Today's Ski Report [Archive]

Snowballs

12-08-2009, 04:45 PM

The Party's On!!!

A great day, Very nice. The best part was from 11:00 on. There were some guns on Quicksilver that went wet early turning that run to mash potatos with a shower. Once they got the wet guns off, all was cool. The mashed potatos skied into mini moguls and refroze, so they provided some challenge and launches.

After 11, the Sun came out and stayed out. The Top down to Quicksilver stayed nice all day. This was winter, especially when the Mtn shadow came out. The snow was squeeky cold , you didn't even have to pole out Ruby's bottom. The air had a cold bite. It felt great to get the lungs full of cold air. There was good cover everywhere and 3-4 inches of manmade powder in front of the Saddle. There's a new tower mounted swiveling Snow Cannon by the North Quad that was putting down good snow volume.

If we get the 6-12 inches they're calling for Wednesday, Thursday-Friday may be sweet.

JFTJ told me there was a Bull Moose sighting at the Tannery/Straightbrook area this off season.

Given recent weather, I'm gonna rate Today a solid B. According to Gore's measurements, I skied over 25 miles today. Not bad for a first outting.

Brought to you by......

Snowballs. The C 8) 8) L way to bomb people.

Harvey44

12-08-2009, 05:27 PM

The Party's On!!!

Nice Report. How bout some pics? :wink:

My only real disappointment this weekend was no QuickSilver. Love that whole run. Hopefully they'll blow on it tonight to degakify it.

Winter is the BEST.

Lbtchnlgs

12-08-2009, 05:32 PM

nice report, 25 miles is a good number

jimmer

12-08-2009, 05:38 PM

it was a good day,other than the wet guns,nice too finaly get out,but wernt u puzzeled by the lack of snow making,there r sum guns going on top ridge,18 i was told,and a hand full on the front side,i dunno mayb i expect too much,but we have the cold they wanted,so i wood like too see them putting in a little more effort,o well it was a good day,just have too take what there givin.
oh btw,the parking lot sure is funny,folks didnt no it was free,and parked outside the ropes,its gonna b sumting on a crowded day,just hope its worth it...

Hoser

12-10-2009, 06:59 AM

Currently its 7am Thursday, morning after a dump, and checking the ski report - Wednesday's report is posted?

Lbtchnlgs

12-10-2009, 07:29 AM

Currently its 7am Thursday, morning after a dump, and checking the ski report - Wednesday's report is posted?

Nothing new is open... just called the ski phone.

More Bore!

Hoser

12-10-2009, 08:32 AM

Now 8:31am Thursday, and yes, Wednesday's report is still on the website.

adkskier

12-10-2009, 08:39 AM

For those wondering what's going on near Gore, it's very windy today. The forecast is for winds peaking at 50MPH. Depending on the wind direction, this is the kind of day that can wreak havoc with the detachable lifts.

Snowballs

12-10-2009, 05:27 PM

Spongeworthy

12-10-2009, 05:35 PM

Chummer moved to Colorado. Chummer went to Tahoe . . . but now he's back.

CUskibum

12-10-2009, 09:36 PM

Another good day! Wind was mainly an issue only atop Bear but in the afternoon it started working it's way down the hill. The trail had several inches of loose on it all day. Only later did it get somewhat blown off in front of the Saddle Lodge with the sides keeping some powder.

Even without bombing it, I did not have to pole once at the bottom of Ruby. The snow was actually kinda fast, The place was rather empty. Once again, i rode the gondi solo all day.

People are starting to duck ropes.... Fairview, Showcase and Wild Air. Patrol actually sorta opened Wild Air about 2pm. They didn't drop the rope, but they did post a " thin cover, some walking necessary, Black Diamond " sign.

Rumor is we lost our resident party animals. Chummer moved to Colorado. Jackie is in Florida.

Guns were going on Headwaters and the trails Jimmer mentioned.

It got a lot better when they dropped the ropes on Wild Air. Some of it had crusted over, but a lot of it was just right. It was really good to get out after being cooped up while studying for exams all week.

The Northern ADK got hammered this morning as well. We drove to Gore today from Potsdam and it was pretty bad, it took us 3 hours. A tractor trailer jackknifed on RT 56. Pretty much a whiteout from Potsdam to south of Tupper Lake. Got a tad bit better after Blue Mountain Lake. It was pretty much the same on the way back. I think that weather system is moving south slowly, so it'll be interesting to see how much snow Gore gets out of this storm.

Snowballs

12-16-2009, 06:38 PM

Hard & Scratchy. A few lower mtn runs to scope it out then......Topridge-Watch out for the brown spots. Watch out for the yellow spots, not from the Huskies, just Mr Ice. There was some wildlife at the hill today. A couple of gondi cabins were skunked. Skied TR center>right side for 2.5 hours. Good fun. Thank God they built this trail. Left side had mini moguls made out of Ready Mix concrete. Snow lightly fell most of the day. When i returned to the Gondi, Sunway had enough new snow to "soften" it up a tad and made for pretty good fast cruising. Bomb it. QS, OS, 3B> Jamboree was fun. A good wind blew atop all day providing an excellent wind chill. Later it moved on down the hill. Refreshing. :lol: Showcase>lower sleigh hard & scratchy, there on down thru Stokes>Arena sucked.

A few guns were going here and there. NOT ONE ON TOP! JFTJ told me they been having mechanical problems with the system this season. This AM the water intake pump shut down. It was restarted at some point.

Skied for a good awhile with Tom Cunningham of the Ski Barn family. Care to guess what brand skis he runs on? He regaled me nonstop with Gore Tales of Old. Anyone with an interest in the area's ski history would do well to chat him up. He has 65 years of skiing at the mtn. The annual Garnet Trophy Race. 25 cent lift ticket packets, one to be punched for each day at the Ski Bowl...." Alot of times he wouldn't punch ours so we got extra days!" "Some days we got 30 runs!" Down South mtn to North River. Pete Gay skiing. Grandpa driving them up to the mines then meet them at the bottom to do it again. Hike from the mine to Gore's summit, down Cloud, hike up over something then ski on down. He descibed so many trails over that side of the hill that he confused me. He knew Betty, Doc and a bunch of others i forget. Chummer? making the Betty sign, carving Backwoods club pins etc,etc. Is there a Chummer Sr and JR? We exchanged contact info so we could hook up again. At his age, he can still make his SuperSports rip good! I had a great day.

Harvey44

12-16-2009, 07:42 PM

Skied for a good awhile with Tom Cunningham of the Ski Barn family.... He regaled me nonstop with Gore Tales of Old. Anyone with an interest in the area's ski history would do well to chat him up. He has 65 years of skiing at the mtn. The annual Garnet Trophy Race. ... Down South mtn to North River. Pete Gay skiing. Grandpa driving them up to the mines then meet them at the bottom to do it again. Hike from the mine to Gore's summit, down Cloud, hike up over something then ski on down. He descibed so many trails over that side of the hill that he confused me. ...

YOWZA. I would be fascinated to talk to TC. Actually I'd love to interview him and do a piece for Harvey Road.

Sounds like a few different things going on.

Not positive but I think the Garnet Trophy was given out at Harvey/Garnet Mtn (which was really South Mtn). The story of the trophy is buried in this NELSAP piece:

http://www.nelsap.org/ny/garnet.html

Here's the old ride and slide map:

http://nyskiblog.com/2008/11/precise-ski-data-of-north-creek-ny.html

It would be great to buy that guy a beer.

fujative.

12-16-2009, 08:33 PM

YOWZA. I would be fascinated to talk to TC. Actually I'd love to interview him and do a piece for Harvey Road.
One of my media arts projects this year is an interview, maybe I could set something up with him? If I got a collection of questions from people on this site for him that could help the project come along quickly. I'd be glad to do that for a solid grade AND to contribute to Harvey Road.

Harvey44

12-16-2009, 09:04 PM

One of my media arts projects this year is an interview, maybe I could set something up with him? If I got a collection of questions from people on this site for him that could help the project come along quickly. I'd be glad to do that for a solid grade AND to contribute to Harvey Road.

This could be so cool.

What's the deadline for the project? Are you skiing Christmas week? That's one time when I'm definitely up in NC regardless of the weather. It's your project, so you'd be lead, but I would love to be involved.

Snowballs ... could you set up an introduction?

There is so much history at Gore, and it's one of my goals to get as much of it down as I can.

It would be key to get our hands on old photos for scanning.

Fuje .... PM me for contact info or send yours to harveyblogger@gmail.com.

PS - HR will be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Any constructive comments on today's entry would be greatly appreciated, and may actually do some good, if you understand what I mean.

Snowballs

12-16-2009, 09:24 PM

I know Harv. You're why i got his contact info. BUT you and Fuj will have to share or slug it out.....cuz Fuj Rocks, He mah main man. I can't speak for the TC, but I'll see if he's game. I don't imagine you'ld have much trouble getting him to open up. No doubt he would enjoy your Gore stories as well....but be prepared to listen. Maybe you and yours would become friends with he and his. Then when you're in NR and Mrs. H doesn't wanna ski all day/weekend, she could possibly hang with Mrs. C and spend yo money shopping, dining etc, ya know girl stuff. Girls like that! Could maybe work out very well. TC doesn't work at the Ski Barn, his brother runs it, but maybe they'ld also let you crawl around in their cranium. A solution maybe for Fuj and you to go together and interview TC or you both, so to speak, if it even happens. Worth a try. i'm interested in the story. I love those old " Norman Rockwell " type stories.

Be a good Elf Harv. Santa's been trying to arrange another present for you. No promises there either but if it works out, you won't need the little blue pill.

Snowballs

12-19-2009, 05:10 PM

Great Day! The icing on the cake was .......Gold Parking flopped Big Time! All the complimentary parking in the Upper lot,C lot, D lot, and part of E lot had cars but Gold Parking had only a mere 13 cars in it at 11:15!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: Vitually empty. It's was a dramatic statement. Rejected!

The Snowmaking crew did an excellent job on the hill. It is way different than just a mere 3 days ago. Trails that were mostly bare are now covered well side to side plus they have a few inches of MM powder laying around. While it was scratchy, it was edgeable and in some areas a good amount of Powder was to be had! Hawkeye was open with good cover and guns blazin. Chati opened with ankle deep powder but few skiers. The rest was good too with my favorite run being Foxlair at Day's end. There were soft powder moguls over it and few skiers. These, IMO, can be some of the nicests moguls at Gore when it's like this. They were good sized, nice spaced, piles of powder that started at the Dog leg and from the Gondi line down. Fun! Sunway had lots of powder laying around it's sides. This combo made a nice way to spend the last 3 runs.

I saw a brand new portable Snow Cannon being hauled thru Warrensburg. Hopefully it was heading to Hickory.

:D :D :D

Harvey44

12-19-2009, 06:20 PM

Chati opened with ankle deep powder but few skiers. :D :D :D

Great report SB ... sounds awesome. Very cool that they got Chatie open.

At this point in the season skiers can actually help break up the death cookies. :shock: :shock:

Way to take one for the team. :D

May be some surprising terrain additions in the next week.

rossi

12-19-2009, 06:34 PM

today was definatly a fun day. a little on the chilly side but thats mainly becuase i didnt dress warm enough. the snow on foxliar was very nice and while both times i went down it there was some traffic, the conditions were still good. topridge was groomed and in spots slick but had the same conditions as all the other lower mt trails, fast and hard, and tree line was nice soft snow. wildair was probably the best lower mountain trail, edgible (sp?) and easy to get a good carve. now for the upper mountain. ducked the rope on pinebrokk glades and that sucked. few ppl had already been in there and some areas had hard crusty MM snow. hawkeye was very fun before the top got skied to hell. nice soft snow and some soft MM in spots. the headwall was a little sketchy. pretty slick with some soft bumps. lower half skiers left was easily the best. nice line going all the way down with small bumps that you could eaither go through or around and a few to jump off of. lower chati was easily my favorite trail open. i didnt get it early but still had some good freshies. a few rollers that you could fly off of and get a nice soft landing. i never hit bottom on the trail. all in all a good day. and i counted 15 cars or so in paid parking. only complaints i have is too many ppl on chati and hawkeye who should NOT have been there, and the 2 guys that came out of cave who couldnt answer a simple yes or no question. and i laughed histerically when you got caught poaching straightbrook glades. or atleast looked like you got nailed. its ppl like you that get all the fun taken away from the rest of us. if you are going to poach do it right.

Harvey44

12-19-2009, 11:36 PM

PDQ phoned it in:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2009/12/gore-mtn-ny-121909.html

GoofyRider

12-20-2009, 06:15 PM

a good day today..

track conditions - very fast
exacta and trifecta wagering

sunway twice to start, quick coffee break, some sun poking out, gondi to topridge, pine knot, to summit. lower mt and bear mt were fast but mostly a nice thin layer of manmade for good carving and a tiny bit of sun softening. Hawkeye 3 times. Really better than I thought it would be if you spotted the nice stuff. Back up topridge chair to showcase, 2 beers, than 2 more on sleighride. sometimes forget how fun showcase and sleighride can be.

Blowing tons of snow on cloud to headwaters, should be awesome tomorrow. a worker at the summit said it'll open on monday. anything facing south/southwest is really nice on a sunny day, topridge, sunway, headwaters.

http://s3.postimage.org/vHPqi.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=PqvHPqi)

http://s2.postimage.org/1f2YAA.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Ts1f2YAA)

Snowballs

12-20-2009, 09:02 PM

Good cold day. Boiler Plate starting to appear. Treeline skiing. Still not many guns, Top of Chati, Very top of Cloud, and the Tubing run @ the Ski Bowl. It's was windy so it probably woulda just blown away anyhow.

