Gore Mountain: Christmas Eve, 12/24/2016

It may have been raining down in the lowlands, but Santa showed up a day early at Gore, bringing a couple inches of new snow with him. It didn't matter if you were naughty or nice (we had skiers from both lists in our group), everyone was treated to one of the best early season days so far this winter.

Gore Mountain: 12/17/2016

A nice snowfall arrived with perfect timing Friday night and Saturday morning, setting up one of the best ski days so far this season. We left Saratoga intending to head up to Whiteface, but after being stuck behind snowplows for 10 miles with no sign they were going to pull over, we bailed at Warrensburg and headed up to Gore instead. I guess that's one of the benefits of our dual-mountain ORDA passes.

Whiteface: 12/14/2016

We had the opportunity to enjoy great mid-winter conditions for ORDA's annual Media Day event showcasing Whiteface Mountain on Wednesday. Cloudy skies with on-and-off snow made for difficult picture taking, but I'll happily trade photo ops for ski conditions.

Gore Mountain: 12/10/2016

If you spend any time at all in the lodge, on a chairlift or in line to buy a lift ticket, you can't avoid the conversations comparing the ski season to previous years. It's a topic that comes up most frequently in the early weeks of the season, when every bit of progress is measured against the snowfall and trail counts of winters gone by. Every skier has a slightly different take on how 2016-17 is shaping up, but one thing is unanimous: we're off to a way better start than last year.

Killington, VT: 12/08/2016

I don’t do too many reports from Vermont, but I had the opportunity to ski mid-week at Killington yesterday. I’ve skied at Killington many times over the years, but for some unknown reason it always seemed to be in marginal conditions. This time, thanks to recent natural snowfall plus an expansion of Killington’s already massive snowmaking operations (dividends from last month’s World Cup event), I got to see the mountain at its early season best.