Gore Mountain Conditions

[Yukon Cornelius]

All of you who posted your outrage over the last 24 hours - don’t you read what anyone else posts before? We’ve settled on the cause of this shitshow - management didn’t hire enough snowmakers, they are inexperienced and overworked, and they were given the weekend off after working 21 straight days! IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT! It sucks and it may not be fixable this season, but don’t whine and wonder why. We know why. Either go and ski what is there or vote with your feet and go elsewhere.
That said, the new toy at Ski Bowl appears to be open weekends only as in the past, and THAT PISSES ME OFF!

No-one is blaming the feet on the ground, ya ding dong.

 

[snoloco]

So they expanded their trail network but abandoned arguably the best trails on the main mountain because they don’t have adequate snowmaking to support the whole area, and now they won’t open the new area on weekdays? On weekdays now we’ll have less to ski there than 50 years ago.

Expanding snowmaking footprint without expanding snowmaking capacity is always a recipe for failure. The reason it continues to happen is because one is a lot cheaper than the other.

OTOH they will have to bring back snowmakers to the main mountain soon because they need to start on the Hole Shot course.

The hole shot thing isn't till February 27th. That being said, it's 5 weeks away, and they'll need to devote most snowmaking resources to it for about a week.

They need to do that because even what they have opened this year was never adequately covered. This year is a complete fail.

Conditions are bad enough on most of the mountain that I can't complain about the decision to resurface instead of expanding.

All of you who posted your outrage over the last 24 hours - don’t you read what anyone else posts before? We’ve settled on the cause of this shitshow - management didn’t hire enough snowmakers, they are inexperienced and overworked, and they were given the weekend off after working 21 straight days! IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT!

No one disagrees on the cause of the problems. Since they are so short staffed, they have to give the entire crew time off at once. Other resorts have enough snowmakers that they can give some employees days off while the others are working. There are always snowmakers working. If they aren't actively making snow, then they are moving equipment around to set up for the next phase. I've been voting with my feet and going elsewhere.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Expanding snowmaking footprint without expanding snowmaking capacity is always a recipe for failure. The reason it continues to happen is because one is a lot cheaper than the other.

Really? The Zippy Bowl thng is $40 million, not counting the sewer system Johnsburg reneged on.

The hole shot thing isn't till February 27th. That being said, it's 5 weeks away, and they'll need to devote most snowmaking resources to it for about a week.

It's worse than that. Snowmaking weather can disappear by mid-February. They're probably gonna have to start making snow for that course in about 2 weeks, especially since apparently they don't have enough workers for a 7 day schedule.
ORDA should have sent people from Belleayre and Whiteface instead of allowing Gore to stop making snow. ORDA should also consider taking Gore out of the electric load reduction program, and eat the lost revenue until they can get the mountain in reasonable condition. They can cover the lost revenue with the payroll they saved by not hiring enough workers for a 7 day snowmaking schedule.

mm

 

[JonasPinkerton]

First-time poster, long-time lurker here. I appreciate the perspective and passion in this forum when it comes to what makes Gore great and what makes it so damn frustrating. Over the last decade-plus, I have grown to really enjoy the mountain and be thankful for the people that are on the ground doing their best to run it. Since this is nominally a conditions thread, I will add some conditions info - I lapped 46er a few times on Monday morning. It was firm, and the groom held up well thanks to the inch of snow on Sunday night.

With that out of the way, what does this crowd think of the ORDA board as a vehicle for accountability? From what I can see, it not only approves these extremely expensive projects without critical review, but it also does not provide oversight on project execution (and ski area operations).

Some examples from the most recent board meeting on December 6:

1. The ORDA President indicated that the gondola cabins "have been installed and were up and running for their opening day". This was not true, as the gondola was not running until late December. She also indicated that the new cars addressed problems with skiers being able to keep their skis on the outside of the gondola (they do not).
2. She then indicated that the ski bowl project was on track to be a great success without mentioning that the Hudson chair did not get installed to original plans due to land disputes and that ORDA was now on the hook to install a working sewer system since North Creek's sewer project was running behind.
3. She received effusive praise from the board for opening on November 15 with the new downloading approach that was "mindful of the resources that it takes to open - trying to open from top to bottom (i.e., making snow on showcase) uses a lot of resources". No mention on plans to wait to open a sliver of Showcase in January.
4. The resolution to replace Topridge triple with a quad that goes just as slow for $8M was passed with zero critical questions/concerns. There was no mention of the mistakes made over the summer that have led to the every-other chair loading of the Straight Brook quad.

