Gore Mountain Conditions

[Tjf1967]

Rando question as there seem to be a fair bit of albany-saratoga area folks who ski Gore. I am toying with the idea of skiing Belle one day next week and then skiing whiteface the next - i am flexible weekday wise.

I was thinking of just sleeping in the Riv in a lot up there (

so, I think the gore skiers need to find out what the whiteface skiers did to get attention last year, and do that. Maybe it will help for next season.

I think they are on it. For some reason orda doesn't like to own up to snow making problems.

 

[Kleetus]

This Gore skier drove past Gore last weekend to go to WF on Saturday and will skip Gore this Saturday too. Instead of driving 7 minutes to Gore, we will drive two hours to Killington. This is what it has come to. The comments and the pictures on the Gore FB page tell me all I need to know. Good luck if you are skiing Gore tomorrow. I honestly hope it is great.

Not as close to Gore but did double the drive this weekend for Sugarbush. Same reasons.

 

[Gore-d]

Avoid Gore if you have the option. Snowmaking there this year is the worst in the past couple of decades. Because so little snow has been put down, grooming often brings up hundreds of small black rocks.
Even Tahawus, which has generally been the best groomed trail this year, now has sections peppered with small stones.
It's becoming doubly expensive to ski Gore, with the bottom jobs which your skis require because of the bad conditions.
Skied Whiteface several times this year and the conditions were quite nice. And Killington always does a good job.

 

[snoloco]

I highly doubt Backwoods will be open tomorrow. Eagle's nest heading back to the Burnt Ridge Quad was solid brown with no snowmaking on it.

They're reporting snowmaking on Eagle's Nest, but lied. Nice job. And now Burnt Ridge will be completely closed for racing all day tomorrow as a result.

I'm very disappointed in Gore this year.

Same. I'm disgusted with how far behind their snowmaking is, given how favorable the weather has been.

Some of the open trails today were awful, with huge bare spots in between sheets of ice. Part of Sunway under the gondola was dangerous. I saw several skiers really struggling to stay upright. Twister was pretty rough as well. I know that there has been wind, but with the low temperatures for the last week, there should have been a lot more snow on the mountain. Showcase was closed for several days supposedly due to heavy snowmaking. It opened today with only 1/2 width, very low snow depth and rough conditions. It's going to be a mess tomorrow unless they can push some snow over all of the bare areas on the front side.

I don't get it. I really don't. They are seemingly incapable of opening their main trails to full width and keeping them in good condition. Regarding Showcase, they were supposed to take most of the week to make snow on it, while the Adirondack Express remained closed. This is the first time they have made snow on it all season. Since the gondola was closed all of Tuesday through Thursday due to wind, they ended up having to reopen the Adirondack Express on Wednesday, which cut snowmaking short. Maybe a super windy week wasn't the best time to go to Showcase. They would've been more productive on Burnt Ridge, where the lift was closed anyways. Now they won't go back to Showcase for a long time, so another season of it being a ribbon.

On the bright side, Tahawus and Sleeping Bear were ok, as was Hawkeye, Chatimac and Cloud/Headwaters. Echo was good too but getting across Cedars was rough due to snowmaking (I guess that's where all the snowmaking is going). Lower Echo to Cedars was closed, so you have to trek the entire length of Cedars to get there. I'm guessing Echo will be closed for racing tomorrow anyway, as it never seems to be available to the public on weekends.

Gotta love it, the best trails were just ok. As for Echo, once again they lied on the snow report. It was supposed to be open via Gully, which cuts the traverse short. Nope. And now it will be closed for racing all weekend.

I have only been to Gore once this season, which was plan B after a morning screwup prevented me from getting to Whiteface. The surprise opening of High Peaks saved the day. Otherwise, it was crowded for what they had open, with mediocre conditions. I won't go back until they have the new lift open. For me, Gore is a decent option once they have most of their terrain open, as it is the shortest drive from Saratoga. Unless something major changes with their snowmaking (like Whiteface this year), I'm not going there early season anymore.

