Gore Mountain Thanksgiving 2017

Thanksgiving is often our first chance to ski, and this year was no different. After a midday feast with extended family, we drove to the mountains. We arrived around 9pm. I was up early, and headed to the hill by myself, letting the girls sleep in.

I pulled into the upper lot right next to my friend Duck and he had the prodigal ski with him. Five days after Stella, I ripped out a binding in the Tahawas trees and my ski ran far in deep snow. After a half-hearted look, I started the long hike out. This past September, Duck hiked the mountain and brought the orphan out. I put it in my car, a good start to the day.

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A Little Help from My Friends

After a big day at Plattekill on Wednesday, I went home to work Thursday and Friday morning. Out the door at 1pm on Friday afternoon, I drove to our ski hut in Johnsburg, NY.

The next morning I was at the North Creek Ski Bowl early. Things were looking good when my friend Duck stepped into the yurt before first chair to boot up. After a lone warmup run on Moxham, we went into the trees, and struck paydirt.

We hit our favorites hard and then headed up to Burnt Ridge. We ran into another musketeer — Suds — en route. Riding the quad we could see that ropes were down on the trees, and we hit Boreas in fine shape.

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Skiing with Duck

On average, Gore gets less snow than some other mountains. Most Vermont hills claim more than Gore’s official 150 inch average and other mountains in New York get more snow too.

But one thing is sure, we do a lot with the snow we get, at Gore. Over the last week, the mountain reported more than fifteen inches and everyone you met said it was the best skiing in quite a while.

A nice midweek storm dropped over a foot, and in a show of mercy for us weekend warriors, it snowed again on Friday night. It looked like two inches at our place. I assumed that there would be more on the mountain.

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