well, put about 3 hours in this morning and it was probably 2 1/2 too many...in a word it was awful. Showcase, awful, lies, awful, hawkeye, awful, sunway/quicksilver, not awful but not good. chati was open but we didn't ski it cause hawkeye was awful. uncas, moderately awful. i really don't know what they did all week after the rains came but i seriously doubt their ability to blow at all. and on top of that they were blowing wild air & tannery. nothing else. nothing up top. i'm starting to get a little pissed off to the point of starting a riot.

Oh yeah, & surprise, surprise. twister was closed for racing.

Ditto what jmokes said.

Also, and I really can't understand this, the guns on the Arena were spewing water that froze to you. How hard is it to make snow when it barely above zero and skies as clear as a bell??

I need to comment on my last post.
I don't mean to imply that snowmaking isn't a difficult and physically demanding job for the individuals tending the equipment. I appreciate the individual and group efforts put in by the snowmaking and grooming crews.
The problem with snowmaking must be more of a systemic issue, capacity of compressors and pumps or just plain old worn out low energy guns. Perhapse it's a fault in the logic and/or knowledge of the management directing the crews.

Lies was "good" early. As I lapped it, it became worse and worse and worse. From what I saw, they were also blowing on Top Ridge and the Ski Bowl (wtf?). I'm not at all impressed with snowmaking this year and seriously considering skiing elsewhere next season.

Sounds like some of you were really disappointed in the progress Gore made since Monday, but I actually thought it was pretty decent today. Maybe I’ve been spending to much time with Harvey.

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-013010.html

Upper and Lower Sleighride had some of the best snow. Showcase was great upper with a mixed bag in the lower especially when comparing to the horror from Sat. Foxlair held up fine until about 2 when it seemed to eat up even the most advanced skiers and riders with a shear sheet of ice base. They need to stop blowing snow on the Ski Bowl and focus more attention on the rest of the mountain. Honestly the Mid Station could have used a fan gun blowing since it was boilerplate from Mid Station to Showcase/Wild Air on both Sat and Sun. The M18 snowgun on Sunway was unused both on Sat and Sun. Is that gun movable? They seemed to be chipping away ice on Sat but I think they gave up since the gun sat unused and unmoved on Sun. Sigh...

Not a horrible day at all since the sun was shining and crowds were minimal.

Frostillicus wrote:

From what I saw, they were also blowing on Top Ridge and the Ski Bowl (wtf?).

Yep--blowing on Ski Bowl. And the lift was turning--I was over there for some "free" tubing for Take Your Daughter to Gore Week (more on that frustration later). We were there for 2 hours and didn't see a single person on the lift. Repeat: WTF?

The Good:
I thought the weekend was pretty decent. Conditions held up pretty well Saturday, not so great on Sunday. I did abandon the summit fairly early (10:15??) as conditions there were not holding up well. When I found a trail in good condition, I did it more than normal as the pickings were slim. That ended up working for me, but I'm glad I didn't bring the family as they would have gotten bored. Overall crowds were thin.

The Bad:
It was disappointing, to say the least, that the terrain was limited. Burnt ridge was closed all weekend. One run on the North chair. Hullaboo and lower darby closed. Twister closed for racing.

The Ugly:
I did talk with a snowmaker on Saturday. He said there has been a major pump from the Hudson offline for over a year. (He may have said two pumps, but I wasn't taking notes). This has hurt the capacity of the system. He said there have been a number of electrical problems causing the system to be shut down. Portions of the electrical system are very old and need improvements. There have been problems with water in the air lines as well as problems with some pneumatic valves all causing outages. He did think there was a lot of budget pressure on mountain management.

tom

I have to agree with Jeff. I had a great day on Saturday. Had a group of 7 people all fairly advanced intermediates. We had one of the best days on the mountain all season. The terrain was limited, but not absolutely terrible. The views were amazing all day. The only trail I felt that should have been closed and wasn't was Showcase. Open Pit and Wild Air were picks of the day for me on Saturday. Uncas, Wild Air and the Sleighrides were picks of the day on Sunday. Saturday was cold with no wind and very little crowds. I think that kept the mountain in decent shape. Sunday was busier and much scratchier. We mostly stayed on the front side on Sunday in the manmade down the left of Showcase, on the sleighrides, Wild Air and Quicksilver.

