snoloco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
I went to Gore today, partly because I was going with a friend who had evening plans, so it made sense to take advantage of the shorter drive, and to ride the new Hudson Chair. I'll give my thoughts on the new lift, as well as a full report, addressing what went well on this holiday Saturday, and various operational shortcomings.
We only had from open until 2, so we planned on skipping lunch and just skiing nonstop until we had to leave. We had planned to take laps on the front side to start, then work our way through the Topridge, Straightbrook, High Peaks, and North pods, before going to the Ski Bowl to ride the new lift, and hitting Burnt Ridge on the way back over.
Things got off to a great start. We pulled in the parking lot just before 7:30 and got a close spot. After booting up, we lined up for the gondola at 8, and to my surprise, they dropped the rope at 8:02. That must be a record for the earliest before a scheduled start time that I have boarded a lift. We did 5 laps on the front side, Foxlair to Quicksilver, Showcase, Twister, Wild Air, and Lower Sleighride being the exact order. Minimal lines for either lift during this timeframe. By the time we reached the top of the lift on our second lap, I noticed that ropes had all been dropped on trails leading to the upper lifts. Note that this was still before 8:30. And by the time we got back to the bottom on said lap, Burnt Ridge was open. I was super happy to see the lifts open so early to spread crowds out.
We did a run on Topridge, and then took Pine Knot to the Straightbrook Quad. However, it was only loading every other chair and had a huge line. So we skipped it and went back down to Topridge, rode up, and took Ruby to Wood In to High Peaks. To my surprise, that lift was backed up out of the ropes too, and was a disorganized mess with no singles line, no one directing traffic, and many chairs going up with empty seats. Since Wood Out was closed, we had no choice but to wait. We took Hawkeye back to Topridge, and then down Ruby to Twister to Echo to Burnt Ridge.
From the top of Burnt Ridge, we took Backwoods to Peaceful Valley to the ski bowl. The Backwoods portion was very good, but just before the first bridge had a icy rutted out spot, and Peaceful Valley was in a condition indicative of premature grooming after snowmaking. 46er and Moxham were in similar to Peaceful Valley. We spent the rest of the day taking laps between the Ski Bowl and Burnt Ridge, which seemed to be the best bet for avoiding lift lines. At the end of the day, we took one last run on the Adirondack Express.
First I want to talk about the good things. First is the early openings of the lifts. This made the morning as it really helped to spread out crowds quickly. I wish it was like this every day, because the opening times of lifts are often inconsistent.
Second is the new Hudson Chair. I timed the ride at 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Whereas my recording of the old lift was just short of 10 minutes. This means it's about 5.5 minutes faster every ride. In our 9 laps on it, it saved us about 50 minutes of lift ride time when compared to the old lift. It is possible to get through laps at the Ski Bowl much faster now, either to make room for more laps at the Ski Bowl,or more laps elsewhere on the mountain. I just wish it could be open more consistently.
Now we get into some of the shortcomings. First is the Straightbrook lift only loading every other chair. I had previously heard of this in other reports, and since it hasn't been fixed, it appears to be a long-term thing. Having one of the main lifts down to half capacity not only doubles wait times there, but also forces people over to other lifts, making them more crowded. To this day, management has not even acknowledged the issue, much less provide a timeframe to resolve it.
Second is lift line management. Yes, this is a holiday weekend, and I expect lift lines to be a thing. However, at High Peaks, not adequately setting up queue ropes, not directing traffic, and allowing so many chairs to go up with empty seats is unacceptable. Burnt Ridge has also become a notable bottleneck because the Ski Bowl is more popular now, and it is the only egress. Yet it still only has a two-lane RFID gate that was reused from the retired Sunway Double. It's been that way for 4 years now and still hasn't been fixed. There's no excuse for not having the proper gate size for the lift. This effectively ensures that it will never be filled to more than half capacity. Sure enough, today there were multiple instances of a large backup at the gates, but chairs going up empty. At that point, the gates need to just be opened to allow everyone through, as I doubt many people are trying to ride Burnt Ridge for free.
Third, and probably the most major, is snowmaking and trail conditions. Many major trails remain closed, even though they have typically opened by this time in much less favorable winters. Uncas and Sagamore are the most notable. A lot of what is open is very thin and not full width. Showcase was a ribbon. Wild Air was two separate trails on each side. Sunway and Twister had brown spots. Eagle's Nest had one spot where skier traffic stripped it down to bare ground. Some other trails had decent coverage, but were just in bad shape, like Echo, which was super icy. Though they had made a lot of snow there, the Ski Bowl trails were very obviously not allowed to drain prior to grooming, which led to icy conditions.
I hope Gore can still get caught up on opening their remaining trails, and increasing coverage on their already open trails. They're going to need to if they want to be open in the spring.
Quicksilver
Showcase ribbon
Pine Knot, and line for Straightbrook, resulting from every other chair loading.
This sent a lot more people to High Peaks than usual.
Snowmaking-less Sagamore. Disappointing.
Backwoods was very good.
My first ride up the new Hudson Chair.
46er was good except the headwall which was icy.
Moxham felt like it needed a few more grooms.
