Gore Mountain Conditions

[capecodbeach]

Hopefully someone can give an update on the lower mountain snowmaking... I am trying to decide between Gore or WFace on Thursday. I do not always find the newly made snow easy to ski on, even groomed. Thin and slippery in one spot, then sticky and flour like in another spot. That said I am glad the decision was made to touch up the lower mountain snow. Maybe even cover and make skiable the cut over to Lower Sunway below Sunway Chair? Enjoy the warmer temps!

 

[GoreSkiMom]

After skiing at Gore this past weekend, this quote comes to mind. "Something is rotten in Denmark" I appreciate that the Gore employees are working hard. It was great that the lifts were all spinning and they opened early. But after skiing multiple trails that are advertised as open, and Gore boasting about all of the acres they have covered and finding those trails half covered or worse, the width of two groomer tracks, I think my only choice is to go to WF.

I am not Sno, I do not have massive amounts of data, but the Gore conditions are unacceptable. On Monday, a major holiday for the industry, here was the open trail count at the ORDA mountains:

Gore 57/108 53%
WF 70/96 73%
Bell 60/62. 97%

I skied Gore on Saturday with friends who opted to ski WF on Sunday. They said it was an entirely different experience with trails covered side to side. There was snowmaking underway on multiple trails. I appreciate that the Gore crew needed time off, but how does WF have a more robust snowmaking operation when they have less acreage to cover? How do they have enough snowmakers to keep their operation going through MLK weekend when Gore has to suspend snowmaking over a holiday?

Today, midweek, here is the open trail count for the ORDA mountains:

Gore. 50/108 46%
WF. 69/96. 72%
Bell. 60/62. 97%

How is less than half of the terrain open at Gore when the sister mountains have so much open? Is it Gore management? ORDA? The state has invested so much money in the mountain. I know on this forum, we want to see the mountain thrive. There needs to be accountability for how it is being run. What are our options? Write to ORDA? Attend board meetings? Confer with Gore management?

 

[Harvey]

Other than 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 where it was only open one weekend, and didn't open at all, I have found the opening of the ski bowl to be oddly consistent. It has always been late January or early February. They did open it in December in 2012 and 2017 on natural snow, but it had to close down after a thaw and didn't reopen for a while. Then it reopened on snowmaking during the aforementioned timeframe. It has usually only been open on a weekend or extended weekend schedule. Whether it's Thursday-Sunday, Friday-Sunday, or Saturday-Sunday, I've seen all 3. The latest it has been open was April 2, 2023. There have also been years where it closed in mid to late March, and some where it melted out in February during a thaw, and then reopened on natural snow later on. The cliff notes version is that the schedule has been anemic and inconsistent. This is one of the earlier snowmaking openings, and they made MLK Weekend, which has not happened since the 2019-2020 season. I hope it will be open more days of the week, and stay open later in the season.

Sno can you give me an idea about the number of ski days the bowl has been open on average the last five years?

Or can you tell me the max number of days the bowl has been open in any of the last five years?

 

[Tjf1967]

After skiing at Gore this past weekend, this quote comes to mind. "Something is rotten in Denmark" I appreciate that the Gore employees are working hard. It was great that the lifts were all spinning and they opened early. But after skiing multiple trails that are advertised as open, and Gore boasting about all of the acres they have covered and finding those trails half covered or worse, the width of two groomer tracks, I think my only choice is to go to WF.

I am not Sno, I do not have massive amounts of data, but the Gore conditions are unacceptable. On Monday, a major holiday for the industry, here was the open trail count at the ORDA mountains:

Gore 57/108 53%
WF 70/96 73%
Bell 60/62. 97%

I skied Gore on Saturday with friends who opted to ski WF on Sunday. They said it was an entirely different experience with trails covered side to side. There was snowmaking underway on multiple trails. I appreciate that the Gore crew needed time off, but how does WF have a more robust snowmaking operation when they have less acreage to cover? How do they have enough snowmakers to keep their operation going through MLK weekend when Gore has to suspend snowmaking over a holiday?

Today, midweek, here is the open trail count for the ORDA mountains:

Gore. 50/108 46%
WF. 69/96. 72%
Bell. 60/62. 97%

How is less than half of the terrain open at Gore when the sister mountains have so much open? Is it Gore management? ORDA? The state has invested so much money in the mountain. I know on this forum, we want to see the mountain thrive. There needs to be accountability for how it is being run. What are our options? Write to ORDA? Attend board meetings? Confer with Gore management?