Snowballs

12-28-2009, 05:22 PM

Ok FujaHarv, i got this thing going....had to resort to plan B....but it paid dividends. I will PM Harv the details as FujPM doesn't seem to function, " no such user ". So you two work it out. This will come together after the holiday period. If that doesn't fit your class deadline, Fuj, then i might suggest you interview a noted Blogger, the Sage of North River, the load of Harvey Road, the freeheeling, freewheeling, our own skiing weatherman and noted Blogger--------Harvey44!!! (applause, applause)

" In a small cabin in North River a wood stove struggles to overcome the cold. Snow and the scent of balsam pine fill the outside air. As the door opens, in walks a man with an arm full of firewood, but that is not the tools of his life. Words are his trade, the tools with which he carefully crafts many stories of years of North Country skiing......blah, blah, " ....you get the idea.

That's right Harv, you're becoming a famous blogger! Which of course, is much better than being an infamous booger, You Bugger. :wink:

Now do I get a cookie?

Snowballs

12-28-2009, 09:42 PM

Ok, nobody posted for today so i will.

What a mixed bag of conditions and weather today was. There was good fresh snow most places and there was also edgable ice, rocks and even water here and there....but mostly fresh snow. it was kinda weird tooling along on nice freshies, then opps ice, rocks or water. The Summit/Darkside was good but when wind drove me to return frontside, Sunway from Wild air down had really nice coverage of powder.

Weather same way. Snowing early, then hard, then windy with a near blizzard whiteout while snowing hard. That made it very hard to see. i went slow so to avoid any collisions esp. with shorties. It was very poor visiblity for an hour or so and the hill got kinda vacant during this whiteout. Riding chairs sucked. Then all a sudden the Sun came out around 2:00. It was still windy and the crowds returned.

I noticed something I thought was very odd when the Sun came out and the sky was blue. Large clouds at a less than medium altitude were moving ever so slowly, almost imperceptively in one direction. Directly below them and just barely above Bear mtn, small clouds were zipping right along at a perpendicular angle to the larger, slightly higher clouds. It was neat and rather pretty with a blue sky background. I don't recall ever seeing clouds moving in two different directions and different speeds in such close proximity to each other. The slightly higher large clouds were completely uneffected by the wind that was zipping the lower clouds along. Odd.

The Crowd wasn't the worst ever. yeah there's lines, but i was skiing right up to and on the Summit double around 11:30. yeah there was people to share the trail with, it just wasn't overwhelming. An exception to this was the Gondi line after the Whiteout ended. Even the singles line was out the gate. some of them were poachers. So what. i was gonna make a few more gondi trips but the lines changed my mind and i wasn't gonna ride the ADK " wind tunnel " Express again, so i split shortly before 3.

Harvey44

12-28-2009, 09:51 PM

I think the idea of a thread called "Today's Ski Report" is brilliant. Let's face it ... only a nut like me is going to post a TR everytime he skies, and for locals especially who get a ton of days ...it just doesn't make sense.

Especially good report today SB. Really people don't care that much about what somebody skied. They want to know what the surface is like, and you nailed it.

Thanks for the help with the TC interviews too. Will be very cool if we can pull it off.

Fuje are you out there?

JC7727

12-28-2009, 10:20 PM

I really like quicksilver today, thought the snow was great on it esp once the sun came out after 2ish. Open pit and chatty were also pretty good, there was some fresh powder to be found. Places exposed to the WNW wind had some ice exposed, lower cloud was wind blown. I didnt see any trails on the dark side open. The whiteout around 1 pm was interesting, all out blizzard on the summit. Skied the past 3 days, going to rest it tomorrow. Looks very cold on the mountain.

rossi

12-29-2009, 02:49 PM

todays report. bus full of russians. long freaking line at the gondi cuz nothign else was open. the liftie needs to go back to school cuz he obviously wasnt able to count. i was in the singles line and he sent me to 3 cars, all 3 cars had 8 in them already, so finally got in one, and hey what do you know theres 9 of us in there with 4 pairs of skis. condition wise, everything was hard and fast. oooh and it was cold today. sign said -32 at the top. wish i could give more but i wasnt gunna stay out to see what the conditions would have been like else where, but im sure it was all pretty much the same.

Snowballs

12-29-2009, 03:07 PM

oooh and it was cold today. sign said -32 at the top.

Brrrrrrr! Anybody skiing today certainly earned their turns. Those Russians may have thought they stepped off the Gondi and into Siberia. Even the Vodka was frozen. :shock:

rossi

12-29-2009, 03:24 PM

hahahaha. speaking of earning your turns. i had first chair up to the top and just went straight back down but some guy was skinning windy hill up. i dont think he knew that they had opened the quad.

jimmer

12-29-2009, 03:51 PM

rossi

12-29-2009, 04:15 PM

hahaha nice nice. you gunna be up at all this week. i finally got off work so im skiing everyday till school.

Snowballs

12-30-2009, 04:57 PM

Anybody go today ? A guy on FB said the conditions were terrible..........Ci ?

Hoser

12-30-2009, 05:22 PM

Not terrible, but still disappointing for this time of the year. Topridge was good (lower half), Wildair was pick of the day due to recent manmade snow. Whole mountain was carvable but many rocks on the trails.

Not one snowmaker going - zero - unless they were on Sag and could not hear them (dreaming). Rumor around the lodge is that the pipe(s) froze during yesterday's power outage and they will be getting the torches out to thaw.

Not a bad day, just kinda tired of another day of ice. Crowds were manageable.

Dark slides glades opened, very crusty on top, might be ok tomorrow once they receive some traffic.

Snowballs

12-30-2009, 05:44 PM

the pipe(s) froze during yesterday's power outage and they will be getting the torches out to thaw.

Likely explains what happened to Harv.

Hear you on the Ice issues. This lack of snowmaking ability is a lingering problem that just won't seem to go away. There's been more than a few days where no guns were running.

Thanks Hoser.

Harvey44

12-30-2009, 06:25 PM

Frostillicus

12-31-2009, 10:04 AM

Hoser got it right. The lower left of Topridge was good, but c'mon that's a pretty small percentage of the mountain during a holiday week. If I had a day ticket and not a season pass I would have been pretty upset.

The ice, groomed-up gravel, rocks, and bare spots I can normally deal with were far more upsetting when not seeing a SINGLE snow gun going ANYWHERE... :evil:

Anyone know if they were able to blow any snow last night?

jimmer

12-31-2009, 10:25 AM

Frostillicus

12-31-2009, 10:49 AM

The "compressor problem"/ "frozen pipes" seems to be a yearly occurrence. If they don't get their act together in regards to snowmaking, there is NO WAY they'll be able to take the mountain where they want to. I don't care how many condos, lifts, or paid parking lots you put in, if the product stinks the customers will go elsewhere.

Harvey44

12-31-2009, 12:11 PM

Snowing nicely up top.

Trees very challenging!

Frostillicus

12-31-2009, 12:45 PM

Good news, Harv!

Adk Keith

12-31-2009, 01:40 PM

Trees very challenging!

:lol: :lol:

Snowballs

12-31-2009, 05:50 PM

Seems there's more to it. JFTJ said the " power outage " was in the pump house itself vs a regional event. This keeps reoccurring as in yesterday and happened again this AM. It's been happening off and on all season. They don't know why it's happening.

Conditions were better than i expected. It's still " sub par ", but there's some fun to be had. Topridge's my pick 'o day for a steep. It had some snow. Hawkeye's rather crapped out. Coming back frontside, some of the best snow is still Sunway/Quicksilver/3B. Which is impressive. Considering it's been skied alot - it's still kicking soft snow. There's some NICE jumps along both sides of Quicksilver. Showcase had alot of brown dirt/rocks areas. Didn't Joey Wild Air.

High Peaks was Ok. Cloud, Santanoni and they dropped the rope on Open Pit 12? ish. It skied off in an hour though. While riding the HPC I saw some guy in a Puke green jacket taking photos down the HPC lift line but could't get his attention. I gotta track him down.

That's kinda the story on conditions for the whole mtn. It's " OK " but it really needs snow everywhere and soon.

x10003q

12-31-2009, 05:51 PM

Snowing nicely up top.

Trees very challenging!

Come on Harvey - how much snow? I know you are not being charged by the word. :lol:

Harvey44

12-31-2009, 06:00 PM

Sorry about the brevity. It was a mobile post.

Not too much snow, but it was nice to ski in it. Maybe an inch on the car in the lot, a little more up top.

Working on a TR. Will post when it's up.

http://s4.postimage.org/LwR5r.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVLwR5r)

EDIT: Here's the TR:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2008/12/gore-mtn-ny-123109.html

It's more of a blog entry about some family milestones than a TR, but there are a few pics and some reporting on conditions.

ka2kci

01-01-2010, 05:46 PM

The place was empty this morning. The first few runs down Sunway, Wild Air and Quicksilver were pretty good. The screwed up the snowmaking on Showcase and it made for treacherous conditions at the top. Where they didn't make snow, it was pretty good.

Lies was scary ice. Hawkeye got skied off by about 10:00. Chaty held up a little longer. The woods have been trashed. I couldn't believe that the Dark Side Glade was open. It was scary and rocky....almost impassable. If you didn't have rock skis going into the trail, you certainly did by the time you got out. I am glad that I survived today. I won't be going back tomorrow. They seem to be having serious trouble making snow this year. Where they are making snow, it is sloppy, wet sludge with breakable crust. It seems puzzling that the natural ski trails were in much better shape than anywhere they made snow. I was disapointed with the conditions. Rumor on the slope today was that the snowmakers have been temporarily reassigned to finish sheetrocking and taping the Ski Bowl lodge. Why that wasn't done last summer remains a mystery to me. I think that the Gore management needs an overhaul. Their lack of attention to the ski surfaces is appalling. Something is seriously wrong here. The only thing that can help at this point are some serious dumps. I used to be one of Gore's biggest cheerleaders....now I am wondering why I put up with it.

nyspnypd

01-01-2010, 09:41 PM

I know its a bit after the day but I havnt had a chance to get on the forum.I went wed. to ski I usually go to WF but gore is closer and I didn't feel like going 2 1/2 hours instead of one hour. I noticed the Paid Parking lot was full (Probably empty from now until the next holiday:/) Conditions were okay no snow guns on when they really were needed I know WF would have had theirs on. Lines were okay Adirondack Express was almost empty so I stayed over on there alot or at the summit. Gondola line was almost like a stampede very unorganized. All in all it was okay it wasn't terrible. :D

Harvey44

01-01-2010, 10:13 PM

....

Hard to argue with what ka2kci posted.

We skied today and did have a lot of fun. I seem to be in the minority in that regard.

I was having a great time in the trees skiing stuff that was very tough, at least for me. I'm not saying I looked great doing it.

I was amazed at how little base damage I did today. CB had more and she never left the trails.

Best snow was almost anything on the lower mountain right at opening. Only Wild Air seemed to have enough snow to stand up to the traffic and still be soft and fun at the end of the day. LOVE hitting those kickers on Wild Air.

Twin Fawns was sweet.

Still no Twister. Uncas tomorrow?

Stay off Hullabaloo. I didn't end up there on purpose, and never ducked a rope. Let's just say it only looks like an easier way down.

Sorry I missed Fujative again. And Jason. And Matt.

Actually I'm glad I skied alone because I did not want responsibility for anyone following me.

Lies headwall was insane. Hawkeye headwall, skiers left at end of day was the hardest thing I skied. Much harder than anything in the trees.

BEST runs for me by far were on Double Barrel Junior. I foolishly left it to last, finishing with two runs on it that were killer.

Would really like to know the scoop on snowmaking.

Here's our TR from today:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-1110_01.html

rossi

01-01-2010, 10:23 PM

talked to ski patrol today and the guy said issues in the pump house has been whats causing the snow making issues. so whether or not that settles it im not sure. haha. condition wise id have to say topridge was good, killkare was also nice. lies was scary. darby woods (KHS) was about the same as killkare. as long as you picked your was thru it wasnt bad at all. went to duck the rope on hullabaloo and discovered a nice 3'' layer of ice. so X'ed that off the list. they are blowing crap on uncas in order to get a base....... didnt ski hawkeye or chati but both looked equally hard and fast. lower mountain, wildair held snow very nicely, especially skiers right. sunway was just insanely busy, but decent snow skiers right, and quicksilver was slick. and thats about all i did. pick of the day id have to say was topridge, i only skied it once but skiers left was nice all the way down. back again tomorrow and sunday.

Snowballs

01-01-2010, 10:42 PM

The Pump House shutting down has been floating around all season. For me, these latest affirmations ^^^ pretty much seal the deal. Pretty hard for Gore to say there's nothing wrong mechanically or that this year's snowmaking isn't sub par.

It's amazing the snow on Sunway, Quicksilver, etc and Topridge is holding up so well. These have been the " best snow " all season and they've been skied very heavily.

Denison

01-02-2010, 06:13 PM

snowmaking: Today at Uncas and Twister was blowing snow, some support guns at Saddle Lodge.

pick of the day: anything on a North Side. It held well thru the day. Nice to ski there again. I think I skied Woodchuck for very first time.

ice rink of the day (and yesterday): was Upper Sleighride

It would be fun to ski down to High Peaks chair, then ski down to North Side Quad, then ski all way down to Burnt Ridge quad.

rossi

01-02-2010, 06:43 PM

It would be fun to ski down to High Peaks chair, then ski down to North Side Quad, then ski all way down to Burnt Ridge quad.

by ski you mean walk right?!?! haha.

pick of the day was easily tahawus glades. followed some freeheelers in, there was maybe half an inch of crust, (didnt take the time to actually look kinda going by feel while skiing) but once you got some speed you were fine. everything else was just scary. by no means do i have a lot of edge, but im sure even if i had my racetigers today id be sliding out. i dont understand how and why its so icey. will be back again tomorrow....maybe.

