Ski Days 3 and 4
With two first ever season passes in our family, this blog will be about Gore in 07/08. The mountain was great this weekend. A few gripes…NO TELEY GEAR at the demo on Friday… Is that normal? First time I ever even approached anyone at a demo event. In any case, I’ve finally learned what snappy means, and what a stiff is…by having a ski that is the total opposite of that. I basically learned to ski on Atomics, TM-22s.
Then, last year, I bought these K2s, on the phone, in the car, driving up 87 towards the snow, the day after Valentine’s day. While my new skis really can navigate anything…they are like wet noodles on the firm stuff. They can handle it, but it’ not like my atomics..they don’t push back. If anyone can recommend some stiffer teles with the same geometry as the World Pistes…I’m all ears. I think they are 78 underfoot. OK back to it. Friday was pretty good. Fast and hard, but carvy. And again, like two weeks ago – limited terrain, but limited skiers too.
They had Showcase open top to bottom, with some nicely farmed, snow… half cold dry manmade, and half natural wetter stuff. First tracks on that were killer. All the way down, no stops, paralleling on edge. Something must have been wrong with the snoblo equipment. All morning when it was 15 degrees….they weren’t blowing. Then in the PM it warmed to the twenties and the guns went on…Hawkeye and Twister. Neither of which were open.
Best trails on Friday were Showcase and Pine Knot. Pine Knot is overlooked by some because it’s got a funky fall line, and usually you are headed someplace better. Not on Friday…loose, dry natural snow on skiers right was there all day. I found out at the end of the day, Sunway still had some loose fresh down both sides. Friday was a day for rippin’ the sides. The predicted snowfall never really got going on Friday.
Saturday – It did snow maybe one or two inches during the day. With natural snow in the woods, you could really see the new trail on Burnt Ridge from Showcase on Friday…it looked like they had kept it up on top of the cliff above Twister glades pretty good. When Twister opened it was ok, not great….it needed more work. Some chunks and none of that great stuff you get when its cold and the groomer has just gone by.
On closer inspection Saturday, from Twister, it made it look like there was carnage to the lower part of the glade. If they’ll clear the slash from the new trail they may open ups some interesting routes from the new trail…into the Twister Glades. Right now it looks like there is no easy way to get into the glade from the new trail with all lumber around. I decided I’m always going to have my skins with me at Gore. The Gondi has had some reliability issues lately. There was a point on Sat when if I had had my skins..I could have ridden the triple to the saddle and easily skinned over the top to get to the Gondi station and the summit.
I did laps, laps, laps on Pine Knot….I was jonesin to ski Hawkeye and now the Quad was having issues. It seemed like no one had run the thing since last May. Didn’t open until…not sure when, my watch broke. I got probably the 5th chair up Straightbrook and Hawkeye was a major blast. Buried whales, “powder,” mank, crust, hardpack. It was surprisingly good until the late day shade turned the manky parts into death cookies. By 3pm when I split it was a killing fields. Also headwaters had some nice fresh snow on both sides. My legs were toast. FYI – It seems like the trees up top, like the Straightbrook glades, wouldn’t need much to get going. Honestly…for one or two runs through, they look “doable.” I’d guess we need another 12-18 inches to start thinking about trees.