Sometimes "surprise snow" is the best. I must have been too busy celebrating pre-Saint Patrick's Day Friday night to pay attention to the weather radar because Gore's conditions report caught me off guard Saturday morning with its report of 8 inches of new snow.
We headed for the summit right away and spent most of our time there in a variety of glades, with plenty of untracked or lightly skied lines. The new snow was light, high quality fluff and Gore's report of 8 inches may have even been conservative for the summit. But those 8 inches couldn't completely hide the scratchy base beneath, the result of Tuesday's rain. Or, to look at things from a different angle, I probably need to add a pair of fatter skies to my quiver for days like this.
With our focus on the glades, we didn't ski many of the summit trails. No Lies, no Rumor, which was probably a mistake as other skiers informed us at the end of the day. Apparently the snowmaking crew even set up some guns to blow Lies on Friday (and some other spots around the mountain too) - kudos to Gore for continuing snowmaking operations this late in the season.
Following a late lunch break, we stuck to the lower mountain crusiers for the remainder of the day. Sleighride, Showcase and Wild Air all skied really nicely with packed powder surfaces. I tend to not take many photos when we're skiing the lower mountain so you'll just have to trust me.
Looking back to Tuesday's rain, I was almost ready to shift into mountain biking mode. Now, with a nice mid-winter weekend under our belt and - even better - a solid chance for significant snow this week, don't put the skis away yet.
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