Harvey44

01-02-2010, 06:44 PM

What a day. There was actually a lot of good skiing around. The challenge was accessing it without skiing the Hawkeye or Chatiemac headwalls after about 11:30. Not exactly easy.

Had a fun exchange with patrol that got me into Tahawas, no charge. More on that later.

Dark Side proper has been hit pretty hard, but still had some decent lines.

KHS was really good last time I got there, around 11am.

Mineshaft had ok coverage. For some reason to me Mineshaft seems like the hardest on the map tree run.

Chatiemac and environs was great. As alluded to above the Hawkeye and Chati headwalls were basically death. The positive result was that everything on skiers right off Chatiemac was nearly untouched. Skied just enough by the boys to break up the crust, for an old teleguy.

While I was up on Chatiemac, I notice skiers FINALLY coming down UNCAS. It was incredible. If there was a practical way to lap it I could have spent the whole day there.

Put a few pics up on Harvey Road and will try to put some kind of report together later:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-1210.html

Denison ... sorry I missed you. Did get to connect with Mikey Z. IMHO the rippinest Tskier on the hill.

Raymo40

01-02-2010, 08:43 PM

Good report Harv. Heading up tomorrow to brave the wind. Hope the snow that they are reporting from this storm shows up. Waxing my boards as I write this. I agree mineshaft is tough.

Harvey44

01-02-2010, 09:24 PM

Raymo ... don't count those chickens. I'll be very surprise if Gore scores tonight. It could happen, and I am hoping. It's snowing lightly now but what I am seeing on the radar doesn't look super promising.

The whole thing is contingent on Hawkeye and Chatiemac. If one of those two trails get some snowmaking tonight tomorrow could be good. But I left late in the day, leaving the summit after 3pm, and I saw no move to put snowguns on either trail.

IMO those trails, without new manmade should be closed.

I think I need to put out a disclaimer. Do not mistake my enthusiasm for a positive review of conditions. Yea I had a great time today. But it involved some very scary on trail descents. There's no way to ski most of that stuff if without using Hawkeye, Chatiemac and Cloud. All of those trails need snow. At the end of the day, if you couldn't link turns in a four foot wide zone on skiers right on Hawkeye, you were toast.

Snowballs

01-02-2010, 09:49 PM

without new manmade should be closed.

I've been waiting for this to become a reality on various parts of the hill. There's alot of borderline stuff that with winds or crappy weather could make it so Gore Snowmaking would have a real hard time catching up the way they're limping along now. A January thaw now could be crippling.

Hoser

01-03-2010, 09:55 AM

WOW !!! Sunday morning, made the trip to Gore - and back - high winds, never seen it like this, all mountain lifts shut down. By the old Gondi building (Northwoods Lodge) three flags up when we arrived, only one left when we departed. A ski rack was moved, all skis on the ground by all racks, snowmaker on the trail by the J bar behind the lodge but the snow from it landed at Okemo. Unbelievable wind. Bailed out! What a way to end the week!

Snowballs

01-03-2010, 10:23 AM

Wow!!! Wholly Crap! Great day to surf the couch.

definitely an elevational event. There is no wind here at my house, exit 18. little to none

My holiday blackout period at West Mtn ends tomorrow. Yeah. I maybe very glad I bought that pass at West. At least they make snow. Their Snow cannons put snow down pretty good. I was there for 2 days before Christmas and they had 25 or so snow cannons that were blasting for days.

Raymo40

01-03-2010, 12:46 PM

Glad I checked the web site before driving up. Never seen a wind hold on all the lifts at Gore. :shock:

Frostillicus

01-03-2010, 05:01 PM

Snowballs - West Mtn. was very good today and they were blowing TONS of snow.

JC7727

01-03-2010, 05:05 PM

Whiteface looks great

Snowballs

01-03-2010, 05:34 PM

Snowballs - West Mtn. was very good today and they were blowing TONS of snow.

See, when was the last time anyone said that about Gore? West has been blasting their cannons 24/7's for weeks now.

Unless, it snows alot tonight or someone posts Gore got snow, then it's West for me for atleast a few days.

Thanks Frost!

Snowballs

01-08-2010, 06:51 PM

Today's 4 inches of fresh made it pretty good. Not many people meant fresh could be found all day laying around the hill. Lies opened after days of snowmaking. Da bomb. People were grinning. Yesterday, ChatiHawk's headwall still icy, today improving. It " looks " worse than it actually skis, but the less adventurous will get nervous.

Snowmaking crew is making some progress. They're not out of the woods yet and don't seem to be at full Viagra. Curious how a just opening Echo will be tomorrow. You haven't been able to see guns going on it the last few days. Today there was One or so at Echo's beginning but it was not visible later in the day. Gore has been putting one gun on some trails and then posting that trail is getting snowmaking on it. For 3 days they said Hawkeye was getting blown and Jimmer saw none the first day while I saw none on the third day.

The best snow is still front side. Yesterday, Showcase was OK/iffy some barespots, Today it was that great cruiser we all love to bomb. Sunway still powder. Guns are laying it down in the park. People are liking that park. With no parks rats midweek, skiers feel more free to have their way with it. :roll: I even saw Patrol poppin off the element's jumps. Patrol Joeys !

Coming down the Northway around 5ish I noticed a lot of cars heading north. Will be interesting to see where they go. Gore should be packed tomorrow with that many cars heading north.....normally.

Out of towners....Gas is 17 cents cheaper at Exit 18 Cumbies over North Creek gas prices. Cumbies is a half block east of the Northway and also has .99 coffees vs Stewart's $1.59. Have a great ski weekend!

Harvey44

01-08-2010, 07:30 PM

Here's my report from today:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-1810.html

Jeff

01-08-2010, 09:27 PM

Good report, thanks Snowballs. Things sound pretty encouraging. I will be up tomorrow. Will ski around the trails & in the trees to see if things have improved since last Sat. With a full week of good snowmaking conditions plus at least a little fresh, it seems promising. With some Darkside, some trees, and some BRQ on tap I think things are looking up. I'm really hopeful that Gore will have been able to turn the mountain around some and we can all move forward for a good season. See y'all out there.

Jeff

01-08-2010, 09:54 PM

Harv, just read both your blog entries for today. Thanks for the encouraging and informative reports. Things sound good and I'm approaching things with a positive attitude. If all is reasonably good on the mtn I'll be a happy man. Interesting to hear the numbers on the snowmaking capacity. I can remember back like 20 yrs ago before the Hudson River pipeline when the limiting factor was the water in the resevoir and they'd sometimes be totally out of water for the snowmaking for the rest of the season by Jan 1. I think that Hudson River pipe is probably the most under-rated improvement that's been done at Gore. Bitch as we might about how things have gone over the past 2 weeks or so, things are a lot better now in many ways than 20 yrs ago.

Denison

01-08-2010, 09:57 PM

Here's my report from today:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-1810.html

Harvey, as always I enjoyed reading your reports. Happy Birthday!

Snowballs

01-08-2010, 10:36 PM

Some other's thoughts on Today.

http://www.skireport.com/newyork/gore_mountain/

Frostillicus

01-09-2010, 03:53 PM

Sunny, Blue skies, and COLD. The Gondola was broken early on and not running. I head it was an issue with brakes (?). Showcase was great early. Moved up to Lies via the Summit Chair and was very pleased to see so much man-made. The guns were still blasting in the morning. Did 4-5 runs here with a huge smile after each. They eventually moved the guns to the Rumor and started blowing on the lower half around noon. Spent the rest of the day in the woods. Some were good, some were VERY good. ;) Bottom was skied off and icy by the end of the day. Great day out.

Harvey44

01-09-2010, 07:03 PM

adksara

01-09-2010, 07:42 PM

Yup to the COLD part... -5 on my jacket thermometer at the summit. But the sun was so nice...

Lower mountain was ok, Sunway was well covered all the way to 3B for a warm up. Quicksilver had hard areas but edgeable. Showcase skiers left was fantastic, skiers right had nasty rocks & ice areas. Lower Sleighride was the same as Quicksilver but with more hard/ice areas. Open Pit was fantastic. The guns running on Headwaters (bases of Lies & Rumor) made it even colder skiing through the moisture. Darkside was ummm... dark but nice.

My fingers, toes & nose gave up before my legs did, but I had a great day.

Snowballs

01-09-2010, 07:50 PM

Jeff

01-09-2010, 09:27 PM

The mtn is really skiing much better than a week ago. For various reasons that I won't go into here, I spent the entire day on the lower mtn, riding the gondi, the triple when the gondi wasn't running (sooo cold) and the North Quad. About a half dozen guns were blowing pretty hard on Sleeping Bear. I thought everything skied pretty well, maybe just a little bit firm but good, even held up pretty well still at day's end. Going back up tomorrow, this time to hopefully hit the summit and trees. Not sure what the prob was with the gondi before they got it running at 10:45, but it's kind of a reminder of how dependent they are on that lift. Without it, everyone has to funnel through the triple. Also not sure what's going on with BR but looks like it won't be open tomorrow. I can live with that for now since the rest of the mtn is skiing well.

GoofyRider

01-10-2010, 01:49 PM

i did it. i paid for parking today. nice to have the car right there after drinkin till 2am :shock: cold today but pretty decent conditions in most places. Warmed up on sunway thru park and there was plenty of stuff to get an edge in, then hit sleeping bear which had guns running and that was really nice. Then hit Open Pit which was also really nice. out by 11:30. i was happy with the trails i rode, did see boilerplate around in places, but overall i found nice snow everywhere i went. that new gun by the exit of the north quad is awesome, it lays down some nice snow all on the top area there with the wind blowing it from behind

Denison

01-10-2010, 02:05 PM

i did it. i paid for parking today.
How full was it ?

GoofyRider

01-10-2010, 02:11 PM

i did it. i paid for parking today.
How full was it ?

my best guess when i left around noon, it was approaching 1/2 full i'd say

jimmer

01-10-2010, 03:30 PM

i did it. i paid for parking today.

boooooooooooo

GoofyRider

01-10-2010, 03:47 PM

i did it. i paid for parking today.

boooooooooooo

lol i knew i'd take some heat for that! just think, i'm contributing to more improvements... hopefully that upgraded snowmaking system!

oh yeah, they were making lots of snow on rumor

Snowballs

01-10-2010, 04:02 PM

Spongeworthy

01-10-2010, 04:44 PM

Saturday started off bad because the gondola wasn't running. One ride up the Adirondack Express and I was frozen. WINDY and COLD (no wind riding up the North Quad or the High Peaks chair). Views were as far as the eye could see. The snow on Lies was awesome, as were the crowds of skiers on it. First time I've encountered real bumps and decent tree skiing this season. Totally wore me out, so no skiing on Sunday.

Looks like Gore has fixed its snowmaking problems, because conditions were so much better than the previous weekend. Also seems like the upper mountain got some natural snow that the base did not, because the glades were way better than they had been. Still had to watch out for rocks in Dark Side Glades, like Straightbrook Glades were last weekend (and was great Saturday). We're definitely getting there.

More cars in the paid lot than there had been on nonholiday weekends. Still would look mostly empty if it was half the size. E-Lot was half full.

Raymo40

01-10-2010, 07:10 PM

Runs of the day for me were tahawaus glade and twister in the afternoon. They should put a fan gun on Foxlair, the top of that in the afternoon was boilerplate.
I paid to park to cuz we got there late at 11 and I wanted to ski. No beers in the tannery after skiing so I am calling it even. We need a big storm. Think snow

Denison

01-10-2010, 09:11 PM

I paid to park to cuz we got there late at 11 and I wanted to ski. No beers in the tannery after skiing so I am calling it even.

Mental accounting. Mine goes like this: I have that tasty double cheeseburger for $14 but since I save $10 on parking, I figure it cost me $4 :shock:

kvogs09

01-11-2010, 07:46 AM

saw a post that rumor had a slide give way yesterday creating a small avy....any confirmations? snowmakers ok?

jimmer

01-11-2010, 04:13 PM

saw a post that rumor had a slide give way yesterday creating a small avy....any confirmations? snowmakers ok?from what i saw today it looks like it wiped out some guns,didnt look pretty,not sure if any 1 was hurt,its too bad i cant wait till it opens,only trail on the mt thats worth a hoot.there was no snow being made on it today,or any where else for that matter.

Frostillicus

01-15-2010, 07:02 PM

Today was pretty good. Warm and overcast. Summit was fogged in. Uncas was OK, Top Ridge was bad (ice/gravel), Lies was great and freshly groomed with nice soft snow but totally clouded in, for the most part the Lower Mountain skied well, Tahawus Glades were good but a little crunchy in spots. No snow making (too warm?), but the 10 guns looked ready to go at the top of Hawkeye. Guns were also set up on Sunway.

01-16-2010, 07:17 PM

Echo was sweet today. Rode Ruby Run to Sleighride to Showcase first run since I was riding a demo Burton board. Rode Echo the rest of the day until 3pm. Maybe I missed other trails but I know I didn't miss the crowds. Spring conditions, luxury high speed quad, blueberry skies, and zero people. Maybe 10 lifts behind would be another person. :). Oh yeah did anyone see the chain come down for Gold parking? Cars were streaming in like mad. Made me chuckle when a yellow plate drove over the chains unknowingly and asked "where the hell do I drop my kids off at?" Priceless!

Denison

01-16-2010, 08:44 PM

ssb, you're right Echo was nice, especially in the early afternoon. crowds prob-ly dont even know about it.

Jeff

01-18-2010, 07:38 AM

A trip report from Saturday is here:

http://saratogaskier.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mountain-01162010.html

The TR is mostly about family skiing, we had a great day.

