Coronavirus and Skiing

[Harvey]

Where you going to ski @jasonwx ? Midweek Hunter?

 

[Harvey]

View attachment 10194

^^This is the most interesting to me. Surprised they would put it out there and also curious about why 18-19 was an outlier. It was a good year for snow I think.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

^^This is the most interesting to me. Surprised they would put it out there and also curious about why 18-19 was an outlier. It was a good year for snow I think.

Maybe it's the new normal, not an outlier. Even 2020 wasn't bad considering they lost the last year of the season. DId they find some new revenue source in 2019? Maybe the Ski Bowl contract with the town or the solar energy deal? I don't remember when those things happened. Some of the loss years are easy to explain. 2016 was the year with no winter, 2018 was the year they were on Max Pass. Maybe they just learned how to run a ski area.

mm

 

[Milo Maltbie]

I was only in lines one day, over Christmas at Gore.

There were long lines for the AE2 before 9am a lot of mornings. That was a COVID thing. The worst day last year was when they closed Echo and Sagamore for racing. Usually the long lines at Gore are caused by gondola breakdowns before the BRG and AE2 are started. I've never seen an excessive line at Gore when the BRQ was running.
None of the lines in recent years are anywhere near as bad as back when the red gondola and East double were the only way out of the base.

mm

 

[Milo Maltbie]

I sat out last year.
I plan on skiing this year
As long as I can boot up in the lodge

Boot up in the car wasn't bad at all. as long as you got there early enough thaat the walk wasn't too long. The best thing was I drove up alone most days and wrmed up my boots under the car heater. I'm gonna have to work on a way to heat up my boots every day now.
Skiing was the safest and most enjoyable thing I could do last winter. If I had sat out last year I would have died of cabin fever.

mm

 

[Harvey]

Boot up in the car wasn't bad at all. as long as you got there early enough thaat the walk wasn't too long. The best thing was I drove up alone most days and wrmed up my boots under the car heater.

This is what I did after I figured out that my fingers and toes ended up much warmer. I wish the driver's seat went a LITTLE bit farther back, but not really a big deal.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Based on ORDA's pass numbers, they will need full capacity lifts if they don't want to be shutting out passholders with a reservation system.

Gore has take away capacity from the base on 3 lifts- the gondola, AE2 and BRQ. Before COVID, they rarely opened the AE2 in the first hour, and never had the BRQ until late morning. So basically they typically ran at less than half capacity every morning.
The lift lines at Gore are mostly reasonable, unless the gondola breaks down. Even with that lines wouldn't awful if they opened AE2 and BRQ at 830.

mm

 

[snoloco]

Last year had the worst lines I have ever seen at Gore. Mostly the problem was at the base, but it wasn't just before 9am, or before 10am. It was consistent for nearly the entire day except maybe a small break around lunch and after around 2:30. For the most part if you stuck to the other sections you were fine, but there were days when I saw the lines at Topridge, Straightbrook, and High Peaks back up the hill.

As I've said earlier, we did what was necessary to open last year. It worked, considering there were no extended closures in the Northeast. But there were clearly bad effects from it and I'm not going to sugarcoat it, glorify it, or otherwise engage in revisionist history. Also, on weekends, they almost always opened the AE2 at the same time as the gondola, covid or not. Maybe weekdays were different, but I rarely ski at Gore on weekdays, so I don't know.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

Last year had the worst lines I have ever seen at Gore. Mostly the problem was at the base, but it wasn't just before 9am, or before 10am. It was consistent for nearly the entire day except maybe a small break around lunch and after around 2:30. For the most part if you stuck to the other sections you were fine, but there were days when I saw the lines at Topridge, Straightbrook, and High Peaks back up the hill.

I was there days like that as well. but only when the BRQ was not running. That's about a third of the base area take away capacity, and maybe 15% or more of the total capacity of Gore. Gore lift lines are caused by an unreliable gondola and their slow roll opening plan more than capacity limitations.

mm

 

[tirolski]

Maybe weekdays were different, but I rarely ski at Gore on weekdays, so I don't know.

Skied Gore ~2 dozen times over a couple years using a M-F pass.
Didn’t go once last year even though purchased the infrequent skier card.
Never been there on a weekend or holiday and most likely will keep that run intact.
It’s great when nobody’s there, lots of it open, the snow’s good & especially if it’s sunny.
It was a good fun "old normal" for a bit.