Gore Mountain: 12/14 & 12/15/2013

With 10 inches of new snow Saturday night, it's no surprise that this weekend presented the best ski conditions of the season so far.

Skiers brave enough to endure Saturday's cold temperatures found that Gore's snowmaking crews had done an amazing job in the past week getting the summit terrain open, with Hawkeye, Chatiemac, Lies, Open Pit, Cloud and Headwaters all coming online. And despite the cold, the summit was the place to be with chalky, edgeable snow on all trails. It was boys' day out for Daniel and me, since Beth and Sylvie had Sylvie's 6th birthday party. With the thermometer at the Straightbrook quad never cracking the zero mark, it was probably just as well that the girls missed out.

In fact, it was cold enough that my camera died sometime before lunch, so you'll have to take my word on how well the summit trails skied on Saturday. Fortunately there was no wind, so the cold temperatures were tolerable. Lies and Chati had the softest snow with guns still blowing out the manmade powder, and Chati was our pick of the day for the most consistently nice conditions. Other than skiing back down to the base for a lunch break, we stayed up top all day.

Sunday of course was all about the 10 inches of new snow, and this time all four of us skied.

Beth skiing Showcase

Uncas

While the best skiing Saturday was on the summit trails, the situation reversed on Sunday. The lower-angled cruisers off the gondola - Showcase, Sleighride, Wild Air - skied the best, unless perhaps you were among the lucky few to score first tracks Sunday morning down Chati or Hawkeye. We weren't, and by the time we headed up for a tour of the summit terrain the steeper pitches were pretty well scraped down. Pockets of good snow could still be found along the sides, and Cloud / Headwaters was in excellent shape. If this were later in the season, today would have been just the day to head for the glades for the best snow.

Daniel skiing upper Chati on Sunday...

...and lower Chati

All of the lower mountain trails featured soft skier-packed powder conditions and skied great. It was definitely a day for laps on the gondola or the triple chair. Showcase was probably our favorite on Sunday.

Beth skiing Cloud

Sylvie on Wild Air

This early season is shaping up to be one of the best in recent years. If we can avoid any significant thaw, the holiday period should be shaping up well and we may be just one storm away from some of the glades being in play.