TomCat

01-18-2010, 08:16 AM

I thought conditions on the hill improved significantly from two weeks ago. My picks for the weekend were Echo, Twister, Sleeping Bear and Uncas. Fireworks were nice Saturday.

Stumps were popping through on twisters little sister. It would have been better if they just left the trees there.

tom

Denison

01-18-2010, 09:49 PM

this is Sundays report, I bet today it was even better.

beautiful morning, clouds below Saddle Lodge, great views from the top;
neither Sunday nor Saturday I took gondola, so I waited in lift line about 3 minutes total this weekend;
burnt ridge had Echo only, empty both quad and trail all weekend, great blue trail fast chairlift;
first time skied Hedges - another flat trail to Gore this time it's uphill, whether you come from Twister or from B.R. Quad. It takes you to Tahawus glades, which was all leaves and branches.

best skiing weekend so far, didn't notice it was holiday weekend :)

On the picture below is Burnt Ridge Quad express lift on Saturday around 11am:

http://nschat.net/forums/download/file.php?id=402&mode=view

My take on Lies is a bit different from Harvey's: Still good snow cover, but trail's so short! It's like 1/7 length of Skyward (Upper+Lower) but with mandatory cross country/hiking to get to Lies from lift you end up spending same time as on WF Summit Quad

Frostillicus

01-19-2010, 05:13 PM

jimmer- how much snow has the mountain gotten over the last couple of days?

jimmer

01-19-2010, 06:47 PM

jimmer- how much snow has the mountain gotten over the last couple of days?mayb 3 inches sunday nite,a little last nite,its been warm though,did some off the path stuff today to keep it interesting,,did get twister today it was sweet,allso closed...,,twas a good day

jimmer

01-19-2010, 06:54 PM

the summit was a ghost town,hung out for lunch at the summit,for mayb an hr,mayb 20 people skied by the shack,lower mt had a few more people on it,but the place was dead....puttin guns on sags,guns on twister,and there r still sum on rumor,,gotta get back too cold,,love that burnt ridge chair,,we we the only 1s on it ,or so it seemed anyway,rode it twice

adksara

01-23-2010, 03:25 PM

Ahhhhhhhh... blue skies, no wind and mostly good snow.

Sunway for early a.m. was well covered & soft.
Quicksilver a bit more thin.
Showcase skiers right is blah... scraped ice and wicked hard pack, left not so bad.
Echo highly nice with a few spots getting thinner.
Cedars was still flat (what more can you say!).
Sagamore had the guns going so I watched from the lift... it sounded nice & soft... wet though - googles got misted on the way up.
Sleeping Bear, hard but nice.
Funny Pete Gay nice & covered for families & little ones (or lazy after lunch ones! like me).
Twister was closed for the a.m. for training (wish they'd note that on the website), but the p.m. was really nice and fun to cruise.

Didn't head up top, but one of my girls said Lies & Hawkeye were best, but the rest was getting scraped pretty quickly.

All in all... what a nice day. Wish they'd put a few picnic tables at the top of Burnt Ridge for lunch... I'd stash my pack in the trees there and run Echo & Sagamore as endless loops. :D

Hope you all had a good day too.

Harvey44

01-23-2010, 08:56 PM

Ahhhhhhhh... blue skies, no wind and mostly good snow.

...

All in all... what a nice day. Wish they'd put a few picnic tables at the top of Burnt Ridge for lunch... I'd stash my pack in the trees there and run Echo & Sagamore as endless loops. :D

Hope you all had a good day too.

What a day. I can't remember having so much fun on a day when I never got to the Straightbrook chair. And I hardly skied the trees.

Yea I know they shouldn'ta expanded Gore without more snowmaking. It's a legitimate beef. But Sagamore is a really great trail. Echo too.

I spent the morning being a good husband and father dealing with lessons etc.

At 8:15, I watched every teleskier on the mountain, blow off the Gondi and start the Cedars skate. I was soo jealous.

I had a good morning, skiing here and there. Snow was really pretty good over most of what I skied.

But when I finally got over there. Woo freakin hoo. It was killer.

My pics ... not all that great ... but they here on Harvey Road:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-12310.html

rossi

01-23-2010, 09:45 PM

went over to BR first thing this morning at 840ish. sagamore was closed, talked to patrol and said maybe another 30min before it opened. lapped echo a few times and say the rope drop on the chair. was in the first group of ppl to go down. top half was very nice, soft man made snow. got halfway down and went to go over a mound of snow and my skis stopped dead while my body kept going. haha. from there down was wet heavy crap. got down rode up and left that becuase i knew the more it got skied the better it would be. went up top and lapped rumor 2 or 3 times and that was really nice. only gripe with that is the ppl who go in and stand and look at what they have to ski on in order to get to the trail. there was prolly 10 people waiting for one group, and im sitting there thinking, "looking at it isnt gunna make it easier." but other than that really soft man made with some nice bumps. went down and had lunch then went back to sagamore and was sooooo much better once it had traffic on it. haha. really nice bumps on spots, and soft snow that didnt beat you up to bad. still after 2 runs down my legs were....and still are....shot. all in all a very nice day. not sure if ill be back tomorrow, still recovering.

Spongeworthy

01-24-2010, 04:46 PM

Saturday was the best day of the season. Bluebird sky, no wind, not freezing, even though it was 4 degrees at my cabin when I left at 8:00.

Gondi (only time that day) to fresh corduroy on Uncas, then Chatiemac and 2 runs down Lies, well before the traffic, then headed over to Burnt Ridge via Tannery and Topridge triple. Twister was closed for racing, so we went into a tuck on Showcase, and lost ALL our speed after turning onto Cedars. I think the regrading of Cedars makes a huge difference. Not perfect, but WAY better than last year. The sights riding up the BR quad were inspiring. Lots of guns (20+, I didn't count them) blowing good snow, not the mashed potatoes they made on Rumor last week. Patrol was warning people about what they might encounter on the ungroomed snow (good idea), but I encountered no problems. The snow was awesome and the people on it were making beautiful bumps with great lines. After 2 awesome runs, we decided to save some for the afternoon or we'd have to call it a day well before lunch. Echo to the triple to Twister, just a few minutes before they dropped the rope, and did that twice, then to the Tannery Pub to beat the lunch crowd and to head back out when everyone is coming in.

Shortly after noon we did Twister to the renamed wormhole, down Echo to Cedars and 2 more runs down Sagamore, which just got better and better, then bombed Echo. A few more runs down Twister and Showcase and called it a day.

The 4 runs down Sagamore, and the incredibly fast runs down Echo, made it feel like I went to a different mountain. It also looks like the snowmaking problems have been fixed. I was able to park in the front lot and avoided the Gondi, so I have no idea if the mountain was crowded or not. I am extremely sore today, and it feels GREAT!

Hey Harvey. Do you have a beard? I think I saw you on Sagamore from the BR quad.

Harvey44

01-24-2010, 05:07 PM

Sponge ... No beard but some serious scruff this weekend. guy with beard may have been legendary EDeO.

Skied this AM. lies was good ... Thanks for the tip Sara.

Rumor was absolutely fanatastic. Best ever not counting pow days.

Could not resist the call of ms. Sagamore.

(Emily sent me a note asking me to refer to her by her full name.)

She was almost as good as yesterday.

Did four laps to end the day. Am totally beat.

Driving down 87 with a tear in my eye in warm NCP. (Mrs harv is driving.)

Pics late tonight on blog.

Sorry fpr typos.

GoofyRider

01-24-2010, 06:54 PM

Real nice day today. Corduroy was nice early. Never rode gondi today. Adirondack Triple to North Quad to Summit Double. Lies was the run of the day for me. Great snow and sun. Lapped it a few times. Topridge then all the way over to Sagamore. What a trail! Every time I stopped to rest the bottom was never in sight, it just keeps going and going. :D

I really like taking the 'back' way up to the summit sometimes. Keeps you off the beaten path, away from the crowds and on some of the trail I don't always ride. Cedars from the base really was not that bad on a board. Once you get past the first section you can strap in and make it to the lift.

Met a kid at the bar who is on the snowmaking crew. He was tellin me about the pump issues etc, he told me they are back to full pump performance and that they plan to make snow longer this year to make up for issues earlier in the season. I told him to keep up the good work, snow was nice today.

SnowSnake

01-24-2010, 07:39 PM

Great weekend at Gore, perfect weather and great conditions. Sagamore and Rumor were incredible, really have to give some props to the snow making crew this time around. Woods were great as well, especially the ones that were still roped off, thanks to ski patrol for that I really enjoyed the private runs. I may have complained a lot in the beginning of the season but the last two weekends made me realize why I keep coming back to Gore, great skiing (especially the woods both marked and unmarked) and no lift lines ever if you know what you are doing, can't get that in VT.

01-24-2010, 07:51 PM

Gore was empty today. Zero lines at the Gondola at 11 AM. Great day of riding.

fujative.

01-24-2010, 10:04 PM

Rumor was absolutely fanatastic. Best ever not counting pow days.

I saw Rumor just before it opened yesterday from the top of the gondi, it looked gorgeous. Definitely not something I want to be looking at know I can't ski it on my first day on the job.

Saw you and the Mrs on top of where Showcase and Twister merge. I was gonna say something but wasn't quite in a yelling from the lift mood. I'll catch ya next time.

Harvey44

01-25-2010, 08:16 AM

Fuje ... I totally understand not wanted to call out to the wrong person. I was trying to connect with Jmokes, and probably went up to 5 different guys with a salt and pepper goatee ...

JMOKES! Um ok never mind! :oops:

Last run down Sagamore, he yells to me from the BRQuad. I was about 3/4 of the way down, and with DEAD legs, hammered my way through the bumps. (Actually the bumps were hammering me.) No way I was going to catch up. Same thing with MattChuck.

Here's what I've got from yesterday. May add more pics later:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mtn-ny-12410.html

01-25-2010, 10:00 AM

:oops:

Harvey44

01-26-2010, 07:41 PM

A cheeseburger for the next guy/gal who skis (Gore!) and posts a decent paragraph in this thread about conditions. 8) :D :shock:

Denison

01-26-2010, 10:05 PM

A cheeseburger for the next guy/gal who skis (Gore!) and posts a decent paragraph in this thread about conditions. 8) :D :shock:
+ tasty malt beverage

mattchuck2

01-26-2010, 10:41 PM

I skied West tonight.

It was a lot better than I expected it to be. I think Gore will be just fine this weekend.

TomCat

01-27-2010, 08:09 AM

Good to hear that West survived in good shape and I certainly hope you're right about conditions this weekend. In the past 2-3 years I do think Gore has managed to recover from this type of event pretty well. My concern this time is the thin base and whether there is enough to groom it out.

tom

adksara

01-27-2010, 05:01 PM

Ok... Wednesday 1/27...

Dropped the little one off at the mom-in-laws in the a.m. and was in the gondola (ride to myself) at 11:30.

Wild Air had guns galore on it, a good thing too it has some seriously scary wash/ice areas. Closed.

So off the gondola, around Ruby Run to Twister. Both Ruby & the top of Cloud were well covered with that tower gun and another blasting the snot out of it. Any slick areas that I saw were easily skied around on good man-made/tilled stuff. Twister was GOOD!!! I was so happy skiing down. This isn't to say that there aren't a few scratchy areas, but the snow was nice and easily carved. I ran that twice off the gondola.

Showcase was crap. 'nough said.

Back to the gondola... (I ended up riding with one other guy only once, the rest of the day was all by myself on all chairs too!) Down Pine Knot... again same issue, what was skieable was very good and edgy and what was nasty ice was easy to see and go around.

Cloud up top has some ice chunks and rocks to get around, but I headed down to Open Pit and that was wicked edgy and good as well. Headwaters had a big, nasty ice/wash spot just before Lies, but otherwise was good.

I eyed Hawkeye from the lift and it looked ok... and it ended up being really, really ok... I looped it four times before trying Chateimac which was much more scruffy with icy patches. Once more down Hawkeye and I was done. Didn't try Lies as I was by myself and not feeling brave. But two tele guys with a reg. skier was looping it like I looped Hawkeye. Ask them :)

Oh and by the way... the trees up top... they're green... I don't like that... they should be white. But it was snowing and by the time I left the summit the trees were a slightly dusted green.

Down Tannery, which was wierd, my skies felt like they stuttered, slow and sticky then quick with a really nasty chunk right before you drop down to the triple. Topridge was closed with major tilling and cat tracks going up and down it.

Out and around Ruby, to Sunway and out... Sunway was well covered with guns going on a few spots. Quicksilver also had the tower guns blowing.

All in all, after that nasty weather that went through, each and every one person who is working those cats and guns deserves a wicked round of applause. It's holding.

See you Saturday! 8)

Harvey44

01-27-2010, 05:23 PM

Ok... Wednesday 1/27...

Dropped the little one off at the mom-in-laws in the a.m. and was in the gondola (ride to myself) at 11:30.

Wild Air had guns galore on it, a good thing too it has some seriously scary wash/ice areas. Closed.

So off the gondola, around Ruby Run to Twister. Both Ruby & the top of Cloud were well covered with that tower gun and another blasting the snot out of it. Any slick areas that I saw were easily skied around on good man-made/tilled stuff. Twister was GOOD!!! I was so happy skiing down. This isn't to say that there aren't a few scratchy areas, but the snow was nice and easily carved. I ran that twice off the gondola.

Showcase was crap. 'nough said.

Back to the gondola... (I ended up riding with one other guy only once, the rest of the day was all by myself on all chairs too!) Down Pine Knot... again same issue, what was skieable was very good and edgy and what was crappy ice was easy to see and go around.

