Gore Mtn, NY: 2/11/12

Ski Day 16: Quite a day. It felt like winter. It was cold, and above the saddle it snowed most of the day.

First a lap off the front...


Foxlair



Clearly Uncas was the place to be as it was getting the full treatment. After 4 or 5 runs split between Uncas and Topridge, we headed down to the quad...


Pine Knot

We skied Hawkeye and Lies and they were really good.


Hawkeye

Based on what I knew about conditions in the trees, I had no business sacrificing groomed snow for the ungroomed.   But like a salmon naturally swims back to it's birth place, I skied down Chatiemac and...



...in I went.  There was no real danger of bottoming out.  The snow was dense and icy, but still (barely) carvable.  It was a lot of work.




Noted local dignitary

I skied with Xman almost the entire day, he was not hard to keep track of...


Topridge

The bottom half of double barrel was also open and quite skiable...



I'd run into Mike in the morning and he'd was pretty clear on one thing... without some help from mother nature, we weren't likely to see additional terrain.  No blowing on Chatiemac, The Ski Bowl or...


The Dark Side.

Hard to imagine a season without it.

X and I wanted to ski everything, so we went over to Burnt Ridge (also a first for me this season).  At lower elevations, the sun was occasionally peeking through, while it continued to snow up top.



After we skied Sagamore and Echo, we did two laps on the North, and then headed back to Uncas to ski under the guns.


Uncas


Uncas


Uncas

Good day. One highlight was getting to meet JD of NELSAP fame, and ski a bunch of mid-morning runs with him and his boarder buddy Mark.  (Sorry we didn't reconnect after lunch - my phone battery usually doesn't last much past midday).

Gore's pretty big even when you're only getting a part of it.  

My hat is off to those who've worked hard to make the season fun.

Gore was also good today but very cold.  I only skied a half day but uncas was very good along with wild air.  The pick on top was hawkeye and echo was very empty and skied very good.  Sagamore was very hard packed with not as much loose snow as echo.

granted the year is not the best,but how can u agree not too blow more,i just dont get it,,they have been doing some relly wierd stuff for the midweek skiers,and it kinda sucks,the skiing has been pretty good and in my opinion it could be so much better,not too blow the dark side is a crime and they shud b brought up on charges,lol,but just my opinion. but all in all ive a a pretty good year so far,got a feeling its gonna b a short one.

My expectations going into this weekend were pretty low - no new snow and with the temperatures during the week all over the place, I thought it was going to be really icy.  I was so wrong - most of the mountain skied great. Saturday was damp but the snow was really nice, especially up top. Lies and Hawkeye were super. Chatiemac not so much, but at least it was open. The Straightbrook glades were really fun. Burnt Ridge was crusty on Saturday, but skied great on Sunday after they finally opened Sagamore. It was closed until 10:30 for race training, and they were training all over Echo too.  I pulled my son out of Mountain Adventure at lunchtime on Sunday because we were leaving early, and we were able to ski a few runs together. My daughter preferred to socialize in the Saddle instead. On the way down Sagamore, he tried teaching me the things they were learning. Apparently there are some acronyms called "berp" and "fart" that are used to teach carving skills.  On our last run, he challenged me to a race down Echo.  I thought I would hold back and let him win, but that wasn't necessary - he blew me away even with me skiing all out.  His grin at the end was priceless.

poindexter wrote

  His grin at the end was priceless.

Tres cool.

Harvey44 wrote

Noted local dignitary

Who dat?

outlaw 1 wrote

granted the year is not the best,but how can u agree not too blow more,i just dont get it,,they have been doing some relly wierd stuff for the midweek skiers,and it kinda sucks,the skiing has been pretty good and in my opinion it could be so much better,not too blow the dark side is a crime and they shud b brought up on charges,lol,but just my opinion. but all in all ive a a pretty good year so far,got a feeling its gonna b a short one.

Welcome outlaw.

I totally get where you are coming from.  Chatiemac wouldn't take much to get really going, heck we are skiing it now. And the whole Dark Side can be banged out pretty quick.

I'm not saying stop blowing.  Basically we've got maybe 10-12 days of blowing left if it stays cold.  You make the point about the possibility that the season may be short. That's exactly what I'm thinking about.  I'd rather have a deeper base on the currently open trails, to lengthen the spring season.

I also know that the snowmaking budget isn't a fixed number, but it's a moving target based on skier visits and revenue.  I guess the real question is ... would blowing Rumor (which would take maybe 4 days?) be enough of a draw to pay for itself?  There are certainly some smart people ^^ who think it would.  I just don't know.

Outlaw - if you could get ONE piece of additional terrain open - what would you choose?

Harvey44 wrote

Uncas

Nice Tele form in this pic, Harv. Gettin' after it!

Next weekend is the Gore Mountain Freeheel Festival if anyone wants to learn to ski like Harv!

CONTENTS DELETED

70s Gore Kid wrote

A season without Rumor is like Killington not opening Outer Limits.  Stowe without Nosedive.  MRG without Chute.

Doesn't matter that most people can't ski it, or if they do they sideslip it as "gapers."  Doesn't matter.  Its the marketing.   Brings people to the hill.

Mike:  Blow Rumor.

YES! (I saw this after my other post in the Woodstove.) You nailed it, young fella!

I heard other skiers talking about the sheer volume of snow that it would take to fill Rumor, as the reason it is not being done.  For those that ski that one, at least Lies has been open of late!  I agree with Harv, deciding where to blow is a triage issue and they have done a fantastic job.  I think that many people don't think of skiing, when there is not a speck of snow at home and that's a more significant reason that they don't go.  

With the cold temps. we had all weekend, it could have been done by now. Instead we got Uncas...

Here are few more photos from Gore on Saturday


Snowmaking on Uncas and no lift line on Straight Brook


Harvey is too fast for the photographer on Top Ridge


Harvey enjoying the Uncas Blizzard


Silky smooth manmade snow on Uncas


Mark, Harvey, and Nelsap


Uncrowded Cloud in the clouds


Lower Sagamore - sunny, fast, groomed, empty

I always question trail maps that have black and green trails right next to each other. Usually the black trail is over rated. This is not true at Gore...

Fairview and Ruby Run


Pete Gay

After skiing we headed to Danzilla's for drinks and a wonderful meal. A big thanks to Danzilla and his family.

thanks for the welcome,glad too be here, finaly..well lets see,and seeing as you did ask,the rumor wood have been done by now,and why they gave up on the dark side is way beyond me.u know as well as i the hardcore following that has,so i guess that wood have been where i wood have like too seen more,btw those trails over there r skiing quit well,with the natural that is on them.but u didnt hear that from me.but seeing that they r trying too pinch there pennys i guess u wouldnt want me calling the shots,cause the pennys wood b gone and more terrain wood be open.oh btw the skiing was awsome today.

yes, who is that masked man?

freeheeln wrote

yes, who is that moustached man?

Fixed it for ya.
But who is he!?

the man behind the curtain.

thx fuj you got it right

what did you ski on northside?  seems like those runs are always closed when I look at the reports.  I am hoping they'll be open next weekend 2/25 because they are always empty and I think the novices in our group will like Pete Gay/Sleeping Bear, etc...

diamonddave wrote

what did you ski on northside?  seems like those runs are always closed when I look at the reports.  I am hoping they'll be open next weekend 2/25 because they are always empty and I think the novices in our group will like Pete Gay/Sleeping Bear, etc...

Diamonddave... That's what we skied ... Pete Gay and Sleeping Bear.  I'd think there would be a decent chance they'd run that terrain on a holiday (2/25) but that's just a guess.