Gore Mountain: 01/22/2011

You know the mountain is in great shape when you ski all day, all over the mountain and there's still plenty that you just didn't get to.  That was certainly the case today for our family, skiing from 9am till the last lift at 4 across all areas of the mountain, on the trails and in the glades.

Early morning turns on Uncas

The woods are finally mostly open and skiing well. It was great to have lots of glade options, and we found excellent snow in the Straightbrook trees, Pine Brook Glade, Mineshaft, Sagamore Glade and others. Daniel and I had really wanted to check out the new Barkeater Glades, but just missed it at the end of the day and had some great runs on Sagamore and Echo instead.

Looks inviting, skied great

Like last weekend, it was hard to find a trail that wasn't in great shape. Like last weekend, I found it in the same spot: Open Pit. Hey, I can live with that. In fact, as we worked our way from Hawkeye and Lies, into the glades, across lower mountain trails like Showcase and Wild Air, and eventually over to Burnt Ridge, we kept remarking how great each was today.

Great snow on Hawkeye...

...Lies was even better

This weekend's great conditions are the result of multiple storms over the past 2-3 weeks, coupled with continuous snowmaking. The mountain is now between 80% and 90% open, with the only significant terrain not yet online being the new-for-this-year Ski Bowl trails. Gore is expecting that terrain pod to come online for next weekend. With more cold temperatures expected and the possibility of yet another mid-week storm, it's looking good.