Cloud up top has some ice chunks and rocks to get around, but I headed down to Open Pit and that was wicked edgy and good as well. Headwaters had a big, nasty ice/crap spot just before Lies, but otherwise was good.

I eyed Hawkeye from the lift and it looked ok... and was really, really ok... I looped it four times before trying Chateimac which was much more scruffy, icy patches and cat crap. Once more down Hawkeye and I was done. Didn't try Lies as I was by myself and not feeling brave. But two tele guys with a reg. skier was looping it like I looped Hawkeye. Ask them :)

Down Tannery, which was wierd, my skies felt like they stuttered, slow and sticky then quick with a really nasty chunk right before you drop down to the triple. Topridge was closed with major tilling and cat tracks going up and down it.

Out and around Ruby, to Sunway and out... Sunway was well covered with guns going on a few spots. Quicksilver also had the tower guns blowing.

All in all, after that nasty weather that went through. Each and every one person who is working those cats and guns deserves a wicked round of applause. It's holding.

See you Saturday! 8)

NOW THAT is a conditions report.

When you get down to it, that's why ski forums were created.

Cheeseburger, and I think a beer, for AdkSara!

adksara

01-27-2010, 08:25 PM

Cheeseburger, and I think a beer, for AdkSara!

... with pickles?

... meaning the cheeseburger, not the beer :D

Harvey44

01-28-2010, 05:32 PM

Yes of course pickles!

Anybody ski in the miniblizzard today?

Looked very cool on the radar.

Raymo40

01-28-2010, 06:17 PM

Was up to the mountin today, Got there at 11:30 and it was snowing, not hard but snow none the less. Booted up got on the gondi alone ,no lines. There blowing the hell out of wild air guns from top to bottom. First run down foxlair good snow maybe an inch of fresh on top of the hardpack. Took sunway down to warm up very nice. Quicksilver was closed cuz they were blowing snow as far down as I could see. Next up was ruby run to showcase . By the time I hit the saddle the wind and snow really picked up. You could not see 10 feet in front of you. Headed down twards showcace but to be honest I stayed by the tree line so i could tell were the hell I was going and I think I went down slighride,witch was good lots of fresh snow. You had to ski with your feet cuz you could not see were you were going. Kinda scarry. Out to showcase witch was the slickest trail of the day. Taht mini blizzard lasted maybe a half hour but it dropped maybe 2 inches. Pine knot was next. Blowing snow all the way down Sweet. Next up Hawkeye good carvable snow on the sides a little scrapped off down the middle. Hiked over to cloud next. Was the only one over there just me and the mountin took cloud to Open pit. Best run of the day, after the bizzard 3 to 4 inchs of fresh and almost untracked. Tannery was next as I want to try out the north side. So it was ruby run over to Sleeping bear. I wanted to take tahaus but it was closed. Sleeping Bear was also sweet good coverage. Man that north quad is slow, maybe it just felt that way cuz the wind was picking up and it was comming from the north.
You could see a stream going across the bottom of tahawus glade so that did not look to promising. I wanted to see how the trees might have held up after the rain but all the glades were closed. Because I was alone I did not go in to check them out. I did however go down the work road to the right of Sunway and found maybe 3 inchs of the fresh snow on top of the sheet of ice that was under it, and it was rockhard could not even dent it with my ski pole. All in all I had a great day. The fact that it was snowing helped the mountin out a lot. By the time I left a 4 the sky was blue but the wind was howling. dress warm if you going up tomorrow.

Raymo40

01-28-2010, 06:57 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJJ3ASODgZ4

Harvey44

01-28-2010, 09:21 PM

Great report Ray.

This is my favorite part: :shock:

... I think I went down slighride ...

and also this:

You had to ski with your feet ...

Makes it sound like it might be worth the drive this weekend.

I actually like skiing in intense snow. Not sure why. I guess I just like snow.

The pic of the day on the website showed the dumpage pretty nicely.

Jeff

01-28-2010, 09:43 PM

Hope someone who is at the mountain tomorrow (Fri) can get a conditions report posted in the evening so we can find out what happened to the snow: did yesterday's snow (and the week's worth of snowmaking) all end up in Baker's Mills after tonight's wind?

Danzilla

01-28-2010, 11:12 PM

Hoping to get a few hours in tomorrow afternoon - depending on what time the DSL installer arrives. Assuming I get broadband AND make it to the mountain I will try to post something.

Looks like it is going to be COLD.

Harvey44

01-28-2010, 11:44 PM

Hoping to get a few hours in tomorrow afternoon - depending on what time the DSL installer arrives. Assuming I get broadband AND make it to the mountain I will try to post something.

Not to drift this thread Danno ... but it's a legitimate concern. When I had DSL put in at HRHQ the guy COMPLETELY blew off the proverbial "4 hour window." I drove from NJ to make that appointment and the guy never showed at all. I did ski so it wasn't exactly a total waste. I scheduled my window AFTER skiing just to make sure I got some turns in. :D

If they do hose you ... I got Frontier to give me a month of phone and internet for free (88 bucks) as compensation. Just sayin.

FYI Love having internet up at the cabin... come back from skiin... stoke the fire ... crack a Heineken... and post some pics. 8)

Congrats on the upgrade.

TomCat

01-29-2010, 08:28 AM

Frontier was offering DSL for $20.00/month for the first year. Got a call from them about 2 weeks ago.

tom

Danzilla

01-29-2010, 04:18 PM

Thanks Harv and Tom. The DSL guys actually came earlier than expected. They were running a 20.10 in 2010 special. We also got hooked up with Dish Network for around $25 a month. We were paying $48 for digital cable alone so it was almost a no brainer. Hoping to be able to "work from home" every once and a while:)

Didn't make it to the mountain today - satellite guy was here until almost 3 hooking it up. Heard it was cold, hard and windy. No details on trails other than pine knot was icy. I suspect the source is a bit of a softie.

One way or the other we'll be out there. Hopefully it is decent. Is this 3 years in a row with a mid January warm up / r**n? I seem to remember it was a week earlier last year followed by super cold / hard conditions. Same the year before.

Harvey44

01-29-2010, 05:52 PM

The only (second hand) report I got from today was that Mr Steilhang (Lower) was sweet in the morning, but blown off and tough sledding in the afternoon. Will be open with a "gate" tomorrow. Enter with caution.

* * *

One of the Mods on FTO (First Tracks Online) is a nutcase named Tony Crocker. I say that with affection - one nutcase to another. He is a fanatical skier and a statistician by trade. He has a visually boring, but very accurate and detailed website called bestsnow.net. For some reason the URL is:

http://webpages.charter.net/tcrocker818/

It's got detailed records of snowfall at most areas of the country for at least 10 years, and snow quality ratings for all the weekends going back quite a while. I told you he was a nut.

In any case he recently told me that SEVEN of the last EIGHT years had a significant r**n event in the east over Christmas week in the Northeast. I couldn't believe it was true. But he had the numbers to back it up.

I do remember the year it didn't .... I skied nine days in a row and it dumped on New Years Day, and was killer. It was 07/08 (http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2008/08/gore-mtn-ny-122807-1508.html).

jmokes

01-30-2010, 05:57 PM

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.

goreviper

01-30-2010, 06:58 PM

:(
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??

goreviper

01-30-2010, 07:32 PM

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.

Frostillicus

01-30-2010, 07:45 PM

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.

Jeff

01-30-2010, 10:53 PM

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. :roll:

http://saratogaskier.blogspot.com/2010/01/gore-mountain-01302010.html

01-31-2010, 06:49 PM

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.

SIAWOL

02-01-2010, 07:28 AM

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?

TomCat

02-01-2010, 09:16 AM

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

Danzilla

02-01-2010, 12:40 PM

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.

Harvey44

02-01-2010, 01:59 PM

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?

Danzilla

02-01-2010, 02:38 PM

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:).

adksara

02-05-2010, 09:04 PM

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.

Harvey44

02-06-2010, 09:43 PM

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.

fujative.

02-08-2010, 12:06 AM

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.

SIAWOL

02-08-2010, 07:16 AM

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. :roll: This ain't Utah!

Frostillicus

02-08-2010, 11:17 AM

Sat 2/6- Got out early. Sunny and chilly. Did Top Ridge first and it was not good. Then Uncas to the SB Quad. Hawkeye was great with all the new manmade. Lapped that a bit. Got a rare run on Chati with some nice corduroy. Lies was pretty bad, ungroomed ice and hardpack bumps. OP was ok, the lower half was better. Got some OP>Lower Darby runs with some patrollers. Skied that until I was straightlining out of the bottom and managed to double-eject after burying my tips in a gully at the bottom. That one hurt. :oops: The conditions overall were MUCH improved from week ago.

Sun 2/7- Sunny again, but the summit was wrapped in a misty cloud. Where it was windy it was COLD. Lies got groomed overnight and was good. Hawkeye was still fun (snowmaking whales and some soft stuff). Hullabaloo was a lot of fun. They blew a lot of snow on the headwall making it higher and steeper. It was almost inverted in some spots. I was not impressed with the lower mountain. Any snow either got skied off or blown off. Overall it was a good day.

mattchuck2

02-09-2010, 09:59 PM

Harvey44

02-09-2010, 10:11 PM

Sagamore sure looked and sounded great last weekend.

I haven't really been paying attention to what they've been blowing on this week. Uncas and Fairview, what else?

Would totally appreciate any reports from today or tomorrow.

Probably coming up no matter what, but still curious about what's going on.

If was solo I think I'd head north, really far north. My buddy James is up in Canada and lovin it. Gore type vibe, NoVT type snow:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/02/mont-sutton-qc-2810.html

but looks like this weekend is for lessons, family and friends.

Who else is skiing this weekend?

Danzilla

02-09-2010, 11:13 PM

Hey Harv. We are headed to WF for the weekend. Our place is rented for Pres. Day. I am going to miss Sagamore, but hoping for some good conditions up there. I love riding from the summit to the base. Wilmington trail seems to be in much better shape than it was at New Years. From the posts on the WF side conditions overall seem to be pretty good.

Maybe we'll get lucky and get some snow this week. We are signed up for the First Tracks program on Saturday morning. Will try to post a TR on the WF side at some point over the weekend.

Enjoy everyone!

fujative.

02-10-2010, 06:07 PM

I am going to miss Sagamore,
They Grommed it :evil: :evil:

I headed over before my run at my race Tuesday to see it completely flat. Such a disappointment. Right when I thought we were going to have a designated bump run, they flatten it out. Boo.

Raymo40

02-10-2010, 08:19 PM

I can't believe they groomed Sag. :( I loved skiing those bumps last Sunday.

Spongeworthy

02-10-2010, 08:56 PM

I wish they would leave it be. The bumps and the lines are beautiful and it's really the only thing the bump skiers have. There are plenty of cruisers for the bump-impaired :P

I did it as soon as it opened last Saturday morning (2 runs) -- very weird, but fun. The new man made whales were nice, but really grabbed your skis. By the afternoon (3 runs), after it was skied on, the bumps were perfect.

What would happen if they didn't flatten it every once in a while? Would the bumps become rock hard? I didn't ski it Sunday (left to get home to a Super Bowl party). Were they rock hard on Sunday?

Harvey44

02-10-2010, 09:06 PM

Without really knowing what's going on ... how hard the bumps were, how much base is really there, what the plan is ... seems too bad.

We're coming up, and even though ma nature has overlooked us so far this season, I have to say I was thinking ... mmm Sagamore bumps mmm.

If there is a decent base there, and they leave it, maybe those bumps will be sweet by the weekend?

We skied Belleayre on Jan 31 (http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/01/belleayre-mtn-ny-13110.html). One thing that I thought was unusual and kinda cool. After the big ugly two Mondays ago - Bell chose to concentrate their full snowmaking firepower on the bump runs. No grooming on those runs just 3-4 days of new manmade on top.

I was surprised actually, because they did it at the expense of all their green and blue cruisers. The mountain was pretty so-so except for those bump runs which were primo.

* * *

I've got a lot of people PM'ing me about conditions at Gore vs WF right now. I'm not much help because I haven't been to the Adks in two weeks. Anybody ski both recently, or know anybody who did?

fujative.

02-10-2010, 09:39 PM

Spongeworthy

02-10-2010, 10:08 PM

My friend said he was skiing at Jiminy a while back and they blew a whole bunch of snow, then put bamboo stick or gates in the middle of the trail rhythmically and to make everyone turn around them and they became perfect bumps. Bump runs at Gore tend to not have so much rhythm, I think this would be an awesome way to make some perfect bumps. Might be a good idea for the Bump Comp instead of making them with a groomer...Sounds like a GREAT idea. Good rhythmic skiers make good bumps. Over-matched panicky skiers make disjointed troughs -- they don't ski, they scrape and slide.

Ever see a good continuous bump line down Lies, The Rumor or Lower Steilhang? Me neither :x

fujative.

02-10-2010, 10:14 PM

Sounds like a GREAT idea. Good rhythmic skiers make good bumps. Over-matched panicky skiers make disjointed troughs -- they don't ski, they scrape and slide.

Ever see a good continuous bump line down Lies, The Rumor or Lower Steilhang? Me neither :x

Exactly. If Gore was ever to have a designated bump run or two (*cough* like maybe skier left of lower Hawkeye while leaving a cat pass or two for the less experienced who want to bail *cough*) that would be a great way to set everything up and keep some rhythm. It would take a LOT of bamboo/gates to run the entire lower half of hawkeye, though.

Hoser

02-11-2010, 11:23 AM

Skied Gore Sat, Sun, and Mon. By Sunday noon, the mountian was boilerplate except for Echo. By Mon, the entire mountain was boilerplate, due to two days of wind.

