Harvey
Administrator
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2020
Ski Day 22: On Saturday I skied Hickory and got whipped doing it. Sunday I called an audible, actually working from the cabin with the goal of getting Monday off. I was trying to make my own luck.
I got to bed around 11pm Sunday night. As is my way, I can't sleep too well when it's snowing. I woke an hour before the alarm...
...three or four inches down when I left the cabin at 7:30. It's often a bit of a panic coming down our driveway. If it hasn't been sanded since the last snow and you break loose, you have to hope no one is coming down the road. No problem getting down on this day.
First Tracks
When the North Creek Ski Bowl isn't open, I go to the back of the main base lodge hoping to find some men in black. Shaman, Newman! and Condor came in, which was great. It was snowing pretty good at the base. Looked like at least an inch an hour.
Snoopy Chute!
Lower mountain trees were looking really good.
Chatterbox
When the top opened, we got on the Straightbrook Chair via Killkare. It was really snowing hard.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Summit-Nuke.jpg" border="1"/>
As happens, by the end of the second run, I'd lost my group while trying to take pics.
I include this shot of the Straightbrook entrance just to prove to myself that I could get one photo, in focus...
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Straightbrook-Entrance.jpg" border="1"/>
Chatiemac glades were incredible. No reason to venture beyond the primary lines...
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Chatiemac-Glade.jpg" border="1"/>
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Chatiemac.jpg" border="1"/>
Everything we did up top was great. Killkare, Straightbrook, Chatiemac, Headwaters, Dell.
As Mingus once said: "everything I touched turn to gold."
This was an unusual storm. Not a coastal, not a moisture-starved clipper or even a clipper. It came across the middle of the country with good moisture that it wasn't directly pulling from the ocean. Cold and no sign of mixed precip anywhere in NY.
One result that was unusual at Gore: summit lifts were very windy. Dark Side was closed from wind. Chairs were banging against the lift towers.
My only regret from the day was not riding Hullabaloo down to Wood Out and the North Chair. It would have been sublime...
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Hullabaloo.jpg" border="1"/>
But I didn't know if the North was running yet, or at all. I really wanted to ski the North, but dropping in felt risky.
I took the Chatiemac glades deep down Tannery towards the Topridge chair.
I find myself compelled to ski High Pines, I'm told it's a flatlander thing. Maybe 20 skiers had been through and you could rip tight pow down the left.
At one point I pulled up at a big drop and some jokers from the lift were pushing me to do something stoopid. Without hesitating I dropped it and they cheered. It was one of the great moments in my career.
<smiley image="smiley_beam.gif"/>
I'd missed Hullabaloo, but this is when my luck turned even better.
At the top of Bear I did Scareview, coming right into the Saddle by the North. And who rolls off the lift... Duck.
You have to understand that for me this is brilliance.
Duck and I ski pow the same way. We sacrifice steeps for pow. And there he was coming off the North!
"Harv! What are you doing here?!?
"Even the blind squirrel sometimes finds the acorn."
We schralped the North Side. It was some of the best skiing of the day.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Under-North-Chair.jpg" border="1"/>
Under the North
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/North-Chair.jpg" border="1"/>
Incredible.
I haven't been to Burnt Ridge this season, and this seemed like a good time for the first trip. We used a variety of tricks to get over there, and then dropped in to the trees.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Abanaki-1.jpg" border="1"/>
Abanaki trees
Abanaki trees were fantastic. This WAS the best skiing of the day, and after 2pm.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Duck-Grins.jpg" border="1"/>
Dig it Duck
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Powerline.jpg" border="1"/>
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Cirque-Entrance.jpg" border="1"/>
The Cirque is a epic trip. There is lots of skiing and traversing.
To me it's so amazing to be in the trees, on a single run, for 20 minutes.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Tahawas-end-of-day.jpg" border="1"/>
Tahawas (to Chatterbox) and Out
I shot my mouth off about how this was my best day at Gore in two years. But realistically for me, this is in my top two days at Gore ever. The other contender being 12/20/08.
I skied until 3:30 and headed home. The only trying part of the drive was traveling 30 miles behind a four-wide plow convoy north of Albany. Got home around 10pm.
