Gore Mountain: 03/29/2014

No longer winter, but not yet spring. The mid-winter conditions we’ve enjoyed the last couple weekends almost made it to the weekend, but rain Thursday night and Friday put an end to that. Conditions on Saturday ranged from a wet granular “pre-corn” on the upper mountain to mashed potatoes down below. The mountain remained shrouded in fog and clouds until late morning, but the day stayed dry.

Pea soup visibility up top

Visibility on the trails was tough in the morning, so we headed into the glades where the trees helped with depth perception. Just about all the upper mountain glades were open, with good coverage everywhere we skied. Apparently some sleet and wet snow had fallen on Friday, which made unskied surfaces a bit grippy, so the best tree skiing was anywhere that had already seen tracks.

Woods getting brighter as the clouds lifted

Sometime just before noon the woods brightened up and the clouds finally lifted off the mountain. Had the sun fully come out, we would have had some classic spring conditions on the upper mountain, but it remained cloudy for the rest of the day. At least the snow was soft and visibility was good.

Looking up Tannery to Lies

Lies

Most of our afternoon was spent on trails that we had avoided in the low-vis morning: Lies, Rumor, Topridge, Fairview. With the soft snow, everything skied quite well. Very light crowds meant that we often had the entire trail to ourselves.

Sylvie in the Chatiemac Glade

Daniel skiing Topridge

Since it looks like winter’s grip on the mountains has now been broken, we’re looking forward to some warm and sunny spring skiing to round out our season. With a deep base on the trails, we’ve got our fingers crossed that Mother Nature will cooperate for next weekend. Beyond that, Gore has hinted that they may be open through Easter weekend (daily ops through 4/06, weekends only after that) and Whiteface has hinted at the possibility of making a run for May 1. I don’t think I’ve ever skied in May, maybe this will be the year.