With a foot of cold, dry powder from Thursday's storm, conditions were virtually guaranteed to be superb at Gore this weekend. I spent a good part of Thursday at work thinking about how I could be "sick" the next day, but the boss knows there's no such thing as me being legitimately ill the day after a storm. So I had to settle for the day after the day after, which turned out to be pretty good anyway.
I have to thank the media for doing a good job of hyping the cold: it kept the crowds away. Sure, it was chilly (minus 15 along River Road in Warrensburgh on our drive up), but the sun was bright, winds were light (except for at the top of the gondi) and it warmed to a balmy 12 or 15 above by late afternoon.
The light crowds kept the snow nice on the trails we skied. Chatiemac was in excellent condition, Lies could use a groom, Darkside had nice snow. As I had suspected, the new snow (12 inches on Thursday, 20 in the last week) wasn't enough to open the glades. Darby Woods was open, and we skied it, but the new snow is light and there simply isn't enough of a base in yet for good tree skiing.
Gore is skiing great right now: lots of terrain open and nice snow conditions. Hopefully we'll see the remaining trails coming online soon (Rumor, Sagamore, Topridge, Ski Bowl) and get enough snow to put the woods in play.
We were wondering how they actually groom Rumor and Lies, is there an attachment point for a winch? If so we haven't noticed it do you know?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are winch anchors at the top of both trails, each anchor is a loop of heavy-duty steel cable.
ReplyDeleteI was randomly reading your ski blog and saw my brother and I made it into two of your photos haha...picture on the quad, yellow jacket and picture on cloud yellow jacket followed by grey/black jacket
ReplyDeleteI'm a regular on NYskiblog and WF/GORE
-Mike
Ha! Hope I didn't blow your cover if you were "sick" from work! Saturday sure was nice... what I wouldn't give to have those conditions back now. Thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you mentioned it in one of your reviews, but the Adirondack Express has been down now since 12/29. This has been causing some long lines at the Gondy. In fairness, the lines look worse than they are...20 mins is the most I have waited, but this isn't Vermont, so I've gotten spoiled. The word is the Gore people drove to Utah for a part last Friday and were supposed to be back with it Wednesday and try to get it running yesterday. But the snow report shows it still down, so who knows.
ReplyDeleteWe've skied at Gore twice since the triple went down, Jan 1 and Jan 4. Crowds were quite light both of those days, so the triple wasn't really missed. The gondi wait was maybe 5 minutes at the most on those days, but it probably should have been walk-on. But you're right, it will cause problems on a crowded day. And it leaves Gore vulnerable if there's a mechanical issue with the gondi as there's no other practical way to access the rest of the mountain from the base area.
DeleteI've heard a various accounts of the repair timeline, ranging from in time for MLK weekend to never. Your version, which I hadn't heard, sounds like it would be running quite soon. Hopefully that's correct.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
No update today on the triple. The Straightbrook was also closed today (1/11), and the sand truck is also broken resulting in a parking lot that was downright dangerous. Then lightning closed the whole mountain around 1100am, canceling the race and the bumps contest. And the rain has the base down to nothing again....bare spots everywhere. Gore can't seem to catch a break this year.
ReplyDeleteYikes! I had to work today, and for the first time in my life, spending the day in the office may have been better than spending the day on the slopes! Thanks for the update.
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