Gore weekend crowds

A friend told me things have become much more crowded his year. Is this true? Used to be you could dodge any crowds as long as you avoided the gondola...

Problem this year is avoiding the Gondi. Hard to do.  Trails not crowded.  Just seems lifts not spinning as much.  Weather challenges mostly including riding Gondi by choice at times due to cold and wind

I was there New Years Weekend.  Never rode the gondola and never waited in line.  Bone doesn't seem to be as good about keeping lifts open midweek as Mike was.  On Wednesday this week they had all of Burnt Ridge closed for racing because they didn't run the North Quad which is your only way out if they close Echo for racing.  They had the ADK Express open but it would've made more sense to run the North Quad that day.

I'll be there tomorrow.  Probably will take the gondola 2-3 times in the morning and then not ride it for the rest of the day and never wait in a significant line.  Whiteface has had way worse lines this year than previous years because they hardly ever run Freeway or Little Whiteface anymore and force you to ride the gondola whether you like it or not, and then not load fill all the cabins or run even close to full speed.  It wouldn't be so bad if they'd actually open Lookout and resurface the summit, but they won't do either, so I'll be skiing Gore more often until they do.

I skied whiteface last sunday, little facelift was running and I never waiting on a line.

The facelift?  Oh so you can lap Boreen and Lower Valley without standing in line.  Good to know because you can ski blue groomers at any other mountain in the east.

On Saturday they ran Little Whiteface but not till well after 10 and never opened Freeway.  And the summit lift was running so slow it took at least 20 minutes to ride.  I got bored silly within 2 hours since I was stuck lapping basically 3 trails (Mountain Run, Wilderness, and Mac).  Everything else was either closed (Lookout), not in good condition (Summit), or was not worth standing in line to get to (Draper's and Lower Thruway).

Gore just handles crowds a lot better since they actually open all the lifts at or close to 8:30.  They had some issues opening everything on time on New Year's Weekend but that was the first day the Ski Bowl and High Peaks lift were scheduled to run for the season.

huh?  the lift that goes where the gondi goes and you can get off mid way to ski mountain run.  What else do you need?  Its called little whiteface lift.  I never waited in one line last sunday at Whitface and i lapped mountain run at least 6 times

Well you said little facelift.

This is what the gondola line looked like for most of Saturday.  Easily double the length of the ropes, so about half an hour.  The line for the K1 at Killington the next day was about half as long.


Unfortunately if you thought taking the Facelift would save you from waiting you were wrong.


When you tried the third alternative which was Bear to Freeway, you couldn't since they chose not to run it on a holiday weekend with the Chevy promotion happening.  Nothing pisses me off more than standing in any kind of line when a ski area chooses not to use all their lifts in the absence of weather issues or a mechanical failure that was out of their control.  And when it comes to lift operations, Whiteface has been way worse than Gore this year.

Icecoastchef wrote

A friend told me things have become much more crowded his year. Is this true? Used to be you could dodge any crowds as long as you avoided the gondola...

Getting back to OP's original question . . . .

I haven't noticed anything unusual.  Crowds at the AEII last weekend were due to gondola being out of action.  A lot of the mountain will be open this weekend, other than usual suspects when there has not been any natural snow (glades, North Side other than Sleeping Bear and Tahawus, The Rumor, Ski Bowl).  Burnt Ridge is open so that will draw some of the crowds.

In my experience, longest lift lines are Gondola, Straightbrook Quad, and then North Side late morning.  Sometimes the double chair gets a line, but never that bad.

My advice -- get there before 8:30, and get to the top of the mountain or over to Burnt Ridge as soon as they drop the ropes.

Petronio

Petronio wrote

Icecoastchef wrote

A friend told me things have become much more crowded his year. Is this true? Used to be you could dodge any crowds as long as you avoided the gondola...

Getting back to OP's original question . . . .


Petronio

Thanks for the input. We went on Sunday and lines were about what they've always been on a weekend at Gore. Good to know it's still not too crazy there.

For those of you who are getting all salty about Whiteface, in fairness to them those were lines on MLK weekend after a horrendous, base-devouring storm. This is why I don't ski on MLK or Pres weekend!

Sno still seems to think he is dealing with people who don’t ski and don’t know Whiteface.  You can’t scare/fool us with pictures that you say look bad, when both the Gondola and Face Lift lines when those pictures were taken just weren’t as long as you purport them to be.  I’ve seen a heck of a lot more people in the Gondola line, and in all those times I’ve never waited 30 minutes.

there were no lines two Sundays ago at Whiteface, last Saturday at the face there were some lines but plenty of lifts with ZERO people on them (freeway lift).  Hit Gore yesterday and never waited on any line at all.  When the gondi was crowded we hit the high speed quad when that got crowded we went over to burnt ridge (which had best skiing) and had zero lines again.  Its not hard to find no lift lines at any of these mountains.

snoloco wrote

Well you said little facelift.

This is what the gondola line looked like for most of Saturday.  Easily double the length of the ropes, so about half an hour.  The line for the K1 at Killington the next day was about half as long.


Unfortunately if you thought taking the Facelift would save you from waiting you were wrong.


When you tried the third alternative which was Bear to Freeway, you couldn't since they chose not to run it on a holiday weekend with the Chevy promotion happening.  Nothing pisses me off more than standing in any kind of line when a ski area chooses not to use all their lifts in the absence of weather issues or a mechanical failure that was out of their control.  And when it comes to lift operations, Whiteface has been way worse than Gore this year.

12:40pm Same day.

The lift corral on this day was also only two lines instead of four because of the 10 inch deep slush zone that devoured half the gondi line area.  So that resulted in two longer linear lines.  

#AltFacts #NotMakingFriendsLyingBro