Try peeing in the wind. Your dog pays closer attention then management at orda. We're just another whiney customer.

 

[Deez]

. I appreciate that the Gore crew needed time off, but how does WF have a more robust snowmaking operation when they have less acreage to cover? How do they have enough snowmakers to keep their operation going through MLK weekend when Gore has to suspend snowmaking over a holiday?

IMHO...ORDA is trying to make the Lake Placid area (Whiteface, Mt VanHovenberg, the Bobsled and the jumping complex) a world class, competition, snow sports destination - "The NYS Winter Jewel".
I have skied Gore, I like Gore, not knocking Gore...but after 25 years of not skiing at Gore then returning ...I was shocked how nothing had changed (which I thought was cool - has a retro vibe ...like West Mtn) but that just points that they are not putting budget into Gore.
The past 10 years at Whiteface, skiing on a regular basis - I am surprised at what a huge difference in the 10 years there is.
Two new lifts, expanded parks, new midstation lodge (ok - that's not fair to include that one), expanded Bears Den, huge amount of permanent snow guns. I think Gore is feeling the sting of not being prioritized.

 

[Tjf1967]

IMHO...ORDA is trying to make the Lake Placid area (Whiteface, Mt VanHovenberg, the Bobsled and the jumping complex) a world class, competition, snow sports destination - "The NYS Winter Jewel".
I have skied Gore, I like Gore, not knocking Gore...but after 25 years of not skiing at Gore then returning ...I was shocked how nothing had changed (which I thought was cool - has a retro vibe ...like West Mtn) but that just points that they are not putting budget into Gore.
The past 10 years at Whiteface, skiing on a regular basis - I am surprised at what a huge difference in the 10 years there is.
New lift, new midstation lodge (ok - that's not fair to include that one), expanded Bears Den, huge amount of permanent snow guns. I think Gore is feeling the sting of not being prioritized.

Dude your are making shit up. Plenty of money went into gore. They had a bad snowmaking year. I'm a whiteface skier. They screw up something in the snow making system more often than they don't.

 

[Deez]

You're saying that Gore has been upgraded/updated like Whiteface ?

 

[Milo Maltbie]

It doesn’t need to be upgraded like Whiteface. It only needs reasonable snowmaking. It doesn’t need a $40 million zippy thingy.

mm

 

[Cork]

Try peeing in the wind. Your dog pays closer attention then management at orda. We're just another whiney customer.

That comment literally made me laugh out lot with a snort!!!

 

[Cork]

IMHO...ORDA is trying to make the Lake Placid area (Whiteface, Mt VanHovenberg, the Bobsled and the jumping complex) a world class, competition, snow sports destination - "The NYS Winter Jewel".
I have skied Gore, I like Gore, not knocking Gore...but after 25 years of not skiing at Gore then returning ...I was shocked how nothing had changed (which I thought was cool - has a retro vibe ...like West Mtn) but that just points that they are not putting budget into Gore.
The past 10 years at Whiteface, skiing on a regular basis - I am surprised at what a huge difference in the 10 years there is.
Two new lifts, expanded parks, new midstation lodge (ok - that's not fair to include that one), expanded Bears Den, huge amount of permanent snow guns. I think Gore is feeling the sting of not being prioritized.

Gore's snowmaking system is state of the art and unlimited in their water supply with it's enlargered reservoir and The Hudson River supply. This is just mis-management on orda and gore. gore mgmt knew they were losing the brains of the mountain ops last season and no effort was made to replace. Yeah the guy that retired, Howie, who knew all of the Mt Ops and was way more qualified to be the Area 1 when the job became available when MP went to be orda 1. But instead they gave the gave the job to our current Area 1, because even though he had 000 experience in ever being a Mountain Manager, maybe he had guided Cuomo down the Hudson River in a made for TV event of the Adirondack Challenge arranged by Cuomo to look good...

I'm thinking we literally got boned...

I just want my mountain back! Yes that's right! Because I love my mountain and all of the awesome employees that make it run!!. The employees who all work hard, they just need direction, and management needs to pick up the slack and GET OUT ON THE MOUNTAIN!!.