What can be done to change this approach? Who are the board members and how do they get nominated? I'm curious to see if the next meeting (whose date is not indicated on the ORDA website) includes any discussion of Gore's snowmaking challenges. Somehow I doubt it.

 

[gregmarx]

the Hudson chair did not get installed to original plans due to land disputes

is there a good write-up somewhere about what happened here and why they changed the planned unload location/dropped the proposed new trails?

 

[Ripitz]

Jeepers sounds like a mess up there. Even the lurkers are coming out of the woodwork.

Welcome Jonas.

 

[Alfredeneumann]

First-time poster, long-time lurker here. I appreciate the perspective and passion in this forum when it comes to what makes Gore great and what makes it so damn frustrating. Over the last decade-plus, I have grown to really enjoy the mountain and be thankful for the people that are on the ground doing their best to run it. Since this is nominally a conditions thread, I will add some conditions info - I lapped 46er a few times on Monday morning. It was firm, and the groom held up well thanks to the inch of snow on Sunday night.

With that out of the way, what does this crowd think of the ORDA board as a vehicle for accountability? From what I can see, it not only approves these extremely expensive projects without critical review, but it also does not provide oversight on project execution (and ski area operations).

Some examples from the most recent board meeting on December 6:

1. The ORDA President indicated that the gondola cabins "have been installed and were up and running for their opening day". This was not true, as the gondola was not running until late December. She also indicated that the new cars addressed problems with skiers being able to keep their skis on the outside of the gondola (they do not).
2. She then indicated that the ski bowl project was on track to be a great success without mentioning that the Hudson chair did not get installed to original plans due to land disputes and that ORDA was now on the hook to install a working sewer system since North Creek's sewer project was running behind.
3. She received effusive praise from the board for opening on November 15 with the new downloading approach that was "mindful of the resources that it takes to open - trying to open from top to bottom (i.e., making snow on showcase) uses a lot of resources". No mention on plans to wait to open a sliver of Showcase in January.
4. The resolution to replace Topridge triple with a quad that goes just as slow for $8M was passed with zero critical questions/concerns. There was no mention of the mistakes made over the summer that have led to the every-other chair loading of the Straight Brook quad.

What can be done to change this approach? Who are the board members and how do they get nominated? I'm curious to see if the next meeting (whose date is not indicated on the ORDA website) includes any discussion of Gore's snowmaking challenges. Somehow I doubt it.

The meeting was adjourned after a round of back slaps and attaboys and a rousing chorus of Kumbaya.

 

[Big Dave]

In the December ORDA meeting that they posted they made a comment that the Gore Gondolas were installed and up and running on opening day and also mentioned they were upgraded so the new equipment of today could fit in the racks on the outside of the cabin. Neither were true and the racks are still too small to fit wide powder skiis. One of the people asked if the gondola’s were level so you didn’t need to step up and no one knew the answer including the one board member who said they were there on Gore’s opening day. It is obvious by those comments the board has no clue as to Gore’s operations. How do they fix this years issues if they are clueless?

 

[snoloco]

Burnt Ridge closed again tomorrow. I don't get the decision making for what lifts run. They have both the gondola and AE2 scheduled for tomorrow. No one wants to ride the AE2 in these temps when the gondola has zero line. It would make more sense to open Burnt Ridge, which serves additional terrain.

 

[x10003q]

Burnt Ridge closed again tomorrow. I don't get the decision making for what lifts run. They have both the gondola and AE2 scheduled for tomorrow. No one wants to ride the AE2 in these temps when the gondola has zero line. It would make more sense to open Burnt Ridge, which serves additional terrain.

They are trying to make Burnt Ridge HSQ last 60 years.