New trail, Half and Half.
Thin coverage on Eagle's Nest. Not sure why they struggle so much with this trail.
We only had from open until 2, so we planned on skipping lunch and just skiing nonstop until we had to leave. We had planned to take laps on the front side to start, then work our way through the Topridge, Straightbrook, High Peaks, and North pods, before going to the Ski Bowl to ride the new lift, and hitting Burnt Ridge on the way back over.
Things got off to a great start. We pulled in the parking lot just before 7:30 and got a close spot. After booting up, we lined up for the gondola at 8, and to my surprise, they dropped the rope at 8:02. That must be a record for the earliest before a scheduled start time that I have boarded a lift. We did 5 laps on the front side, Foxlair to Quicksilver, Showcase, Twister, Wild Air, and Lower Sleighride being the exact order. Minimal lines for either lift during this timeframe. By the time we reached the top of the lift on our second lap, I noticed that ropes had all been dropped on trails leading to the upper lifts. Note that this was still before 8:30. And by the time we got back to the bottom on said lap, Burnt Ridge was open. I was super happy to see the lifts open so early to spread crowds out.
We did a run on Topridge, and then took Pine Knot to the Straightbrook Quad. However, it was only loading every other chair and had a huge line. So we skipped it and went back down to Topridge, rode up, and took Ruby to Wood In to High Peaks. To my surprise, that lift was backed up out of the ropes too, and was a disorganized mess with no singles line, no one directing traffic, and many chairs going up with empty seats. Since Wood Out was closed, we had no choice but to wait. We took Hawkeye back to Topridge, and then down Ruby to Twister to Echo to Burnt Ridge.
From the top of Burnt Ridge, we took Backwoods to Peaceful Valley to the ski bowl. The Backwoods portion was very good, but just before the first bridge had a icy rutted out spot, and Peaceful Valley was in a condition indicative of premature grooming after snowmaking. 46er and Moxham were in similar to Peaceful Valley. We spent the rest of the day taking laps between the Ski Bowl and Burnt Ridge, which seemed to be the best bet for avoiding lift lines. At the end of the day, we took one last run on the Adirondack Express.
First I want to talk about the good things. First is the early openings of the lifts. This made the morning as it really helped to spread out crowds quickly. I wish it was like this every day, because the opening times of lifts are often inconsistent.
Second is the new Hudson Chair. I timed the ride at 4 minutes and 12 seconds. Whereas my recording of the old lift was just short of 10 minutes. This means it's about 5.5 minutes faster every ride. In our 9 laps on it, it saved us about 50 minutes of lift ride time when compared to the old lift. It is possible to get through laps at the Ski Bowl much faster now, either to make room for more laps at the Ski Bowl,or more laps elsewhere on the mountain. I just wish it could be open more consistently.
Now we get into some of the shortcomings. First is the Straightbrook lift only loading every other chair. I had previously heard of this in other reports, and since it hasn't been fixed, it appears to be a long-term thing. Having one of the main lifts down to half capacity not only doubles wait times there, but also forces people over to other lifts, making them more crowded. To this day, management has not even acknowledged the issue, much less provide a timeframe to resolve it.
Second is lift line management. Yes, this is a holiday weekend, and I expect lift lines to be a thing. However, at High Peaks, not adequately setting up queue ropes, not directing traffic, and allowing so many chairs to go up with empty seats is unacceptable. Burnt Ridge has also become a notable bottleneck because the Ski Bowl is more popular now, and it is the only egress. Yet it still only has a two-lane RFID gate that was reused from the retired Sunway Double. It's been that way for 4 years now and still hasn't been fixed. There's no excuse for not having the proper gate size for the lift. This effectively ensures that it will never be filled to more than half capacity. Sure enough, today there were multiple instances of a large backup at the gates, but chairs going up empty. At that point, the gates need to just be opened to allow everyone through, as I doubt many people are trying to ride Burnt Ridge for free.
Third, and probably the most major, is snowmaking and trail conditions. Many major trails remain closed, even though they have typically opened by this time in much less favorable winters. Uncas and Sagamore are the most notable. A lot of what is open is very thin and not full width. Showcase was a ribbon. Wild Air was two separate trails on each side. Sunway and Twister had brown spots. Eagle's Nest had one spot where skier traffic stripped it down to bare ground. Some other trails had decent coverage, but were just in bad shape, like Echo, which was super icy. Though they had made a lot of snow there, the Ski Bowl trails were very obviously not allowed to drain prior to grooming, which led to icy conditions.
I hope Gore can still get caught up on opening their remaining trails, and increasing coverage on their already open trails. They're going to need to if they want to be open in the spring.
Quicksilver
Showcase ribbon
Pine Knot, and line for Straightbrook, resulting from every other chair loading.
This sent a lot more people to High Peaks than usual.
Snowmaking-less Sagamore. Disappointing.
Backwoods was very good.
My first ride up the new Hudson Chair.
46er was good except the headwall which was icy.
Moxham felt like it needed a few more grooms.
New trail, Half and Half.
Thin coverage on Eagle's Nest. Not sure why they struggle so much with this trail.