 

[capecodbeach]

A wise decision may have saved my ski season... It is no secret I only ski green. Probably can ski some easy blues but skiing alone I usually stick with trails I am totally confident on. On Friday I made the decision to drive the extra 45 minutes to Bear Den trails at Whiteface. I had never skied there before but comments here had been encouraging. Not surprisingly the wind was still a factor, BUT the Falcon Flyer lift and the near by Bear Den Lodge were EXCELLENT. Met my needs exactly. I was able to ski a number of green trails all off the Falcon lift. Plus the conveyor Falcon Flyer lift was a dream to load, unlike the Bear Cub Quad at Gore where you have to climb and turn after getting you RF card scanned. So I enjoyed my day. I was able to ski for a long time, lapped different trails, and NEVER ONCE felt like I was going to get run over by more advanced skiers. Not really faulting them, but on the lower mountain trails at Gore I all too often feel like I am in the way, if you know what I mean. But really I have no other options at Gore. At Bears Den I felt like I was skiing exactly the trails right for me and skiing with skiers with a comparable skill level. It felt comfortable. Now I see had I decided to go to Gore, I would very likely have been one of those unfortunate skiers who would have crashed on the ICY section of Sunway. At 75 one of those hard, icy falls could have shortened or even ended by season. Good decision made. Now I am hesitant to go back to Gore until there is a major snow storm.

 

[Alfredeneumann]

Gore yesterday was good where it was and horrible/inaccessible where it wasn’t. The New Year warm spell and rain completely eliminated the base on Sunway from the Saddle down to Wild Air, leaving a massive ice and gravel field. Unless you’re willing to destroy your skis, it has split the lower mountain. You can avoid it using Sleighride to access Showcase and Wild Air, or you can ride Sunway and ski lower Sunway and Pete’s, but effectively can’t get to anything in between. Unfortunately the very high winds and cold temperatures in the week since have not been conducive to blasting the foot-plus layer of wet cement needed to rebuild the base in that critical area. Yesterday afternoon’s “marketing report “ promised that the snowmakers would be attacking it last night.
The report also revealed ORDA’s future snowmaking priorities:

Snow Conditions Report | Gore Mountain NY

Skiers and snowboarders can see trails and lifts open, weather at Gore Mountain, and snow conditions on alpine and nordic trails.

goremountain.com

It looks like their first goal is to open the trails necessary to complete the interconnect to the Ski Bowl as soon as possible, to justify the money they are pouring into the new lift and lodge. Forget those classic Gore trails like Uncas and Open Pit, and probably Sagamore, that they are bypassing. ORDA’s share of that project just went up in cost again, as Johnsburg was unable to secure funding for its share of the joint water treatment project. ORDA will be going it alone:

Johnsburg and ORDA come to agreement on sewer for Ski Bowl project

The lack of a wastewater system was a potential hold up for the lodge opening this fall.

www.northcountrypublicradio.org

Do you think ORDA’s plate is a bit full? They are also running world cups/championships in bobsled and skeleton, ski jumping, aerials and cross country this winter in the Lake Placid area. And after the interconnect is done they will pull the Gore snowmaking back to Wild Air and Arena to build this year’s Holeshot course. To paraphrase Rick in Casablanca “it doesn't take much to see that the problems of some little alpine skiers don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

 

[gregmarx]

I think it's funny that the snow report is showing Burnt Ridge lift as open to the public today but Echo closed for racing. So you're allowed to traverse over, ride the lift, and traverse out from the top?

Back in the fall we tried to convince another family to do MLK weekend with us at Gore, but they didn't want to travel past the Catskills. Feeling very fortunate about that now!

 

[Capdistski]

While I believed all the reports here I hadn’t been to gore since 12/8 - WF reports were just so much better in Dec - so wanted to see it myself.

It’s always great to be skiing and i will have a good day here but I concur with the comments about thin cover. As far as I could tell there was one snow gun on the whole front side of the mountain (plus a couple around the lodge) at 830 - just now (noon) they were turning on the low energy guns on Sunway. But with Sunway being such a wreck why they don’t have more guns going all day off to the side making piles to push later seems a big miss when it’s this cold. Or just run guns - if they are afraid of people having to wipe their goggles they should get over it. I know its easier said than done, but Gore has been so impressive with the volume of snowmaking the last few years, even if it went into snowcross runs and freestyle jumps for two years, so something seems very different.

As well straightbrook is loading every other chair, the Gondi is running on diesel, and there is no regular coffee in the main cafeteria. Again - thrilled to be skiing and I love Gore. It just feels off this year.

 

[TomCat]

Parking in D is out of control. A number of guests were blocked in. The black SUV on the left blocked 3-4 cars alone. They need cones down the center to prevent assholes from blocking others in

Tom

 

[Alfredeneumann]

Parking in D is out of control. A number of guests were blocked in. The black SUV on the left blocked 3-4 cars alone. They need cones down the center to prevent assholes from blocking others in

Tom
View attachment 27054

Your picture should have included his license plate.