Yes, Sags was rockhard bumps. Great job with the coverage especially after the end of Jan weather issues, but not being strong in the bumps, they ate me up!

Frostillicus

02-11-2010, 11:57 AM

Harvey44

02-11-2010, 12:06 PM

... Sags was rockhard bumps..

In that case, the timing on the groom out sounds good to me.

Thanks for the report Hoser.

My sense is that the summit will be a priority in the upcoming period.

Jeff

02-11-2010, 12:51 PM

Once groomed, the bumps won't re-form without soft snow, either from snowmaking or from the sky. At least not good bumps like what we had. IMO, they should really refrain from grooming Sag out unless it gets absolutely terrible. I suspect that it wasn't yet to that point when it got groomed. IMO a light re-blowing of the trail would have been preferable. I beleive that's what Killington does on Outer Limits and Sugarbush on Stein's: they freshen up the snow rather than mow the sucker down. :cry:

There should certainly be more bumped terrain on the mountain - the idea above for lower hawkeye would be a great start and there are other areas of the mtn as well.

Harvey44

02-11-2010, 02:31 PM

If we had a moderator, we could get all of this input moved over here:

The Gore Mtn Bump Thread (http://forums.skiadk.com/viewtopic.php?t=2466&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15)

What Jeff said about needing new snow for good bumps ... makes total sense, I just never thought it through.

I'm sure the CREWS know it. Maybe then we can infer that Sagamore won't be getting new snow for .... a while, at least.

While Rumor is obviously signature, and important for a lot of reasons, ski related and marketing ... Sagamore is of more use to me personally.

I can lap it all day, and Mrs H can ride Echo. There is less skating involved. And the gentler pitch puts the bumps more in my range. Only on rare occasion ... like pow days ... do I look smooth on the Rumor headwall.

Can't put my finger on exactly why I like Sagamore so much, but I do.

Frostillicus

02-11-2010, 04:54 PM

jimmer

02-11-2010, 08:13 PM

im with u j,i havnt put a ski on rumor yet this year,and too me thats the only trail worth a hoot,,,i cant even believe that sagamore is a black diamond,its long thats about it,,

rossi

02-13-2010, 07:01 PM

2/13.
hard and fast for the most part. started out the day skiing wildair which was nice and edgeable. went back up the gondi and saw someone on rumor. booked it down pineknot which was very fast and not so edgeable. haha. got up there and it was just patrol going down to put lollypops up. skied a run on hawkeye which was still bumped. upper half i couldnt really find a decent run thru the bumps (which were all getting pretty solid), but lower half skiers left there was a nice line down thru. got back on the straightbrooke and went over the goat path as the rope dropped for rumor. got down as fast as possible and was prolly in the first dozen to go down. INCREDIBLE!! is all i have to say. skiers left had some of the softest and nicest man made snow i have ever skied on. went right back up to hit it again and some decent bumpes started forming. blowing snow top of goat path down to the bottom for most of the day btw. so skied skiers left again where some smaller bumps were but still reallly soft snow. went for a third time before going to warm up. then went and checked out hullaboloo (sp?) and that was sketchy. headwall was steep and basically a sheet of ice but once you got past that it wasnt horrible. still ungroomed and softer snow near the trees. went and skied open pit which also had guns top to bottom, guns started getting pretty wet which was a dissapointment but the trail still skied very nicely with small, soft bumps that you could blow thru, but most of the trail didnt get as bumped as i would have thought. after that just skied some groomers which got very icey at the end of the day. lots of accidents i heard today so stay safe if you are skiing this week.

trails with guns: rumor, open pit, lower steilhang, and possibly a gun or 2 on upper steilhang. other than that i didnt see much....then again i wasnt looking hard so to say. haha

and on another side note i got accepted to university of maine in farmington. just thought id share. haha

Snowballs

02-13-2010, 08:33 PM

Cool. I suggest the lobsta.

Maine Blueberries really rock too. Somehow, they're somewhat different.....better.

Harvey44

02-13-2010, 09:32 PM

Doubles on everything Rossi said.

If you don't mind lapping the same trail over and over (I don't) today was really nice. I think I did 12 laps on Rumor. I'd maybe done Rumor 12 laps my entire life before today.

Snow on Open Pit was basically just as good, but when it's that soft, why not go as steep as possible.

Lower Steilhang never opened. The plan was for an afternoon opening, but I talked to one of the crew and he said it just wasn't ready. Tomorrow.

IMO Hullabaloo should have at least had a warning - skull and crossbones or something. I personally have no shame in sitting down on my butt and sliding down something like that headwall, but the girl I came across there was crying. We had a little moment there.

Interesting about Rumor ... still no guns on the headwall. I know they are being cautious, and what do I know about snowmaking (nada) but you'd think with the firepower they had going below, the bottom could support some weight on the top. I know they WANT to get it open, but I don't think they've made the call on it.

Matt - was GREAT to ski with you. That little traverse you invented on the bottom of the Rumor headwall got popular. As an extension of the cattrack we named it the Matttrack. Til they lollipop'd it off. Then it was crash and burn.

My pics from today here:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mtn-ny-21310.html

rossi

02-13-2010, 09:41 PM

i just straightlined skiers left of hullabaloo then cut it all the way over to skiers right scrubbed some speed and i was good but that headwall was deff scary. haha. there were a few ppl before us and one after that really werent ready for that headwall. they should really fill that in somehow (if its possible). maybe push the 2 whales up top down and then run it over with a cat?? haha, im with you harv, i dont know a lot about snow making. haha

Frostillicus

02-14-2010, 05:48 PM

Skied Stowe on Saturday & Pico today. The snow at both mountains was great, all things considered. Stowe has gotten a little more natural than Gore. I don't think Pico has so I was shocked at how nice the snow was. Upper Pike skied close to the best I've ever had it. ROTD at Stowe was Liftline. I'll probably hit Gore one day mid-week.

Raymo40

02-14-2010, 07:50 PM

Rumor,Rumor, Rumor. :D

Harvey44

02-14-2010, 07:59 PM

I thought today was killer. IMO better than yesterday.

Rumor and Open Pit were still really good. Not over top like yesterday, but really good in this lean year.

Open Pit more in the morning. Rumor all day, skiers left.

A funky think happened in the afternoon, on the Dark Side, and maybe other places. Things got really great.

Groomed run of the day might have been Lower Darby. Lower Steilhang was really good.

Skied two days bell to bell, and haven't done Topridge or anything on Burnt.

Pics from today here:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mtn-ny-21410.html

I've got a ton more pics. Probably took 100 today. May post more later.

Jeff

02-15-2010, 12:03 PM

Lots of good skiing at the summit yesterday: Rumor, Lower Stiel, Open Pit, Lower Darby, even Chati skied well. The powder bumps on Rumor gave me some of my best runs of the season. And there was enough natural and manmade blow-in that even the last 100 yards or so of the SB glades of Chati actually skied pretty nicely. Hey, there was no rope there so it's fair game :wink: ! Hope we can squeeze enough out of tomorrow's storm and later in the week to get some of the glades back for next weekend. It was great skiing with you yesterday Harv!

Jeff

02-15-2010, 12:07 PM

A funky think happened in the afternoon, on the Dark Side, and maybe other places. Things got really great.

I never rode the gondi or the Topridge triple even once yesterday. "Funky thinks" can happen on a day like that.

Harvey44

02-15-2010, 11:49 PM

Skied half a day today. Conditions definitely weren't what they were yesterday.

Overnight wind may have had something to do with it. I was actually amazed at the lack of wind on the hill today after the racket last night.

More like what you'd expect with only 60 inches of snow. Good stuff here and there. Hard in the middle, soft on the edges. Rumor still really good. Twister and Sunway were soft. First tracks on Chatiemac were nice with an inch of new snow on top.

Had a lot of fun though.

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mtn-ny-21510.html

TomCat

02-17-2010, 09:52 AM

Skied Saturday PM through Tuesday AM. Overall a nice long weekend. Crowds were very light Tuesday (significantly less than a normal weekend). Don't stay away simply to avoid the crowds during the holiday period.

I was having trouble on some ungroomed runs where my edges would bite in so hard that I was unable to skid to complete my turns. I'm sure this is mostly due to my lack of skill, but it's not something I experience very often. Echo was fantastic on Sunday and Saganmore matched it Monday. Even my wife enjoyed lapping Sagamore and she usually likes to avoid the black diamonds. You can really get a lot of skiing in with that quad. I usually like to ski Hullaboo, but was intimidated by what I could see as well as my edge problem. Sounds like I made the right call.

Finished up with some Nastar runs with the family Tuesday. The gatekeeper, I think it was Randy Smith, couldn't have been nicer. He was very encouraging and gave both my kids some good pointers to improve their times. They haven't done a Nastar course in years, but had a blast on Tuesday.

I didn't notice any snowmaking Sunday or Monday, but they were turning on some guns on Tuesday.

tom

Jeff

02-17-2010, 01:08 PM

Sag was groomed?

Snowballs

02-17-2010, 01:27 PM

Sag was groomed?

Yep, Sags was groomed. That's a great trail. Can't wait till it has " good " snow on it and we can bomb it. Sure would be sweet if they could make snow on it's lift line and leave the lift lines moguled. That would rock. Perhaps that would draw more people over to BR. As it is now, it's very under used.

I've noticed when it's all moguls, people only make a couple runs then split. Not very efficient use of new terrain. There's enough room over there for moguls and groomed.

Why is it Gore can't leave moguls on the sides of various trails (like other resorts do) and then if they get too concrete, groom them and let some grow again elsewhere. Moguls sure seem to be popular on this board.

SnowSnake

02-17-2010, 03:56 PM

Great comment about the moguls. I have always wondered why Gore didn't leave more moguls, I would be very interested to hear why.

Frostillicus

02-17-2010, 04:52 PM

Went up this morning for a few hours. Damp, Chilly, Flat Light. The storm completely missed Gore (again). They got MAYBE a 1/2". Skied Lies right off the bat, then Hawkeye. Both were pretty good. Hit the Rumor next. The entrance from the end of the Goat Path was super sketchy and about 4 people fell at various stages of dropping in right before me. Skiers right still had some soft snow. The bumps were huge and irregular, but fun. Top Ridge and Darby were both just OK. The lower mountain was skied off and crowded. Upper mountain was almost empty. At one point someone had skied off the Hawkeye headwall straight into the trees. Ski Patrol was pulling them out on a backboard. Hope they're OK. It snowed pretty hard at the summit starting around noon and continued until I left. All the trails I had skied earlier improved immensely with just a little snow. That's about it.

rossi

02-18-2010, 07:28 PM

2/18. first off i was on racetigers all day which translates into me having a sharp edge. haha. first run was down fairview to the park. farview was ungroomed, bumped, and hard. very slick between a few bumps, others not as bad. i found the best line all the way skiers right. going through wild air the trail was decently groomed and edgeable. few slick spots but nothing really worth complaining about. went over to BR to ski sagamore which SUCKED. haha. alteast i thought it did. i dont think they groomed it from yestarday or something but it was really slick in more than a few spots. so didnt ski that again, went over to echo to get back over to the gondi. cant tell you how echo was cuz we did a nice chinese DH. i can tell you it was fast, but thats about it. next we hit topridge which i thought was one of my favorite runs. nobody on the trail so just put your skis on edge and let em fly. every other roller or so scrub some speed and keep going. nice big long GS turns all the way down. only bad section in that was about a 150ft stretch of death cookies but they were small, just kinda made your skis rattle. did that twice. next we went up top and hit hawkeye which was kinda the same as topridge, just with more ppl. hard and fast but edgeable. went and hit the darkside, skied lower steilhang which was iffy. the headwall needed some effort to get thru without hitting rocks or ice that would send you into rocks. after that went down, went to stewarts cuz its cheaper than gore, booked it back over hoping our parking spot was still there, which of course it wasnt so we just made our own. after lunch went up and skied twister which was the best run of the day. skied that maybe 6 or so times throughout the day and it never seemed to change. nice big sweeping turns all the way down. only spot you had to watch for was where the twister and showcase are close, right about 2b or 2a or whatever that trail is that brings you from twister to showcase. but that turn got scrapped off by mid day. ended the day with a run down sunway which was scrapped other than skiers right. but i was expecting it, its just fun to finish a day on the longest run. as far as crowds go id rate it a 5/10 on the suck-o meter. was really quite up top, and dead on the darkside. a few runs where there just seemed to be a bus load of ppl skiing down and lift lines werent bad at all. back at it again tomorrow!

oooh and suprisingly, the woods werent to bad....if you know where to go :wink:

Jeff

02-20-2010, 07:05 AM

Blowing yesterday (Fri) on Rumor headwall :) . Snowmaking on Chati and Twister all day too.
Good snow on summit if you poke around for it a bit.
Gondi on windhold till about 10am. Rode the triple a few times until then, wicked wind in the face riding the final half dozen poles or so.
More, plus a pic or two, here:

http://saratogaskier.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mountain-02192010.html

rossi

02-20-2010, 05:02 PM

2/20. started by lapping rumor 5 or so times. blowing basically top to bottom, maybe 3 guns on the headwall, and 4 or 5 from the goat path down. first run on rumor traversed all the way to skiers left from the goat path and was just standing there surveying the land. haha. 2 snowmakers were adjusting guns above me when i heard on of them yell. i turn around to see a pretty decent slide going right now the center of the trail. luckily no one was in the way. prolly slid a good 150ft. the bumps were a little filled in compared to the other day which made skiing it much more enjoyable. really nice line going through skiers left. and an even better line through the woods skiers left...just watch out for hoses. last gun or 2 started getting a little wet towards midday but nothing that really hurt the conditions, just had to white your goggles. hit lies 2 or 3 times, also very good. ski that early if you can cuz its gets skied off quick. skiers left in the woods was really fun, pretty much the only reason we kept going back was for those few turns. we went and skied hulabaloo which was groomed. another good run, nice and fast. lower mountain wise just a run on twister i think and that was it. twister was the same as it has been all week which was groomed and fast. but anytime the sun comes out the snow softens up A LOT on twister. it was actually kind of weird. today again had very little crowds, my suck-o meter was reading about a 2/10 for crowds. stoke meter was about a 7.5/10 on conditions. snow gun count goes as follows. chati: 3 guns. rumor: 8ish. and thats all i believe i noticed. didnt ski everywhere so ther emight have been a few scattered on the lower mountain.

