Snow Ridge Goon Jam 2

Goon Jam 2 kicked off it’s tour right here in NY at Snow Ridge. Tour stops are at independent resorts across the country, and the focus is on supporting family-owned businesses while spreading the love of snowboarding.

Steezy Method
Steezy Method

Despite the truly $hitty weather over the previous few weeks the Ridge was ready. GM Nick told me the snow we were riding on was made over a month ago. As expected the park setup was on point, after the park crew and Flower Skate Shops boys worked through Friday night getting it ready.The layout was sweet, up top a few corrugated tubes and rails were buried for jibbing and stalling.

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Oak Mountain’s 75th Opening Day

My first time riding Oak Mountain was five years ago. I had just started writing for NYSkiBlog and was starting to go off the beaten path. In the years before that time, I drove past the hill on my way to Gore. Now it’s my mission to get to Oak at least a twice each season.

Lake Pleasant

The family-owned resort offers some surprisingly good terrain, a real vibe and no lift lines. Weather delayed their opening to this past Friday. Seeing an opportunity to rack another opening day in 2023, I drove to Speculator early Friday morning.

At the ticket booth I was greeted by Laura O’Brien, half of the husband-and-wife team that runs Oak.

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Gore Mountain: Early Season Workout

The last few years, Gore has become my early season goto mountain. On occasion we’ll get some crazy lake effect that opens up resorts in CNY, but we know we can rely on Gore to be open, by the end of November. A little elevation and a few degrees of latitude have a big impact on snowmaking and snow retention.

Gore Mountain early season

While the rain washed us out last week, Gore held on. Midweek skiing is great work if you can get it; Cam and I decided to drive up together early Friday morning.

It was 6am when I pulled into Stewart’s to meet Cam. The sign was like a lighthouse guiding me through the fog to a hot cup of coffee.

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