Considering the miniscule snowfall in January, massive r**n event on Monday and brutual cold immediately after I thought the mountain was in decent shape.

I agree that the snowmaking needs to improve. I would also really like a portable T-bar installed from the SB chair to the ridge above Rumor.

Danzilla wrote:

I would also really like a portable T-bar installed from the SB chair to the ridge above Rumor.

Or just take the old Gondi building out. That would look better and save half the skating.

* * *

Jamesdeluxe and I skied Belleayre yesterday. I won't link to it but you can check it out on Harvey Road if interested. An interesting approach at Bell. They we're pounding the expert terrain/bump runs. Honestly the double blacks were easier (for me anyway) than the blues. My edges are pretty shot from all the scraping this year.

I was looking that the MegaHarv Snow Totals for this year and last year:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/search/label/megaharv

55 inches as of Feb 1 this year. Last year it was 125. That is a huge difference.

I've had my share of fun this year, maybe more. But I'm weary of the hardpack and manmade.

ULLR give me a break wouldya?

Harvey44 wrote:

Danzilla wrote: I would also really like a portable T-bar installed from the SB chair to the ridge above Rumor. Or just take the old Gondi building out. That would look better and save half the skating.

Unfortunately I am usually a knuckledragger so it is walking vs. skating. Taking out the old gondi building would be nice too. I was thinking a Tbar along the upper part of steilhang to just above the outhouses would be sweet. They would have to cut a little to get it in there.

It would make that part of the mountain much more accessable for everyone (especially snowboarders - although some people may be against that:).

2/5, today was an unexpected bonus day to ski. The husband had a day off, a friend had some time & the little one went to the mom-in-laws. Didn't get to ski around too much, but figured I'd put in the little I did.

The two guys were on tele & were working on technique... was kind of fun to watch.

Down Showcase to start, skier's right still SUCKS... there are hard patches showing through even early in the a.m.

Skipped over to Cedars down to the BR quad, and yes, Cedars is still flat.

Up the quad, guns were blasting the heck out of Sagamore, it had been groomed and this was pounding more snow on top of that. But I don't ski guns, so I'll be back Sunday.

Echo was good snow, but odd surface. Weird whales that are mostly groomed off and smoothed out, and you kind of fall off/get pushed off the sides of them skiing down. But all in all, well covered and nice to carve. We lapped that a couple of times.

Back up the triple, ran down Sunway to head out, seemed fine. I wish that they would put up a snowfence on skiers right at the saddle to catch all that snow that blows off... how hard can it be to run some along the absolute edge of the trail.

As I said, we didn't get to ski all over the mountain (I'm blaming it on the husband's wimpy legs - he hasn't gotten out much on his skis this year.) So I'll be back up on Sunday to play. By the way, major racing was going on Twister today and made getting back to the lodge a bitch at the bottom of Echo - you had to thread your way around the ski/timing hut, through parents and racers and officials then around the back end of the triple lift and out. DUMB. Looks like it will be that way tomorrow too.

Keep the cheer.

Sounded like Sagamore was the place to be today, or at least one of them.

Jeff and Marko did a bunch of laps and from what they said it sounded GREAT.

(Jeff - hope it's ok that I'm posting your link):

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mtn-ny-020610.html

Also Marko ... pic of the day on the Gore website! Nice.

Hard to be away from it, especially when it sounded like today was really good.

Morning was cold and WINDY. First run up the gondi at about 7:50 it was almost hitting the towers. Lower mountain skied pretty nice until about 9 when it all got blown off. then it was all boiler plate from the saddle to Wid Air.

Harvey44 wrote:

Sounded like Sagamore was the place to be today, or at least one of them.

Skied Saturday. Hawkeye was awesome as well--great coverage, blowing snow, whales, bumping up--a lot of fun. Must have done 10+ laps, each time trying to get more aggressive launching off the top of the whales. Chatty was in good shape as well.

Quick edit: I know it's been a down snow year so far, but enough with the bellyaching. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! When the mountains give you tough conditions, get better! I'm loving the amount of people riding the chair at 9am complaining how everything is scraped off and icy. At 9am. This ain't Utah!