I am so pumped to have lived this day.
I got to bed around 11pm Sunday night. As is my way, I can't sleep too well when it's snowing. I woke an hour before the alarm...
...three or four inches down when I left the cabin at 7:30. It's often a bit of a panic coming down our driveway. If it hasn't been sanded since the last snow and you break loose, you have to hope no one is coming down the road. No problem getting down on this day.
First Tracks
When the North Creek Ski Bowl isn't open, I go to the back of the main base lodge hoping to find some men in black. Shaman, Newman! and Condor came in, which was great. It was snowing pretty good at the base. Looked like at least an inch an hour.
Snoopy Chute!
Lower mountain trees were looking really good.
Chatterbox
When the top opened, we got on the Straightbrook Chair via Killkare. It was really snowing hard.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Summit-Nuke.jpg" border="1"/>
As happens, by the end of the second run, I'd lost my group while trying to take pics.
I include this shot of the Straightbrook entrance just to prove to myself that I could get one photo, in focus...
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Straightbrook-Entrance.jpg" border="1"/>
Chatiemac glades were incredible. No reason to venture beyond the primary lines...
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Chatiemac-Glade.jpg" border="1"/>
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Chatiemac.jpg" border="1"/>
Everything we did up top was great. Killkare, Straightbrook, Chatiemac, Headwaters, Dell.
As Mingus once said: "everything I touched turn to gold."
This was an unusual storm. Not a coastal, not a moisture-starved clipper or even a clipper. It came across the middle of the country with good moisture that it wasn't directly pulling from the ocean. Cold and no sign of mixed precip anywhere in NY.
One result that was unusual at Gore: summit lifts were very windy. Dark Side was closed from wind. Chairs were banging against the lift towers.
My only regret from the day was not riding Hullabaloo down to Wood Out and the North Chair. It would have been sublime...
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Hullabaloo.jpg" border="1"/>
But I didn't know if the North was running yet, or at all. I really wanted to ski the North, but dropping in felt risky.
I took the Chatiemac glades deep down Tannery towards the Topridge chair.
I find myself compelled to ski High Pines, I'm told it's a flatlander thing. Maybe 20 skiers had been through and you could rip tight pow down the left.
At one point I pulled up at a big drop and some jokers from the lift were pushing me to do something stoopid. Without hesitating I dropped it and they cheered. It was one of the great moments in my career.
<smiley image="smiley_beam.gif"/>
I'd missed Hullabaloo, but this is when my luck turned even better.
At the top of Bear I did Scareview, coming right into the Saddle by the North. And who rolls off the lift... Duck.
You have to understand that for me this is brilliance.
Duck and I ski pow the same way. We sacrifice steeps for pow. And there he was coming off the North!
"Harv! What are you doing here?!?
"Even the blind squirrel sometimes finds the acorn."
We schralped the North Side. It was some of the best skiing of the day.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Under-North-Chair.jpg" border="1"/>
Under the North
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/North-Chair.jpg" border="1"/>
Incredible.
I haven't been to Burnt Ridge this season, and this seemed like a good time for the first trip. We used a variety of tricks to get over there, and then dropped in to the trees.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Abanaki-1.jpg" border="1"/>
Abanaki trees
Abanaki trees were fantastic. This WAS the best skiing of the day, and after 2pm.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Duck-Grins.jpg" border="1"/>
Dig it Duck
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Powerline.jpg" border="1"/>
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Cirque-Entrance.jpg" border="1"/>
The Cirque is a epic trip. There is lots of skiing and traversing.
To me it's so amazing to be in the trees, on a single run, for 20 minutes.
<img src="http://staging.nyskiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Tahawas-end-of-day.jpg" border="1"/>
Tahawas (to Chatterbox) and Out
I shot my mouth off about how this was my best day at Gore in two years. But realistically for me, this is in my top two days at Gore ever. The other contender being 12/20/08.
I skied until 3:30 and headed home. The only trying part of the drive was traveling 30 miles behind a four-wide plow convoy north of Albany. Got home around 10pm.
I am so pumped to have lived this day.
Last edited:
