Gore Mountain: 01/05 & 01/06/2013

Saturday, January 5, 2013

A guy could get used to conditions like these. The snow that has fallen at Gore since Christmas, combined with seasonably cold temperatures, has put the mountain in prime mid-winter shape with every trail open and every lift spinning.

Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, I’ve spent very little time this season on trails that I count among my go-to favorites. I haven’t even been on Hawkeye or Chatiemac this season, though I’m sure they’re in nice condition. Instead, we’ve focused our skiing attention on Gore’s glades.

Beth in the Mineshaft glade

We did ski both Lies and Rumor on Saturday. Lies had beautiful soft snow with medium-sized bumps top to bottom. I could ski that trail all day in snow like that, weaving in and out of the trees that line the left side of the trail. But we didn’t. There was too much other terrain (mostly in the trees) that we wanted to check out.

Lies. Daniel and I had the trail to ourselves.

Snow guns pounding Rumor

Snowmakers had a man-made blizzard going on Rumor. Despite signs warning of thin cover, conditions were excellent. Rumor’s headwall was indeed thin, but any obstacles were easily avoided, leading to soft snow and big bumps the rest of the way down. Just like Lies, I could ski that all day and not complain.

Rumor entrance

Below Rumor's headwall it was all soft snow and big bumps

Beth shot this video of Daniel and me skiing Rumor's final pitch. Be sure to crank up the volume so you can hear the snow guns.

Most of the rest of our day was spent in various summit glades, including favorites like Mineshaft, where the snow stayed soft all day. Even Killkare, which has a fun upper stretch that often deteriorates into a scrape-fest before it empties out onto Pine Knot, was in great shape. With the mountain 100% open, there seems to be so much terrain to absorb skiers that snow conditions stayed good all day.

Killkare Glade

Sleighride

As usual, we got in our share of cruisers off the gondola at the end of the day, when we picked Sylvie up from the daycare to do several runs with her. You can call me a bad parent, but we’ve been unwilling to sacrifice skiing the advanced terrain. At just 5 years old, she’s not ready for black diamonds yet. So far daycare until 2-ish and skiing until closing time seems to be a win-win, and before long she’ll be logging full days on skis.

View of the High Peaks from Foxlair

Sunday, January 6, 2013

A peak of sun at the bottom of the mountain. The summit stayed in the clouds.

Sylvie and I headed back up for a partial day on Sunday, arriving around 11am. Cars were already parked well down the access road, but at least at that hour – between the arrival rush and lunchtime - the lodge is relatively empty. It’s not often that I get several hours to ski by myself, so setting my own agenda and skiing at my own pace is a relative luxury.

Ski Bowl Glades entrance

Skiing as a family, we don’t often have enough time in our day to include the terrain at the Ski Bowl, so I made it a priority to start my day there by riding the Burnt Ridge Quad and skiing down Barkeater Glades. At the Bowl, I skied the Ski Bowl Glade and Hudson Glade (aka 46er by-pass), both new to me. Ski Bowl Glade has a particularly nice line and is long, taking advantage of the full 800’ vertical of the Ski Bowl’s Hudson chair. There is a steeper pitch near the top, followed by moderately pitched open hardwoods. The steeper pitches of both glades could use some more snow, owing to the Ski Bowl’s low elevation.

Ski Bowl to summit: 4 chairlifts, 40 minutes

Skiing the Bowl was fun, but the day was gray and the air felt damp, and after a few runs I found myself longing for the higher elevations where I knew I'd be surrounded by a world of winter whiteness. I loaded onto the Hudson chair at 1pm and headed up, skiing Eagles Nest to the Burnt Ridge Quad, then Tahawus Glades to the North Quad and finally Wood In to the High Peaks chair, arriving at the summit 40 minutes later. I figured I could squeeze in 3 quick summit laps on the Darkside and still have time for some gondi runs with Sylvie.

The snow in the summit glades and tree stashes was just as good as it was Saturday. In retrospect, I probably should have spent the entire day at the summit, but hey, chalk one up for exploration's sake.

The Sunway double chair saved us from being stranded in the gondola

A funny thing happened when I picked up Sylvie. After riding the chairlifts all day, I was ready to plant myself into the gondola, but she begged to ride the Sunway chair. Knowing that the secret to making skiing fun for kids lies partly in letting them chose the lifts and trails to ski, I gave in. As we skied down, I noticed the gondola had stopped. At the bottom, the gondi still wasn't running, so we took the triple chair up to the Saddle. Finally, as we were skiing down Showcase, I noticed the gondi start up. Letting Sylvie choose the Sunway double over the gondola probably saved us 20 minutes of being stranded in the air.

For our final run we were going to ski Wild Air, but Sylvie asked for "more woods," and I figured she was ready to try the top half of the Chatterbox Glade. She did great and had fun, so we'll undoubtedly have more family glade skiing in our future. A great finish to a great weekend of skiing.