Ski Bowl Activities and Usage

I was at the Ski Bowl on Sunday and this was the first time I was there since they added the xc trails.  While by no means busy, it seemed there were a good number of people using them, as I saw at least one person on every run.  Since a few areas are lit up at night, I asked one of the lifties how busy the ski bowl gets in the evening hours.  Apparently it actually is well used by after school programs, while I initially thought it was usually empty.

I recall that Gore had a few xc trails in the main base before this year that were shown on the trail map.  They were natural snow only and no grooming.  They also didn't rent equipment like they do at the current Ski Bowl operation, and I never saw anyone using them.  The old xc trails aren't on the map anymore, so I assume they aren't used anymore.

I also see they got rid of tubing.  This surprised me a lot as I thought that operation was a cash cow for resorts that offered it.  Maybe they get more money from the race fees they get from having the xc operation used for high school programs.

Any other thoughts to add?

I love the ski bowl, but with the current set up (trails to the looker's left of the top of the village slope chair sectioned off for XC & the skier cross course on looker's right) it's only a matter of time before a kid gets run down by someone hammering down the skier cross course's blind drop. This set up leaves little real estate to start off the village chair for little ones. I watched two adult dickheads on snowboards almost crank into 6-7 various kids because they wanted to pretend they were in the X games on a crowded slope on Sunday.

Some guy was snowshoeing with his dog on one of the trails that goes near the top of the Village Chair.  When I skied by, the dog charged at me.  I was able to get going fast enough that he couldn't catch me, but if he got in front of me, I would've crashed and the dog been seriously injured or killed.

snoloco wrote

  When I skied by, the dog charged at me.  

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Dog's are the best judge of character I've ever seen.

There was an xc race a few weeks back that apparently brought in quite a crowd.

Someone at the mountain told me that the tubbing was losing money lately. I was surprised by this as well.

tom

campgottagopee wrote

snoloco wrote

  When I skied by, the dog charged at me.  

Doesn't surprise me one bit. Dog's are the best judge of character I've ever seen.