Harvey44

02-20-2010, 05:20 PM

Rossi ... thanks for the report. Man I wish I could have gotten up this weekend.

Would love to get a detailed description of how the suck-o-meter and the stoke-o-meter work. Is 2 on the suck-o-meter good or bad?

Very glad there were not lasting serious consequences with the headwall incident. Hopefully she'll settle in and be stable.

Should be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.

rossi

02-20-2010, 06:07 PM

haha. suck-o meter works as follows. 10/10 very bad crowds, kids going nuts, parents not watching kids, parents watching kids and not themselves, and just general chaos on the mountain. where as a 1/10 means crowds are very thin, everyone is in control and bascailly a nice relaxing day on the hill without worrying about getting drilled by an out of control skier. so to answer your question a 2 is "good" on the suck-o meter. then everything inbetween is pretty self explainatory. id say a 5/10 is gunna be your average weekend. where most holiday weeks would be pushing 8/10. but this week has really been suprisingly quite.

stoke-o meter works as follows. 10/10 incredibly good conditions. simply put. haha. and a 1/10. very sucky conditions. everything inbetween is again pretty self explainatory. 5/10 would prolly be along the lines of icey spots on trails. but overall edgeable. something along those lines.

the headawll should start to settle down once it freezes thaws and then refreezes. but from what ive seen its better letting go pretty regularly, but that was a pretty big slab today that took off. if i remember ill try and bring a camera and snag some pics tomorrow.

Snowballs

02-20-2010, 07:13 PM

Today's slide is no surprise. People were discussing that possiblity on FB yesterday.

It's warmish here lately. Hope dey ain't blowing that Headwall wet.

I recall the last Avy Rumor had. HUGE chunks of snow reached the bottom. Not a good thing to get caught in.

rossi

02-21-2010, 07:47 PM

2/21. alright, started off with pinebrooke glades (closed) almost got cought on the out. trail itself wasnt terrible but there were a few spots under the new snow from last night (maybe 2'' or so) that were skied off a lot. but over all not horrible. headed up the straightbrooke and was really suprised to see how covered the headwall of rumor was covered. got up and saw some "old" friends, hahaha. talked with them for a bit waiting for them to drop the rope on rumor. ski patrol said take another run and it should be good to go from the top. we all went over to lies which again was very very nice. the closer to the woods you were the better it got. edgable all the way down. went back up the straightbrooke and figured they still wouldnt have it open in time so went and skied hawkeye to chati. hawkeye was about the same as lies, stayed by the trees and the snow was very nice but you could still carve nicely in the middle. chati lower half had some bumps on it that suprised me. and not bumps with rythem, just the random bumps that cought me off guard while charging through. ha. hit the straightbrooke back up, and just as we crossed hawkeye i saw a someone standing ontop of the headwall with patrol next to them. i figured it was someone who had a connection and then about 6 or so more ppl came up next to them, so i knew they opened it. got up there and didnt wait for wave of people who were going in. dropped in skiers left and all i can say is WOW. some of the runs i had were boot deep, granted man made is not the fluffiest stuff but still enjoyable. got about 4 or 5 nice turns in before you passed the new stuff but still a nice bumpline skiers left, didnt chance since yestarday so im not gunna talk about it. haha. but the headwall was very very nice. a few cliffs and drops that didnt get filled. but overall you could get down pretty easily. so lapped that maybe 6 times before 1030. went down to the base becuase i couldnt feel my legs. took a break and and left the lodge at about 1130ish. went right back up to rumor, added another 4 runs under my belt. the headawll was starting to loose snow, some bare spots started showing up but nothing to bad, mainly grass and dirt. then headed over to the darkside, skied some woods which werent bad at all depending on where you went. hulabaloo was nice as well. went and took a run on echo which was fast, you could really make some nice big gs turns all the way down. then the rest of the afternoon from 2-4 i just took crusiers on the lower mountain. fairview was a very slick, but thats no suprise. twister has been the same all week, but it was getting skied off quick in the afternoon. sunway is always fun, dont think i hit ice even if i looked for it on that trail. couple runs through the park but it was getting pretty crazy. lots of people were skiing through. and i think that was my day. crowds again very thin. suck-o meter comes in at a 2/10. conditions i thought were superb. stoke-o meter ill put at a solid 8/10. and as promised some pics....but after 2 runs, batteries died. haha. so not many. also all pics were taken after 1pm so conditions were a tad skied.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/bushwacker99/047.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/bushwacker99/049.jpg
no that is not me in that picture. haha

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/bushwacker99/050.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/bushwacker99/052.jpg

then my battery died unfortunatly.

and if i spent the time writing this on my hw, i may have been done by now

Jeff

02-24-2010, 07:13 AM

I know, all anyone can think about right now is this mega-storm, but 6 of us skied the mtn on Monday with beautiful bluebird skies and softening snow 8) .
Couple pics here:

http://saratogaskier.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mountain-022210.html

Raymo40

02-24-2010, 05:25 PM

Come on somebody had to hit it today. Spill the beans. How was it. I was up at Whiteface on vacation. So glad I picked this week. At least a foot at the base. Powder all day, never stopped snowing. Ducked 1 rope :wink: and had snow up to my knees. Sweet.

Harvey44

02-24-2010, 05:32 PM

My heart fluttered for sure when this little email popped up.

Sounds like Face was sweet.

Come on somebody post it up!

fujative.

02-24-2010, 09:10 PM

My ladyfriend was up there today with her family. All I really got was lot's of wet and heavy snow.

Snowballs

02-24-2010, 09:23 PM

I'll find out tomorrow.....I'm really curious how it will ski. Very wet and " solid ", hard like, instantly-packed-type snow. Can't imagine the skis pushing this snow around. More like vice versa. Time to Carve?

Should make a super base for the woods though and prolly keep the Squirrels happy well into spring. :D

Snowballs

02-25-2010, 08:53 AM

Rats. Non crystalized.......

We just can't buy a break. It's that bad JuJu stuff again.

SnowSnake

02-25-2010, 09:40 AM

Even at the top? This storm was setting up like elevation could play a huge roll in the snow totals. I was hoping that top would stay all snow. Can anyone verify what's going on up there? Gore's website is absolutely the worst in the business for timely and accurate updates.

Frostillicus

02-25-2010, 11:07 AM

I heard (not from the janitor) that the snow was like "snowman snow". Very pack-able and wet. It would set up a lot of "rollers" when skied. It'll fill in all those nooks and crannies in the woods nicely and help with Spring Skiing.

Danzilla

02-25-2010, 11:20 AM

The NCP may not be all that bad. This sounds like heavy base maker stuff.

With the "snowicane" building it may be good that this stuff is nice and heavy. Should make for a good march.

Lbtchnlgs

02-25-2010, 02:26 PM

it was wet. even up top. low clouds, low vis. still decent in the trees. go break up the crust

Harvey44

02-26-2010, 06:17 PM

Finally a real report from Gore. Texted by Zach in the last few mins:

"Top is awesome! Best skiing in a few years. Bottom is dicy."

adksara

02-27-2010, 07:58 PM

Top fabulous.
Middle mostly good.
Bottom sticky.

Ok, being serious now... Harvey would take away my cheeseburger & beer if I didn't write a good report.

Got the little one to my parent's early (she's a good baby - up and ready to go on ski days!) Loaded Dad & his skis in the car and headed up by 7:34 a.m. Not a good sign when rounding the last corner on the access road and cars are lined up. But what do you expect when the parking guys have to talk to every stinkin' car about paid parking/drop off or direct people to spaces. Parked in E - grabbed a shuttle & got to the lodge.

Triple to Sunway, 3B - nice for warm up.
Showcase to Lower Sleighride to Wild Air - Lower Sleighride was smooth to carve with very little traffic.
Rope was dropped on the Northside just as we got off the triple so down Sleeping Bear - SO nice, smooth, carveable, REAL SNOW!!! Chair stopped often on the way up though.
Wood in to the Summit double (even tucking couldn't carry any speed for any distance, the snow was just too soft & wet.)
There was a CROWD at the double, nuts... but worth it on the summit.
Open Pit - fantastic snow, tricky light.
Chateimac - same thing.
Hawkeye was crowded - with spastic skiers... at least they seemed spastic from the lift.
Down to the Topridge triple and down Foxlair to the base for lunch.
Up the triple after lunch - down Tawhaus - such nice snow & such a great little trail.
Down Pipeline to Eagle's Nest to BR quad - I got my work out on Pipeline and probably qualified for the next Olympics in XC skiing & Eagle's Nest was really sticky/wet snow.
Down Echo & home. The cloud cover had dropped so much it was getting really hard to see, Dad was getting tired & I missed the little one.

I enjoyed the real snow so much today though... can't wait to get back up there - maybe Tuesday :lol:

ka2kci

02-27-2010, 09:29 PM

I originally posted this comment under the wrong thread. Today was EPIC. It snowed hard all day at the higher elevations. The woods are good.....as long as you aren't the one breaking trail. Stick to the more traveled routes and you will be fine. Just a note about the Sagamore and Cirque Glades....I was in there today and they suck!!! Don't waste your time with them. The lower elevations did get some rain and the surface is very sticky and nearly unskiable in the woods. Once you get to the higher glades, you are OK. I've noticed a huge difference between the upper mountain glades and the Burnt Ridge Glades over time. We either need more snow (powder) or some heavy traffic to make the Burnt Ridge Glades skiable. The rest of the mountian skied great today. Highlights were the Kill Kare Glades, the Cave, and The Tahawus Glades. Upper Darby is all rock and ice.....DO NOT Ski it. Upper Rumor was closed for unknown reasons. It was still puking snow when I left there at 4:30 today. Get it before its gone!!!!! Matt

rossi

02-27-2010, 10:54 PM

ight ill make this one short cuz im falling asleep. i skied.....and it was.....

lies: bumped but good.
Rumor: headwall closed, 2"crust layer on headwall, lower half was broken up.
upper darby: okay. bumps were solid and not forgiving
darby woods:good
adam 12: best run of the day
upper middle lower newts: all good
new thing: good
tahawus (sp?) glades: second best run of the day
BBA: i swear that trail gets shorter everytime i ski it, but very good conditions
lower mountain in general: really weird snow. edgeable but was just odd, atleast i was getting that feeling. also the frozen rain mix with snowflakes hurt. haha
BR in general: sucked
ummmm thats all i can think of now. back at it tomorrow

good night!!

Raymo40

02-28-2010, 07:18 PM

Today was a blast. Arrived at the mountain at 10:30 and had to park down at the pulloff at the turn in the road. The place was packed. Booted up and out to the gondi. First up was High Pines. never seen so much snow on it. Next up, Pinebrook glades not a barespot to be seen. SWEET. Up the summit quad and to the newtons. Also Sweet. The double to darkside trees. More nice snow. Back up the double in the sunshine to Lies. the left side still had good snow and a nice bump line. Down Tannery, up the triple and over to Fairview, which instead of the usual ice wall was now a big mogel field. Quite a sight to watch pepole go down it. :D Went over to Tahawas to the glade entrance, nice natural snow. Tahawus glade was also in great shape. I hate that quad chair, I swear it had to stop15 times. There were a lot of small kids over there though. Down sunway, no skating ring at the saddle. Followed a few kids down the work road next to Sunway, and that was even sweet. Cold beer in the bar, were seats were open :o. Back out to try twister glade the most skied off of all the ones we hit today, but still nice. Love having the trees back. Great Day.GO GET IT WHILE IT'S GOOD. Glad I skied Whiteface 4 day last week, so my legs held up well.

I also love the 1$ sliders and dogs at the food court .

rossi

02-28-2010, 08:03 PM

alright another quick report. arrived at the mountain 7:45am left at 4:45pm

first run was killkare. lets just say it put a nice big smile on my face.
next 4 runs all on straightbrooke glads. 3 of those 4 runs i had first tracks down knee deep powder for about 400ft. claim.
darkside glades were incredibly good as well. prolly best conditions ive skied those in.
twister glades early were incredible! later on no so much.
went and did circus glades as i heard one lady calling them. it made me chuckle. anyways top half was soft, by the time we got to the second half it was like spring skiing in the woods. really heavy snow and really tiring. went back up and skied tahawus (i cant spell that to save my life) glades and that had some really nice snow in it. went back over to the darkside. skied mineshaft. again very good conditions skiers right on that trail i think has the best line all the way down through. went up and skied adam 12. just as yestarday very good snow. but, WAY TO MANY PEOPLE ARE GOING IN THERE NOW. and a story later on about that. headed back up skied big valley. again very little tracks through there. back up top and skied cleavage, found some really nice lines through there. went back up tyhe quad and check out rumor. crossed my tips about 4 times on the way down and fell all 4 times. but over all good. bumps were starting to get more and more packed down. went to TR3 took a quick park run. the entire lower mountain was like spring skiing conditions. really soft snow. ate some food. rested the legs, and then headed back out again. went up and skied to the darkside. hit mineshaft again, still very good conditions. went up the quad to ski adam 12 again and it was really tracked out. no bare spots but the bumps were getting really cut out so some of the impacts really jarred you. went up TR3 to twister glades. this was at 3 prolly and it was around the time the temp dropped below freezing again so all the snow started getting solid. so the glades werent really as good as they were before. also some nice big rocks started making there presence. for the last 2 runs took some nice fast cruisers on showcase. got in the lodge at about 3:45ish.

soooo for the adam 12 news....for those who dont knw where that is well too bad, but yea friend heard over the radio at around 2pm that a lone person was lost in the woods up there. either over the ridge or just lost somewhere. also a family of possibly 4 is also lost in there. same thing not really sure if they went over the ridge or just no idea where they are going. ealrier in the day 2 kids went over the ridge and skied all the way to rt 8.

