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slayer
01-07-2007, 07:52 PM
I headed up to Gore this morning for what I expected to be a sub-par day of skiing. Well, the scenery had a definite end-of-April look. The rain did a pretty good number to most of their trails, at least what I could see from the base. I headed up the gondola, only to see Wild Air about 20% covered. I knew it would be like that today, but I had a hard time comprehending the whole thing.

Upon reaching Bear Mtn, I could see the summit quad and the Topridge chair going, but both Pine Knot and Topridge had the ropes up still. I took a run down Ruby Run to give it a try... it was in pretty good shape, 100% coverage, although a little firm yet still (it froze overnight). Sunway had decent coverage as a while (perhaps 90%), except for a 30 yard long section, just up from where the gondola crosses. Here, there was a path of snow covered ground about 20 feet wide... rocks and grass elsewhere. The rest of the way down was decent.

At about 9:30, they opened Pine Knot. I guessed that the late opening was to give patrol enough time to mark all the obstacles. Sure enough, Pine Knot had about 90%-20% coverage, depending on where you were. About halfway down, there was a section about 20 feet wide and 80 feet long. Would have been no problem to navigate except for two idiots in front of me who decided to stop and take a break, essentially blocking the entire trail.

I spent much of the day doing laps down Cloud and Headwaters, which were suprisingly good. Cloud had 100% coverage (except for the wide area above Rumor), and Headwaters about 80%. With the bright sun and 40 degrees, it turned to nice spring soft snow.

Hawkeye was closed the entire day. It looked like rock hard moguls, with about every 5th mogul being a large boulder poking through. With some real or manmade snow, it'll be open again soon.

All during the afternoon, the snowmaking crew was setting up guns all along Cloud and Headwaters. I asked one of them and he said they were going to make snow on those two and Pine Knot tonight. Not sure if it'll be cold enough for long, but anything is better than nothing.

slayer
01-07-2007, 08:12 PM
And I second what NPN said in another thread... today was a bunch of fun, even with the sub-par conditions.