http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/121506GoreExpansion.html

NICE . . .

I dont think expansion is what gore needs, gores a small mt with small mt mentality,when ever something new goes in somewhere else on the mt goes neglected example being top ridge chair put that chair in close two ,summit & north.it takes them forever to blow snow on what they have now so why add more. expansion would be nice i just dont think they will handle it very well or fairly.you are probly saying summit & north chairs are always open, not true.i ski mostly midweek and its very rare to have them running.im not a hater i love gore mt. b

Pataki has been great for both Gore and Whiteface, I hope our new gov will be as good.

The Rail system from Saratoga to North Creek seems like a waste to me, hope I'm wrong.

If anyone has any maps or specific info on the trail expansion please post it.

I agree that doing whatever it takes to improve the snowmaking is more important. Think about it. If all that terrain was added right now, instead of the mountain being "14% open" it would be 9% open. I'm not really blaming Gore - even Jay Peak is in desparate straits right now. I have to say I'm surprised the investors want to go ahead with the condo project, with so many marginal years in a row.

M

Hmmm . . interesting points . . . .

First of all, I think that the Topridge Expansion was excellent for Gore. While it is true that the North Chair is closed more often, I firmly believe they open the summit chair as much as they can. Besides, the addition of High Pines, Topridge and Uncas (plus the elimination of the hike on Cloud) are more than worth the loss of the high peaks chair on certain weekdays.

As far as snowmaking, it's kind of weird. Every year they announce some kind of expansion in the snowmaking capacity, or new guns, or new snowmaking sources - but every year they never seem to make snow as fast as they did the year before. I do wish they could open more terrain faster. Killington has 42 trails open right now, I don't see any reason that Gore only has 4, especially with the Hudson River in the backyard.

The railroad extension seems like a waste of money to me too. Screw that. The drive is not that bad, and as much as I'm in favor of public transportation to reduce dependence on foreign oil, forget it. I don't really see why anyone would have to take a train to Gore (except for people from NYC, I guess).

Finally, I don't really care what the percentage of trails they have open is, as long as they have a bunch of trails open for me to ski. While some people have raised concerns about the new trails being at a lower elevation, and therefore succumbing more to global warming, I really think it won't be an issue for the coming years. Making trails off of Burnt ridge will give a bunch of east-southeast facing runs around the base area, increasing the fun factor for spring skiing tremendously. It's true, we have had a bunch of "interesting" years lately, but I feel as though the coming years will be fantastic, and it's better to look forward than to look behind in situations like this.


More Gore.

Matt,

I was being a little facetious about trail percentage. I don't really care about the number. I was really saying that I'm betting the trip reports from yesterday would be the same regardless of the addition of more terrain.

I also think Topridge was a great addition. For one, I love the fact that when I come down for the late afternoon to connect up with my wife it's more fun to do some Topridge and work my way over, as opposed to facing Cloud. Also, I'm not a snowmaking expert, but there must be something ideal about Topridge for early season skiing, since it's been open it's the first place they blow snow, while it used to be Showcase. (Actually I kinda miss Showcase.)

I do think the snowmaking and grooming has gotten better over the last ten years, and even the last five. But Gore still doesn't have whatever it is (what is it? money? profit motive? air pressure?) to get terrain open like those with bigger commitments to snowmaking like Hunta, Kmart.

Don't get me wrong, I love Gore. We've made our committment to Gore, building our little cabin/camp in North River. I love getting up before first light, before my wife is awake, making coffee, and looking for the groomers headlight as he finishes up on Cloud.

I agree with you on most of what you said, and I REALLY hope that your optimism about the future is well placed.

Mark

slayer wrote:

http://www.adirondackrealtor.net/North_Creek_Ski_Bowl/page_953047.html

kind of hard to see all that

But, i do think that expansion is a good deal for gore. more expansion=more people=more money, and that cant be bad for gore. i mean, if gore becomes more of a tourist destination, other than more people/traffic, what are the disadvantages? i think it will just make them put more work into the mountain which will turn out good in the long run.

as far as snowmaking/opening more trails, if they(gore) know that more poeple are looking to ski at gore, i think theyd have more incentive to open more trails. granted we havnt had the most cooperative weather lately, but i dont think they could really run more of a destination type of place when they open with toploading to 1 trail...

hopefully next year weather will be colder and they can get it running earlier.

highpeaksdrifter wrote:

Pataki has been great for both Gore and Whiteface, I hope our new gov will be as good. The Rail system from Saratoga to North Creek seems like a waste to me, hope I'm wrong. If anyone has any maps or specific info on the trail expansion please post it.

The train is one of my favorite parts. I can jump on a train from Penn Station after work and head up. Sunday after skiing I can drink and sleep my trip home.

I posted this before but since maps were requested again, I hosted the plan here: http://www.w-train.com/misc/gore.pdf
Thats the whole plan.

Is "Burnt Ridge" the old North Creek Snow Bowl?

NPN wrote:

Is "Burnt Ridge" the old North Creek Snow Bowl?

No.

Burnt Ridge is the ridge between the Ski bowl and Gore, skier left going down Twister They need to develop that first to link up the ski bowl, glad to see they dropped the idea of putting in the base to base gondola first. I spoke to an employee yesterday who claimed they also got $2M for expanded snowmaking as part of this expansion and that will make their snowmaking output comparable to Stratton.

I was just wondering if gore and the upper managment really want this expansion or its getting shoved at them by those wacky politicans. because i still think they wont be able to handle it, part of the reason i ski gore is cause its not a killing,stratton or an okemo,nice places but way way to many people. ski midweek .your ski experance will be much better than with the weekend wackpackers. as for the skitrain a total waste of money, you think gas is high,wait till you book a familyof 4 or 5 , itll be much cheapr to drive. and as far as the summit chair goes its only open fri. sat.sun. but we ski it and walk out it takes 5 to 10 minutes ,midweek

I didn't know that they dropped the base to base gondi. THAT is great. (I couldn't really make out the picture that went with the article.)

I wonder what 2M buys when you spend it on snowmaking?

M

it wont buy freezing temperatures...