Gore Mountain: 01/08/2012

Before I'm accused of being a complete shill, I'll tell you that the skiing on Gore's lower mountain today was not very good. We found uninspiring conditions on our warm-up lap down Wild Air: loose frozen granular ice shavings over a hardpack base. Given yesterday's warm temperatures followed by a (relatively) cold snap today, I wasn't surprised. It took just that one run down the front side to convince us that the summit was the place to be.

Lies

More Lies

From the base of the Straightbrook chair up, snow conditions were far better. Overnight grooming left surfaces carvable and chalk-like on Hawkeye, Open Pit and Lies, a far cry from the polished hardpack I had feared we might find. Other skiers told us how great Lower Darby was yesterday, and quickly added "don't ski it today." We didn't, but apparently it re-froze overnight into ungroomed teeth-chattering funky chunks, making it the only exception to excellent summit conditions.

Open Pit's run-out

Pine Knot: nobody's favorite, but it leads to the good stuff

Cold temperatures, plenty of blue sky and good options for black diamond skiing at the summit made today a winner. Despite continued ups and downs with weather this past week, terrain has been expanded with Lies, Open Pit and Lower Darby all coming on line. Having those black diamond terrain choices has helped to turn at least a psychological corner in the ski season.

Snowmaking on Uncas

Perhaps the real highlight for me today was seeing Daniel skiing well on double black diamond terrain. On Lies he was confident (what 7-year-old isn't?), skiing tall and using his edges well. He can't wait for the woods skiing to open up this year, and neither can I.