Where were you at Gore when they called the Hold?

Bottom of Topridge chair for about 45 minutes with about 15 other people including a Mtn Adventure group of young kids.  Three snowmobiles and the snowcat that has been snoozing below the chair all last week got everyone out.  Patrollers tied two ropes with loops to  rope tow about a dozen stranded skiers and snowboarders up all the way up to cloud.  Yikes!  I was the last one out and hung out with the patrollers for about 20 minutes.  I past the snow cat riding up on a sled and those poor skiers and riders were looking worn out and they were just starting to go up Headwaters. By the time the sled took me to cloud I was one of the last people on the mountain.  One of the most eerie things I have ever experienced skiing down cloud to an extremely foggy/rainy showcase (with no chairs ala broken ADK).   We took pics of the snow cat rope tow and hope to get them posted soon.

Was that today? (Saturday)

What there a weather hold, or did the Topridge chair have a malfunction?  

I'm at work.

telerider wrote

We took pics of the snow cat rope tow and hope to get them posted soon.

Would like to see those.

Entire mountain closed by mid-day.  It was basically an evacuation of the mountain where you were not able to ski down (High Peaks, Top Ridge, North and Burnt Ridge).  Straightbrook was broken today due to an electrical issue.  While I was waiting for evac, a woman was on phone with husband who was at Whiteface and he said it was snowing up there.  It is dumping rain here now (2:45PM).  Gore is getting hammered unfortunately.  Good move to close Gore this afternoon.    

It's not snowing up here. Summit chair spun all day.

I still don't understand.  Why was Gore closed?  

Regardless, I'm glad my family made a last minute decision not to head up north this weekend.

I was just getting off 6 and the patroller up there said that Lightning was spotted and that there was some crazy weather headed our way.  There was quite a bit of wind up top.  He suggested to bomb out Cloud...thank you for that info.  I heard those waiting at the bottom of 6 had to hike out...any truth to that?
This really hurts us...hope it gets cold soon

Yikes a thunderstorm that looks like summer:

There was lightning in the area making it unsafe to load skiers on the lifts. Uncomfortable and abrupt way to close the mountain, but better than electrocution.

Gore is not alone in shutting down.  Creek had a lightning strike and pulled the plug at 3pm.  This is all according to the website since I did not go today.

Nobody should have operated today..
Heavy rain , high winds and warm temps . sounds like a ski day to me..

Wow. Did anybody see the Four Horseman riding through the fog?

JasonWx wrote

Nobody should have operated today..
Heavy rain , high winds and warm temps . sounds like a ski day to me..

Greek wasn't bad, until it started coming down in buckets, around noon. It actually skied better once it started. More scary driving, took rt11 to Binghamton, I was concerned about lack of visibility causing possible multiple car pile ups on 81. May have been above the fog there however, was on the drive up. I saw numerous people driving with their lights off. WTF, you could only see a hundred yards down the road, morons.

At Whiteface the sun actually came out in the morning but by lunch it was pouring on and off all afternoon.  2nd run of Hovey was in the rain.  We lost about 3" of base.  When the temp drops it's going to glacial.  This is setting up as a replay of 2007 when we had 250" of snow and skied the slides like 40 days.  Can't wait until Valentines Day.  Please please be a repeat of 07!

I have to work 4 Saturdays during the fall/winter each year.  I front load them into fall and the early part of ski season, and today was my last one.  I can honestly say that being in the office today was better than skiing.

Benny,  it's so funny you said that.  I was completely thinking that thought when skiing down Showcase by myself.  It was like post apocalyptic skiing. I kept saying to myself, "Don't fall and hurt yourself, because no one's gonna find you for a while."  I was skiing from Gondi down  Uncas when the alleged lighting was spotted.  I should have seen/heard it, but I didn't.  When  lived in Colorado, you knew for miles when there was lightning in the mountains.  I think that they spotted severe weather coming from the west (which Harvey's radar snapshot from 2:30PM proved) and they made the executive decision to shut the mountain before the Four Horsemen actually showed up.  

At 8:15 I am sitting at my place looking at Burnt Ridge and hearing the wind howl. I am curious to know if the mountain is on a wind hold right now?  I am not good at navigating Gore's website, so I cant find that information.  I may cut my losses and just head back to NJ.

I have doubts about the lightning too as I was just getting off the High Peaks Chair and should have seen or heard it.  When I got down I checked the radar and there was a cell bearing down on us.  The patroller that told us to go down said the plan was to close the top for the rest of the day anyway due to high winds...he did say that there was crazy weather headed our way...and it was.  I have no problem with their decision...would you really have skied during the afternoon in heavy rain.  We need to pray for cold weather and snow and hope the snowmakers and groomers can have the mountain in good shape for MLK weekend.  Knowing what was there before the rains yesterday, I bailed on today...maybe show up tomorrow for a bit.

Ski race on the short xc loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex on Saturday.  The men got intermittent rain, for the women, it was pouring down hard in the afternoon.  Warm, wind, but no lightning.  Great day to be out!

Peter Minde wrote

Ski race on the short xc loop at the Olympic Jumping Complex on Saturday.

Details?