Night Skiing at Gore?

Whenever I ski Gore the day goes by so quickly and it is 4pm before I know it.  How practical would it be to have night skiing at Gore on a significant portion of the mountain such as from the gondola down to the main lodge or possibly on all snowmaking trails so that I could ski longer?  May not be practical due to acreage needed to cover it.  I am sure that I would use it.  Would anyone else if it was available?

The ski bowl is practically a ghost town at night. I can't see it happening.

DackerDan wrote

The ski bowl is practically a ghost town at night. I can't see it happening.

I’ve never been to the ski bowl at night but I’ll take your word for it.  However, I’m sure that they would get more customers if they had more trails. Who wants to ski on only 1 trail with only 150 foot vertical?

Night skiing sells well close to urban areas. Gore is really a day tripping ski are with a small to moderate destination component. You will find very few remote mountains that offer night skiing. Additionally it's too cold and the local skier population is small. I live here, I've skied at night in other areas, but I would never ski at night here.

Night ski areas get support from HS recreation programs and ski teams. However you need ot look at just how many kids there are in the school system. Johnsburg school system has 395 total students K1-12. There is just enough there to support night skiing. Now if you want a great student teacher ratio - North Country schools are the place to be(10.2 to 1).

It might be a ghost bowl at night but you can have the place to yourself and shred it all kinds of ways.

The girls love it as well.

northerncajun wrote

It might be a ghost bowl at night but you can have the place to yourself and shred it all kinds of ways.

The girls love it as well.

We enjoy it as well. We go there a few times during the season, the kids tube, ski and sled and we hang out with the adults.
Its a fun way to end the day.

I wouldn't ski at night. Cold, poor light, icy.

But it might be possible to remain open longer in march with the longer days and warmer temps. I don't know how they could generate additional revenue from this so I doubt it would happen.

tom

I loved skiing with my 4 yr old at the bowl last year after the main mountain shut down.  We would go over there for a few hours just to play.  For some reason we really haven't done it this year.  She is in ski school and it just doesn't seem worth the extra effort when she is skiing the entire mountain all day.  We were going to hit it one Friday night but for some odd reason they were closed but open Sat/Sun night that weekend.

I think a BIG boost for morale would be keeping the front side lifts open on the main mountain (ie ADK express/sunway chair) till 5pm once daylight savings comes in.

That would be a great way to start to see if it’s practical.  Then if people stayed the extra hour you could add lights to some trails down from the gondola such as Foxlair, Sunway, Wild Air and Sleighride (for the terrain park kids), Quicksilver, Ruby Run, Showcase, and Jamboree.  I would definitely want the gondola to run at night for a nice warm lift ride as it gets pretty cold at night at Gore.  If that was successful then light up all snowmaking trails from the gondola down to the base lodge.  If they wanted even more then light up Topridge and Straightbrook, then to Burnt Ridge the North Side the Dark Side and finally the Interconnect.

Sorry - I wasn't advocating night skiing on the main mountain. I don't think it is practical nor do I think it would be profitable.  There are so many other things that could/need to be done.  There are certain places that serve that need per Dacker Dan like West, Bolton Valley, Willard, etc. Not enough demand or beds in NC area to support it and there are places closer to Albany/Saratoga/GF that serve the need.  If it ever happened I think it would be more logical at the bowl but based on current usage I think it would be a long ways out.

I was referring to the fact that some mountains keep some of the main lifts spinning till 5pm once daylight savings kicks in (basically the same 4pm closing the week before).  It is light outside and there are people on the deck drinking beer.  Why not run the ADK express (or whatever they are going to call it) for a little longer?  I'd pay 5 bucks for an extra hour.

I don't know if anyone knew about it, but there was an awesome nordic event at the Ski Bowl last Saturday night. It wasn't promoted by the mountain at all. I didn't hear about it till Friday (and I'm supposed to know the goings on).

Anywhoo, it was a 1.8 mile course (uphill/downhill/sidehill) with a lot of fun twists (started with a skate past the tubing hill, up on the Schaeffer trail, looped back to the village slope, ran out by the exit of the Ski Bowl glades, returned back to the yurt). I signed up on a whim and competed on my fat 100mm waisted tele skis with NTN bindings and had a blast (finished 3rd place in my age category!).  

There was some talk of a lighted nordic/snowshoeing route down there. I think that would be a great idea - a nice little exercise/nature walk while the kids are on the tubing hill or the halfpipe. They could really make that place a cool hangout spot for apres ski.

Also, they should have more nordic events. This one was super fun, and if more people knew about it, I think it would have been even more of a success (but I probably wouldn't have finished 3rd - the kid who won the whole thing lapped me - freaking incredible).

I wish they would keep all of the lifts open until 4, instead of closing some of them 3:30 and 3:45.  The last two times I've been to Gore, I just missed getting one more run down Topridge, since it gets roped off exactly at 3:30.  It would be great if everything stayed open until 4, and maybe even 4:30 or 5 in the spring.

Not in anyway practical. For night skiing you really need an urban area near by or enough decent size small town and no other night skiing around.

West Mountain pretty much lives off it's night skiing. Many of the people that come to go come from glens falls, saratoga etc.

For gore to invest a ton of money into lighting the whole gondola down, running that lift, staffing the mountain would be insane.

I'm not just going by the likely scenario but it seems like a great way to lose money. Is there a chance somehow it could work? Sure, anything is possible but from a business standpoint it's just not a great idea. There are mountains all over that actually have lights in place and have run night skiing that don't anymore because they were losing money.

When you have that problem, and you're located a half hour drive from an established night skiing mountain, that's almost fully lit, and right near an urban area, it would be insane.

I know you want to be able to ski your home mountain a couple extra hours but you can't expect that the mountain is going to put itself in jeopardy so you can make a couple extra turns at night.

You're talking about how many people they would get, yet you haven't even skied the little bit of night skiing they do offer?