The Dark Side Opens at Gore Mountain

Our plans for Saturday night B+B stay in the Catskills went south Friday morning when both my wife and daughter woke up with colds. With my two ski days at Plattekill put on hold, I called an audible, and left work for the Adirondacks at 2pm.

Pine Knot

When I arrived in the mountains, I heard reports of good conditions at both Whiteface and Gore. I haven’t been to Whiteface this season, and it seemed like a logical choice for Saturday. But a call from a valued ski partner convinced me to ski my “home mountain.” Temps were going to be warm enough to ensure good skiing on primarily manmade snow. And the trail report called for the opening of the Dark Side.

The Dark Side

The opening of the Dark Side at Gore is always a symbolic terrain expansion, at least for me. Topographically, it’s a handful of short vertical runs that are separated by some quality tree skiing. And while today’s expansion consisted of only two additional trails, getting to ride the High Peaks chair felt like another step forward into winter. Just saying “let’s go over to the dark side” is fun. It gets Gore skiers fantasizing about all the amazing terrain on the mountain.

Gore Mountain Dark Side.

Lower Darby was the newly added expert trail. It’s the shortest of the three Dark Side runs, but it’s nice, especially when it’s bumped. Today it was piled high with quality manmade snow, and daytime temps rose close to 40. The skiing was good.

Skiing the Dark Side.

When Darkside Shaman and I boarded the gondola for first tracks, Kristen scanned our passes and suggested we stay up top. We did. If I did twenty-five runs today, probably fifteen ended on Lower Darby.

Gore Mountain Saddle

The “incidental” runs I took on Hawkeye, Headwaters and Showcase were good and everything was edge-able. But the main attraction for me was big soft bumps on the Dark Side. Feels good just writing it.

5 comments on “The Dark Side Opens at Gore Mountain

  1. 25 runs in a day? how much vert was that? 15 is a huge amount of runs at Whiteface.

  2. OK maybe it wasn’t twenty-five runs. How many runs can you do on the High Peaks Chair in an hour – maybe three? I skied 7+ hours. I never really think of counting runs. I think the vert per run on the Dark Side is around 700 feet.

  3. Harv–good to finally meet you on Sat! I should’ve recognized the green jacket and hip pack!

  4. Thanks for the wishes PDQ. Great to meet you too SIAWOL, hope to see you on the hill again soon.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *