Gore Mountain: 02/02 & 02/03/2013

I’ll admit that Wednesday’s rain and thaw left me less than excited about the prospect of skiing this weekend. But just like last winter, the grooming and snowmaking crews did a great job turning conditions around for the weekend.

Telemark skier on Lies

Open Pit

Cloud

Skiers who followed the snowmaking crews found the best conditions. Sunway, Foxlair, Quicksilver, Uncas, Topridge, Pine Knot, Fairview and lower Wild Air (aka Stokes / Arena) were all under the guns or had been recently blown and provided the softest surfaces. Upper mountain trails were groomed flat. The summit trails skied firm and fast with the best snow along the edges. We skied all of the open summit trails (only Rumor and Upper Darby were closed) between Saturday and Sunday, but conditions were generally better on the lower mountain. Temperatures were a bit more comfortable on the lower mountain too: I got chilled in the low single-digit temps at the summit, particularly on Saturday.

Foxlair

Fairview

Most of my pictures from the weekend were taken on Sunday. It’s easy to spot the Saturday pics: they’re the gray ones. Between Sunday’s blue skies and an additional day of progress by the snowmaking and grooming crews, Sunday was certainly the better of the two days.

Beth at the top of Chatiemac

Chatiemac

Pine Knot was pretty scraped on Saturday...

...but had guns top-to-bottom Sunday

I guess it goes without saying that the glades were not in play. We stuck our noses into the woods in a spot or two but it was dust-on-crust conditions. The 4 or 5 inches of snow the mountain got Thursday night seemed to have been wind-scoured away. There is a base in the woods, but I’m thinking we need something close to a foot of snow to put the trees back in play for next weekend.

Daniel way ahead of me (as usual) on Hawkeye

Pick-of-the-weekend was Topridge, which (I believe) didn’t open until Sunday morning. By the time we made it there (noon?), the trail was bumped up with soft, medium-sized moguls under top-to-bottom guns. Thanks for the tip MP! The cold temperatures meant dry, silky snow – no goggle crust when you reached the bottom. Uncas was probably second best, with a few scraped sections that could be easily avoided.

Running the guns on Topridge

Daniel on Topridge

On-piste looks very favorable for next weekend. Temperatures should cooperate to allow the snowmaking crews to move to the summit and perhaps Burnt Ridge as well. Any natural snow (Friday maybe?) will be a bonus.

D trickin' out on Wild Air

Sylvie following Daniel to Foxlair on Sunday afternoon