daddy I'm just too scared to ski past those guns!"  I picked her up, squeezed hard, and slide slipped my way past the last gun.  That was some of the toughest skiing I did today. I set her down and we skied to the bottom.

We rode the now brutally windy/cold triple again with the intention of staying on Sunway top-to-bottom. The HKD guns are high off the trail and much quieter.  We were fine, until we came to one lone Ratnik near the top of the Sunway Chair, and Neve cried again.

I decided to call it a day.  We skied down, and Neve asked it we could ride the POMA.  We did maybe 5 or 6 laps - Neve was playing the teacher, and insisting that I follow her program specifically.





We finally quit for good around 3:30.

Snowed all day, but didn't amount to much - but as I said I didn't make it to the top.  Word I got was that everything at the summit is getting mowed down tonight - hit Hawkeye early.

Enjoy each and every moment of this Harv, it is truly Priceless!!

Neve is the future of The Darkside!!

Great report as always Harv.  It brought me back to the days when my daughter actually liked to wear pink clothing.  At 12, those days are gone.  So are the days where I had to wait for her to catch up with me skiing.  I can thank the Mountain Adventure program for that.  Now the kids wait at the bottom of Rumor and Lies for me.  And wait...

BTW, Hawkeye was the run of the day yesterday for my family.  Ungroomed with surprisingly ample soft snow.  

 i see otter slide glades in your near future

Soon you will be hearing the three most feared words a parent can hear while skiing..."Follow me, Dad...".