With the recent DEC clearing and marking of the Raymond Brook Trail, it is finally time to tell the story of The Secret Ski.
It’s no coincidence that I posted precise ski data for North Creek just recently. No longer a secret, the route is just another part of the history of Gore Mountain.
I started skiing at Garnet Hill in 1989. Before I came to the Hill, I thought cross country skiing was something that you did in the flats. I had no idea that you could go up hill, down hill or link turns.
Inspired by the conditions I found in the Siamese yesterday, and deterred by the holiday going on at Gore, I decided to “sleep in” and see what I could dig up in the woods for a second day in a row. I got up at 7am and by 7:45 was walking down Harvey Road with my BC skis on my shoulder. I jumped onto Garnet Hill’s trail system, and took Old Faithful to 4H towards the Garnet Hill ski shop.
I was the first one on the trails, after the groomer, so I guess you could call it first tracks. The trails were in good shape. While skiing 4H, Mark and Julie, a couple of tele instructors from the area, popped out of a chute known as the “elevator shaft.”
I got to the mountain at the same time as yesterday. Instead of being totally alone in the base lodge, there were maybe 50 people inside. The holiday was on. At the top of the Gondi, there was no waiting at the rope – for the second day in a row, I was first down Pine Knot.
I hit the Pine Brook glade on the way down – as good as yesterday really, except for a few spots you had to jump over. When I got to the Straightbrook chair it wasn’t open. I waited.
Marc, the head of ski patrol, and Howie another patroller, ski up and wait with me. On the way up he “recommends Chatiemac” all the way down. I told him I was headed for the Straightbrook glades, and he repeats… “all the way down.”
In The Forums