Gore Mountain Conditions

[lukoson]

Looks like they are bringing in all the chairs on the ADK. Or do they always do that?

 

[ickglocma]

Perhaps because of icing.

 

[SayvilleSteve]

I noticed that some of the gondola cabins still had windows open on Sunday. Gonna be interesting when they get that going again.

 

[ADKSRAOK]

Regarding:
the Northwoods Gondola is currently undergoing mechanical repairs. A faulty bearing in the gearbox is the cause of our mechanical issue. A new bearing is en route. The gearbox has been disassembled and is ready for when the new part arrives.
Are similar extended lift outages common in the industry? Is a long outage for a gearbox bearing a freak thing, or reasonable to think it was preventable? ie: by improved preventive maintenance, or by ensuring that critical parts are available to expedite repairs?
Any knowledge regarding a backstory on this long lift outage, or history of similar failures? Just curious.
Don't get to Gore often, but will be sure to start checking their website before the long drive.

 

[Alfredeneumann]

Regarding:
the Northwoods Gondola is currently undergoing mechanical repairs. A faulty bearing in the gearbox is the cause of our mechanical issue. A new bearing is en route. The gearbox has been disassembled and is ready for when the new part arrives.
Are similar extended lift outages common in the industry? Is a long outage for a gearbox bearing a freak thing, or reasonable to think it was preventable? ie: by improved preventive maintenance, or by ensuring that critical parts are available to expedite repairs?
Any knowledge regarding a backstory on this long lift outage, or history of similar failures? Just curious.
Don't get to Gore often, but will be sure to start checking their website before the long drive.

The marketing report on the website is fantasy. Also check this blog and comments on the Gore FB page before you travel.

 

[Alfredeneumann]

False.

The Arena is the only trail at Gore that approaches 300 ft wide and that is only for the bottom 500ft. The looker's left of the Arena used to be a half pipe. There are no other trails wider than 200 ft. The NYS Constitution allows trails up to 200ft wide. The 200 foot width linit was created for safety reasons during ski racing and other competitions. Most trails at Gore are way under 200 ft wide.

Gore is in an APA approved intensive use area and one of only a handful of ski areas in the Ad Park. There might be thousands of areas in the 6 million acre Ad Park that might need actual remediation. Gore is not one of those areas.

It is next to impossible to narrow ski trails. It will only cost money and not save water, not save money and not save time.

It could take decades for new growth and contribute to more crowding on trails reducing safety.

Instead of worry about a the sides of ski trails, why not come up with a plan for the now closed McIntyre Mine in Tahawus? There is a 300 ft high tailings pile on the site of that mine that spills into the Hudson River. Maybe you could apply your expertise to that pile of tailings.

Apples and oranges, but since you asked, there was interest a few years ago in hauling those tailings out of there on the existing rail line to use for road building materials. A win-win, it saves having to mine stone for roadways elsewhere, and cleans up and restores what’s left from the old mine. Inexplicably the tree huggers fought it, didn’t want stinky dirty freight trains in their pretty forest, would rather tear up the tracks for another trail. That could still be done after you haul out the tailings, but that wasn’t an acceptable solution.

Of course it costs money to buy seedlings and pay someone to plant them. But blowing fewer acres of snow definitely requires less water, less energy and less man-hours.

 

[tirolski]

...there was interest a few years ago in hauling those tailings out of there on the existing rail line to use for road building materials. A win-win, it saves having to mine stone for roadways elsewhere, and cleans up and restores what’s left from the old mine. Inexplicably the tree huggers fought it, didn’t want stinky dirty freight trains in their pretty forest, would rather tear up the tracks for another trail. That could still be done after you haul out the tailings, but that wasn’t an acceptable solution.

That shit (tailings and pit water) ain’t going anywhere quick except when there's runoff into The Hudson.
National Lead Inc. mined it.

Photos of the McIntyre Iron Works

It used to start out clean.

 

[MarzNC]

On a separate note... When I give up on Gore, should I consider WhiteFace? It is an extra 30 minutes away, may be even more. Any terrain there I might be able to ski with the Frequent Skier Card? I believe, I was warned to avoid the "mixing bowl" at the bottom of the hill as being congested with a few too many bombers? Or was that a different mountain?

Pretty sure "mixing bowl" is gone. The development of the Bear Den lodge and new lift means the beginner terrain is away from the main base at Whiteface. Whether or not it's worth the extra drive time, you won't know unless you give it a try once.

 

[Jim]

I picked a good day for my first Gore visit of the season, and met my nephew to ski for the day. I was surprised at how many people were already parked when I pulled in at 9:10. Maybe they were all there for the racing/race training because everything else (lodge, lifts, trails) was not crowded. Waited no more than 2 or 3 chairs on any of my 21 runs. The snow was pretty good everywhere we went in the morning with the exception of Chatiemac and Topridge. It's amazing how much better Foxlair is when it doesn't have a gondola dumping off intermediate skiers who need to scrape their way down all day. It started snowing pretty hard while we were in for lunch and what I I thought was going to be just a few more runs turned into several more runs. The fresh cover was a lot of fun on every trail we skied after lunch. Glad I went, even though the ride home also featured a lot of fresh powder on Routes 8 and 30.

 

[NorEaster27]

Pouring snow at Gore for hours, I bet a foot new so far