Gore Mountain Redemption

After the weekend we just had, you may well be here to read a tale of Gore Mountain powder. Still, a blogger has to write the story that’s on his mind and in his heart. Friday at Gore was incredible. But to tell it, I need to unpack the last three weeks. It’s a personal story, I’m hoping you’ll get something out of it too. I promise, before the end, there will be snow.

driving in the rain

It started January 16, the day before that first 12 inch storm of the year for the southern Adirondacks. I’d done everything I needed to do to put myself in position to ski it, on a weekday, without a white knuckle storm chase. Perfect, right?

But alas, I was thwarted, by my own bad self.

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McCauley: Back in Action

Winter storm Landon dumped snow all across the New York, but north was the place to be. I wanted to avoid the big name resorts as I knew most would be crowded. McCauley seemed like a good choice, especially because I didn’t make it there once last year.

Snowmaking on the bottom of Olympic

Even better, I was rejoined by my favorite chairlift partner Farah and McCauley is one of her personal favorites. We had plans for first chair but had a rough start when we got on the road. The snow was so caked on from my drive to work the previous day that the whole car shuttered at any speed. After a little work to clean out the wheel wells we were back on the road and headed up route 8 to Old Forge.

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Gliding at Paul Smiths VIC

It’s not uncommon to see people snowshoeing at a cross-country ski center. But near the end of my tour of Paul Smiths College Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC), I espied a veritable gang heading towards me on snowshoes. Thirty or 40, mostly guys and a few women. They were all wearing hard hats, and Carhartt or buffalo plaid and Malone pants. Heavy gloves. They were all on one side of the trail, so I had no worries gliding by.

corduroy

I accosted a straggler adjusting his snowshoe bindings. They were doing an outdoor session for a class in civic culture: How to manage a woodlot for a client. With a name like that, one would think the class covers polite debate, or how to hold a cup of tea with your pinky finger sticking out.

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