Gore Mountain, NY: 12/18/11

After our Thanksgiving ski weekend, Zelda gave me some sobering news — our odds for returning to Adirondacks before Christmas were slim. Indeed, our December weekends were packed with events, but closer scrutiny on my part led to the discovery that it was really only Saturdays that were jammed up. So I pledged to be the man on each Saturday this month in exchange for the freedom to disappear before dawn on Sundays to daytrip the Catskills.

As I watched another ugly midweek weather event sweep across the northeast last week, I noted that the coldest air of the season was to be ushered in behind the front. Temps were forecast to be near zero in the Adirondacks, so I considered a novel idea: daytripping Gore.

It wasn’t really a day trip. After cheering for an inspiring performance of The Nutcracker, and then celebrating a Taekwondo birthday, I bid goodbye to my girls and drove to the mountains Saturday night. As predicted, a clear night delivered overnight temps close to zero.

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Gore Mountain, NY: 11/26/11

You might reasonably question the prudence of driving five hours from the flatlands to Gore this weekend. I did question it, but ultimately for us, the decision to ski paid off.

We arrived at Gore at 8 am, had breakfast and booted up. Part of our motivation to come north was our desire to get Neve back on skis early in the season. Kindergarteners have a very busy schedule in December and we wanted to get her back in the groove before we arrived for Christmas break. At 8:30 we left her with her instructor Erin and headed to the Gondi.

Patrol was talking to everyone in the gondi loading zone. “Do you know conditions are very thin up top?” Zelda thought twice about the warning, and decided to lap the Sunway chair, to start. I boarded the gondola alone and very jazzed, to be riding a lift.

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A Ski Mountain’s Ad Jingle: “Getaway to Gore”

In 1974, Gore Mountain was a major Eastern ski area with just about everything that skiers wanted — 2,000 feet of vertical, trails spread out over several mountains, and the only gondola in New York State.

As a member of the elite Gondola Club, Gore joined Stowe, Killington, Sugarbush, Sugarloaf, and a handful of New Hampshire resorts in offering true big mountain skiing to the masses.

There was only one problem: the masses weren’t coming. Why not? Because Gore Mountain had no snowmaking. In the 60s, chairs, gondolas and vertical were all you needed. But that wasn’t enough to compete in the 1970s.

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