Adirondack ski areas by the numbers: 2012-13 season

The National Ski Areas Assocation (NSAA) released preliminary numbers last week indicating that ski areas in the Northeast bounced back with a 20% increase in visitation over the disappointing 2011-12 season. Gore and Whiteface rebounded strongly too, as I reported in this article that appeared in the Adirondack Almanack yesterday.

Jon Lundin, ORDA’s Public Relations Coordinator, summed up the season: “This past skiing and riding season was an outstanding one for ORDA’s ski resorts. The resorts’ crews did an outstanding job with snowmaking and Mother Nature cooperated and provided plenty of snow cover on her own. It was great to see the skiers and riders back on the mountains enjoying the winter fun.”

Here are the numbers:

Connecting the dots: Two new local trails

New York State’s recent acquisition of 200 acres adjoining Moreau State Park was highlighted last week in both the Saratogian and the Times Union as an important link in an eventual long-distance Palmertown Ridge Trail that would link Moreau State Park and Saratoga Springs. That trail could ultimately connect to the Zim Smith, creating an “alternative Northway” spanning Saratoga County north to south. Very cool. Here’s a look at two more recently opened trails that enhance another long-distance trail network just outside of Saratoga Springs.

Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park, Frawley Trail. Last summer and fall, volunteer trail crews marked and cleared more than a mile of trail connecting WWPP’s Fox parcel trailhead on Route 50 (see accompanying map or click here) to Ruggles Road. The new trail traverses land (the Frawley parcel) that was added to WWPP in 2011 and represents a key linkage that could ultimately be made between WWPP’s core parcels (Fox, Old Gick Farm, Camp Saratoga and Opdahl Farm) and additional protected parcels south of King Road (the Neilmann and Kalabus-Perry parcels and other adjoining protected lands).

2012-13 ski season wrap-up and highlights

Objective measures like snowfall, temperatures and operating days for the 2012-13 ski season may tally up only to the average mark, but compared to last year’s disappointing ski season 2012-13 was vastly improved. And if timing is everything, this winter really delivered with excellent conditions for the major holiday periods and just about every weekend. It will be interesting to see the official numbers from ORDA when they are released in a few months, but it sure looked like Gore had several days of record-breaking skier visits, particularly around the New Year’s holiday.

What we really missed last year was skiing in the glades, and we were rewarded this year with good tree skiing from late December through the end of the season. Things really got going in the couple of days following Christmas, when two feet of powder fell over a bomber base. And although winter was interrupted by two ugly thaws in January and one in early March, the trees essentially remained in play all winter.

The marathon is an act of defiance and courage

Running a marathon is a big deal. Months of preparation. Time away from family. Long training runs, often solo, sometimes beginning or ending in the dark. By pushing your body to endure pain and run faster and farther than you ever have before, the act of running a marathon seems to defy human physical limits. Marathoners often run as a symbol of fighting back against a disease like cancer or diabetes, or in honor of a lost loved one. The marathon is a celebration of the human spirit.

Gore Mountain: 04/13/2013

Winter has yet to loosen its grip on the ski mountains of the northeast, Gore included. A mixed bag of sleet, snow and freezing rain coated the mountain on Friday, setting the stage for "interesting" ski conditions on Saturday. Actually, the skiing was pretty good wherever the groomers had been.

Fogged-in upper mountain