EDIT: those sliders are deadly...like toxic, poisones, nasty, dont wanna experience it again. the hotdogs are good though. haha

fujative.

02-28-2010, 08:07 PM

Snow on the lower mountain was like cement. Fairview actually had some decent, small, rhythmical bumps on top. Lots of good snow to be found all over the top of the mountain. Lower mountain was still really good but a bit heavier, started to turn into corn around 1:30. Rumor had some awesome bumps and soft snow on it. Basically everything on the upper mountain had some bumps on them. A tree fell down the skiers left chute of Double Barrel so that was closed. Skiers right of it straight across to Straightbrook was really fun. Tahawas glades were about at the line between too heavy to ski before broken in and awesomeness.

Few cell phone pics I took:
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/0227101325.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/0227101325a.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/0228101146.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/0228101146a.jpg

On another note, a couple people went over the ridge in Highline today. I heard a few kids called their dad and had to get picked up on route 8, and they had DEC there along with patrol looking for someone else. They were still looking around 4:45 when I left.

Snowballs

02-28-2010, 08:54 PM

Going over that ridge, in really deep snow, to look for people has got to be all work, esp. after dark.

Harvey44

02-28-2010, 08:57 PM

fujative.

02-28-2010, 09:46 PM

Nice reports all around.

I'm amazed at the pics you can get out of a phone. Really sweet ones Fuje.

I hate hearing about people getting intro trouble over that way.

It bad for them, it's bad for patrol, it's bad for .... well I can't think of anyone it's good for.

Hope it turns out ok.

The phone pics were definitely better than I was expecting. Got a new phone for Christmas and it has an SD card in it to record pictures/video/whatever else to. It's a 2 megapixel camera, just pop the card into my computer when I get home and I'm good to go.

Yeah really not good for anyone. Last time this happened the mountain got real strict about the woods policy.

Definitely a lot of work. The patrollers were out there in snow shoes trying to follow his tracks/the fault line to pin point him. They were trying calling him too but there is no cell service on that side of the ridge.

I'm pretty sure the first patroller headed in had never been in there before, he started talking about how pretty it was back there. It gave me a good laugh while I was rolling up fences.

Jeff

03-02-2010, 11:05 PM

Obviously this weekend was hands down best-of-the-season. :D Spent the entire weekend in the trees: Saturday with the family, Sunday with ski pals. At times, especially on Saturday, visibility on the mountain was near zero, making the trees the perfect place to be.

Some photos and a write-up are posted here (Sunday):
http://saratogaskier.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mountain-02282010.html

and here (Saturday):
http://saratogaskier.blogspot.com/2010/02/gore-mountain-02272010.html

Lbtchnlgs

03-03-2010, 04:00 PM

http://s2.postimage.org/kBHni.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TskBHni)

http://s4.postimage.org/Oc4yA.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOc4yA)

http://s4.postimage.org/Oc72J.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOc72J)

http://s4.postimage.org/Oc9xS.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOc9xS)

http://s4.postimage.org/Occ20.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOcc20)

http://s4.postimage.org/Och1i.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOch1i)

http://s4.postimage.org/Ocjwr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOcjwr)

http://s4.postimage.org/Ocm0A.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVOcm0A)

Lbtchnlgs

03-03-2010, 04:02 PM

http://s1.postimage.org/kHhv9.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxkHhv9)

http://s1.postimage.org/kHoZA.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxkHoZA)

http://s1.postimage.org/kHrtJ.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxkHrtJ)

http://s1.postimage.org/kHwt0.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxkHwt0)

http://s1.postimage.org/kHyY9.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxkHyY9)

http://s1.postimage.org/kHDXr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxkHDXr)

GoofyRider

03-05-2010, 04:14 PM

today was really nice. got to summit around 10:30. messed around on lower steilhang until things softened up a bit more then rode lies several times as well as open pit, they were fantastic early spring like conditions..

quite a nice crowd on the base deck area for lunch. went to sagamore after lunch and that was some heavy spring snow over there that skiied great i thought. did that several times as well. also managed a showcase -> lower sleighride run and another showase run and both theses runs softened up real nice mid day.

double barrell is temporarily a single barrel as the skiers left barrel has a large pine tree down across the whole trail half way down. there are also now tons of new orange ski boundary tags on trees going all the way down chatiemac.

Spongeworthy

03-05-2010, 06:18 PM

there are also now tons of new orange ski boundary tags on trees going all the way down chatiemac.If that doesn't work, they're gonna put in electric fences next year :D

Harvey44

03-05-2010, 06:41 PM

Goofy ... from what you are saying ... at 10:30 things still hadn't softened up top?

Anybody else ride today with input on what constituted prime time?

EDIT: What I'm seeing in North River (2000')... deep snow... an additional, consolidated 2+ feet on top of what was here before the megastorm. Top 5 or 6 inches is (frozen at this hour) corn, with powdery snow beneath.

Harvey44

03-06-2010, 09:46 PM

Today was sweet. I expected that I'd spend the day in the trees up top, but i didn't. I kept ducking in to see how it was softening up, but I guess I got impatient. Everytime I checked the groomers were still better.

Lies, Rumor, Open Pit, Hawkeye and Chatiemac were spring awesome. It was pretty exciting hitting Rumor from the top. Cover was sketchy but the snow that was there was great.

The Dark Side was actually borderline packed pow. You know - what ski resorts call packed pow these days. Trees on the Dark Side were primo. Double Barrel, High Pines, Twister Glades, Cirque, Echo were great too. I felt like I was in a ski movie in all that corn.

So much to do and so little time!

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/03/gore-mtn-ny-3610.html

GoofyRider

03-07-2010, 12:30 PM

nice report Harv. Already counting down the days until next weekend!

Harvey44

03-07-2010, 09:27 PM

Another great day. Things softened much earlier as overnight temps were significantly higher. Upper 20s up here.

It meant that more of the day was great. We went bell-to-bell ... 8:10 to 4pm.

I have never skied first tracks corduroy at Gore like it was this morning. It was really exciting. When you can rip those big GS turns on Lies without a care in the world, it's really fun.

Everything that was great yesterday was great again. All the trails. The Dark Side especially. Straightbrook was better today.

Twister ... jump out onto Echo the first chance you get to avoid the very thin bottom.

Cirque was epic. I like the entrance from Echo. The official entrance has that chute that's "exciting" but not as much fun IMO. The two runs we did in Cirque.... there's just nothing like it.

Ski the mountain. There are no guarantees that we'll get more snow this season, and right now you can reap all the benefit of that 50 inches of snow we got. Get out there.

Pics here:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/03/gore-mtn-ny-3710.html

Raymo40

03-08-2010, 07:47 PM

I'm with Harv on the conditions on sunday. Skied Cirque for the first time and loved it. It's like a skiing adventure. :D Lots of different terrain.

Harvey44

03-08-2010, 10:29 PM

Today the mountain was mostly deserted.

I thought it was really great that the High Peaks chair was running.

Last night was the warmest of the weekend. Barely getting below freezing at the cabin (http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2008/10/cabin-in-north-river.html).

Some haze and high clouds slowed the corn harvest down a bit. And because I was only skiing a half day, once again we were mostly on the groomers.

Everything that was great all weekend was great again. Funny that I could ski 20 hours total over 2 1/2 days and never hit the North Chair. Anybody ski Tahawas Trees? I was wondering how it was.

Was great to finally meet Xman and Margo. You guys are great company.

Raymo ... how can we ski the same hill so many times and not run into each other?

I had a somewhat melancholy feel and I went my separate way off the last few pitches on Showcase. Nothing I do all year long, is as much fun as skiing.

Pics and a short report here:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/03/gore-mtn-ny-3810.html

Frostillicus

03-10-2010, 04:21 PM

Just like over the weekend, we had a lot of bluebird skies, warm temps, and corn snow today. Things stayed set up a little longer, but when they softened it was GREAT. Darkside woods skied nicely, if not a little crunchy in spots. Lies headwall and the top of OP are getting THIN. There are some bare spots on upper Chati starting to show as well. I'd say get out there tomorrow and enjoy it, because the next few days after that are looking not so nice.

I got a nice chance to spray Jimmer too. What a fun day!

rossi

03-13-2010, 05:43 PM

3/13 umm, nothing groomed, barely anything open, all sucked. thats it thats all.

Danzilla

03-13-2010, 06:46 PM

Got to the mountain around 11 thinking things would be softening up. It was about 40 when we left nc. Took the Gondi up to foxy to sunway to quicksilver. It was snowcone on top of Italian ice. Pretty much the same story all day. Bring sharp edges. Quicksilver was scratchier than the rest. Stayed the front side till around 1pm. Hoping that br would open but they said still too Icy. Around 1 we grabbed a beer at the base and it started to rain a bit. Back up the adk exp to twister. Twister was one of the best of the day. Nice carvable snowcone down the middle. Rain turned to sleet then to snow. Light snow continued rest of the day from halfway up the front side to the top.

Back up the Gondi to pine knot. Everything on Topridge side was closed. Pineknot was bare down the left but otherwise ok. Took sb chair. Only trail open was cloud to headwaters which was good. Everything else looked frozen and ungroomed. Back to the front side for a few more laps on twister and showcase. One run on pete gay which was good too.

Br never opened. I would say less than half the mountain open today. Overall a good day. I think they made a big mistake not grooming more trails while the temps and snow were above freezing. I think they assumed the temps would get up into the 40s again. No rn so far in NC even though it is showing on radar.

Big air at little gore was very little. One big jump one set of rails and a big kicker. A good crowd. Wish they would of let the park crew build it right down the middle. Could have fit a few more good jumps in.

Hoping maybe they groom some more out tonight and we get all snow.

Denison

03-13-2010, 07:25 PM

Hoping maybe they groom some more out tonight and we get all snow.

I hope you're right on both counts. It looks like mtn might get few inches

Harvey44

03-13-2010, 07:46 PM

If nothing else we'll lose way less than I'da thought 48 hours ago.

Looking at the radar it does look like elevation might make a difference. When you get those periodic flashes between blue and green it means you are on the edge.

The storm on 2/26 was exactly like that.

Long range has potential. If we don't loose too much we could be back in the game late month.

Danzilla

03-13-2010, 07:47 PM

Colder and windy in NC. No precip yet.

rossi

03-13-2010, 08:22 PM

my local weather is calling for 6-12" north of toga for higher elevations, sooooo i hope they are right. haha. such a drastic difference in coverage from last week to this week.

Raymo40

03-13-2010, 08:58 PM

I'm doing my snow dance. If it turns to r**n don't blame me cuz I'm a crappy dancer. Lots of wind here in Ballston Spa.

Danzilla

03-14-2010, 12:17 AM

Mix of snow and rn in Nc. Hoping for the best on Sunday.

Goodnight moon.

Snowballs

03-14-2010, 12:28 AM

Good night Sun.

Hoser

03-14-2010, 10:45 AM

Earlier post nailed the trail report from yesterday. Overall coverage not in bad shape at all, lost a bit on bottom on Showcase and as mentioned left side of PineKnot (the usual). We'll be ok for a couple more weeks.

Any truth to the six inches reported? Anybody know of wind holds/late or no openings of lifts today due to winds?

Harvey44

03-14-2010, 01:10 PM

Any truth to the six inches reported?

GHL also reported the same six inches and they are at 2000 feet so it's probably legit.

http://www.garnet-hill.com/

Also ilsnow.com reported 3 inches in Indian Lake (1600 feet I think?) and said that there was "more to the east."

It's a killing fields down here. Never seen so many huge trees down.

fujative.

03-14-2010, 09:46 PM

I'm not sure if I'd say 6", maybe more like 4". Then again I did get up there at about 11:15. Some of it may have melted from the r**n by the time I got there.

I took a solid 3 runs. Went up the Gondi, it was nice and foggy. Came down Kill Kare glades which wasn't too bad. I've been spoiled with my week in Tahoe though.
Went up the Straightbrook quad, It was sorta snowing, still real foggy. Took Chatiemac to Straightbrook glades where we came across the Yeti.

Hope the Yeti didn't get him. Yeti's are like that.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/0314101233.jpg
He was a lot smaller than I expected. He definitely couldn't hold up to his reputation. He stood there and didn't move for about 2 minutes, then took off in a hurry.

Went back up the SB Quad, headed over to the Darkside. Skied the Darkside glades which weren't too bad. By the the snow turned into Freezing r**n/sleet. Pretty sizeable too, maybe 3/16" diameter.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/0314101242.jpg

It hurt. A lot. We decided to take Cloud down to Twister to head in for a sammich. Still painful freezing r**n until about 1A where it turned to all r**n. Went in the lodge, sat there for a while and decided it wasn't worth skiing anymore. Headed up to Indian Lake to visit a friend for a few then drove home for some belated birthday dinner.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a whole lot of cramming/studying to do. Waking up won't be too fun tomorrow on 3 hours of sleep with jet lag and daylight savings time.

skid one-one

03-15-2010, 08:31 AM