The second weekend in December is pretty late in the season for us to log our first day at Gore (it's already their fourth weekend of operation), but we've been making the rounds with our MaxPasses. Gore's been our home mountain for years, and we were saying hi to old friends before we even had our skis on.
The big news at Gore this year is a completely new Saddle Lodge. It's a total rebuild, preserving just a few architectural elements from the original Saddle Lodge, and the results are absolutely stunning. The new lodge is larger and more functional and just really, really nice. It's definitely an improvement that Gore can be proud of.
Terrain has been limited to "frontside" cruisers so far this season, served by the gondola and the AE2 chair. There's essentially three routes down the mountain: Foxlair or Ruby Run leading to Showcase, Sunway and Wild Air. Lower Sleighride is also open, offering a cut-over option between Showcase and Wild Air. Gore doesn't publish skiable acreage in their conditions report, but I'd peg it at 50-60 acres open. Snowmaking operations are underway on Lower Sunway, plus Uncas, Tannery and Headwaters. I've been told the plan is to get the summit open for next weekend.
We were glad to see that the bumps we experienced with our MaxPasses at Whiteface a few weeks ago have been ironed out. We had no trouble getting our passes scanned quickly at the ticket counter.
Unfortunately, conditions on Saturday deteriorated pretty quickly. There had been some recent snowmaking in spots, but for the most part surfaces were quite scratchy. Base depths on open trails seem quite thin, dirt and gravel mixed with the snow in many spots. None of the open trails had full edge-to-edge coverage, resulting in numerous choke points. Probably Wild Air and Showcase were in the worst shape, with Sleighride and Sunway slightly better. Coverage on these bread-and-butter trails really needs to improve before moving on to terrain expansion. Hopefully everything will get a much needed resurfacing courtesy of Mother Nature on Tuesday, as it appears snowmaking has been committed to the upper mountain and won't be returning to the open trails for at least a week.
We're really looking forward to returning to Gore later in the season. We love the summit terrain, Burnt Ridge, and especially all the glades. In the meantime, it looks like we've got an ideal stretch of weather on tap for the next several weeks with extended cold and multiple opportunities for snow. It'll be exciting to see conditions improve and trail counts go up across the northeast as the holidays approach.
I dig the new lodge too. It looks like the kids are ripping! Nice pics Jeff.
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