Gore: Sometimes You Just Gotta Ski

All week at my desk, reports from the hill told of stellar spring conditions, with skiers pealing slices off the steepest terrain on the mountain. It rained on Thursday and then dropped in a quick blast of cold air for the weekend. As we passed mid-February, I was sitting at 16 ski days, with a three day weekend in front of me. The season isn’t getting any younger, sometimes you just got to ski.

Ski Bowl Yurt

I slept late Saturday and drove to the mountains in the afternoon skipping what seemed like it would be the iciest day of the weekend. Sunday looked warm-ish with a little sun and Monday was forecasts as a mixed bag of snow and rain.

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Do You Love Your Home Mountain?

Late afternoon on Sunday, at the end of a long ski day, I was sitting in the bar at Plattekill, surrounded by friends. When I’m in that spot, reliving the day’s adventures, I feel like the luckiest man alive. I snapped a picture of the room, and fired off a tweet on NYSB’s twitter.

Home Mountain Tweet

“Do You Love Your Home Mountain?” The thought as expressed was actually incomplete. I could have added … “as much as I do?” to the end of the question. Smiling wide at the end of another joyful ski day, I decided to bounce it off the internet. I think Twitter is my go-to in the mountains as it seems to require minimal signal strength to function.

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Gore Mountain December Thump

For me, there is no adventure without logistics. If I’m going to ski something fantastic and life affirming I’m probably going to have to do some work in advance. Some of that prep can be exciting, like deciding what skis to pack, and some of it is housekeeping and clearing my schedule.

Bob Dylan

I follow the GFS 240 hour snowfall forecast to help me anticipate opportunities. In early December, a large storm appeared at the outer limit of that forecast.  On subsequent model runs the storm came and went a few times, out to sea and then drifting back into play. Soon enough though, it started to look like we were on to something.

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