Gore Mountain Snowmaking Upgrades (2011)

Mike Pratt upgrades Gore Mountain snowmakingOver the last ten years, Gore Mountain has had more terrain expansion than any mountain in New York. At the same time, the Gore snowmaking has made significant strides — increasing water supply, pumping capacity and snow-gun efficiency. We spoke to Mike Pratt, General Manager at Gore and asked him about this summer’s plans for snowmaking improvements.

NYSkiBlog: You’ve made incremental progress on snowmaking over the past several summers. What’s going on this year?

Mike Pratt: We’re undertaking our most significant snowmaking upgrade since we tapped into the Hudson River in 1996. We’re buying and installing 130 new fixed location HKD Impulse Tower Guns.

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Friday Fantasy Photo #25

Adirondack
Slide Skiing • Adirondack Backcountry • April 8, 2011

“An April storm inside the Blue Line yielded close to a foot of new snow. With a five foot base, we scored great powder turns on north facing slopes all morning long. Later the warm spring sun yielded a creamy afternoon descent…” —skimore

Snowfall Forecast Map for 2011-2012

Snowfall Forecast Map for 2011 - 2012.

With the departure of Joe Bastardi, it looks like Henry Margusity may be the new go-to-guy for long-term winter weather forecasting at Accuweather. He just posted the snowfall forecast map above with his preliminary call for the winter of 2011-2012. Obviously it’s a long way off, but we like the way it looks. An excerpt from the full forecast:

“The basis of the forecast is on the prediction that a weak La Nina will be forming this fall and continuing through the winter. While the pattern will be similar to last year, there will be changes in the pattern that will lead to the heavy snow areas shown on the map.

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