Gore Mountain - Saturday, November 27 - Opening Day

Date(s) Skied: Saturday, November 27

Resort or Ski Area: Gore Mountain

Conditions: Early season conditions/machine groomed/packed powder

Trip Report: Great day for the first day of my 2010-11 season. Saved $10 by donating a non-perishable food item for the Gore Mtn Food Drive (this promotion continues thru mid-December). Got there early enough to be on the gondola by their posted opening time of 8:30; it was actually 8:27. I later heard from another skier that they actually had the gondola open around 8:15. The snow was great - I'm an intermediate skier, and I found the snow to be very ski-able. A few other people I rode up the gondola with commented that Gore did a great job considering what Mother Nature gave them. Edge-to-edge coverage. Only one trail open from the gondola to the base - mostly green terrain with a few blue drops on the Quicksilver trail. (They're trying to open the Topridge area for tomorrow. They had the guns going like crazy, and it looked pretty good.) Lines were short - my longest wait was 3 minutes. I suspect that most people there today are season pass holders, as I never saw more than 2 people on line for tickets.

This was my third trip to Gore, and it has yet to disappoint.

Zinger... I thought Gore was pretty respectable too. Then again I'm a notorious "homer."
:wink:

The best part on Saturday, was the 90 minute lake effect squall...



...and on Sunday it was the opening of Topridge...



Gore Mtn, NY: 11/27/10

Gore Mtn, NY: 11/28/10

very cool that Gore would open that Topridge area with minimal cover like that. Highline at Killington today appeared to have much more snow than that, but was roped off.

deadheadskier said:

very cool that Gore would open that Topridge area with minimal cover like that. Highline at Killington today appeared to have much more snow than that, but was roped off.

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dhs ... good observation IMO. While you'd be hardpressed to get him to admit it, this kind of thinking comes right from Mike Pratt the GM. Since he took the top job (10?) years ago he's really made a point of putting more terrain into play. Gore regulars know that some of the very best terrain on the hill is under the lifts. Straightbrook, High Peaks, and Topridge especially. He's pushed to make that happen.

Gore has this "code." If there's an extra "Expert" sign that has been planted into snow at the beginning of an expert trail, and it's roped off except for one spot, one skier wide, it means ... "a lot of mountains wouldn't open this terrain, but we think, if you've got the chops, and are careful... you're gunna love it."

Mother nature made Saturday great, and Gore's aggressive approach made Sunday great.

harvey44 said:

dhs ... good observation IMO. While you'd be hardpressed to get him to admit it, this kind of thinking comes right from Mike Pratt the GM. Since he took the top job (10?) years ago he's really made a point of putting more terrain into play. Gore regulars know that some of the very best terrain on the hill is under the lifts. Straightbrook, High Peaks, and Topridge especially. He's pushed to make that happen.

Gore has this "code." If there's an extra "Expert" sign that has been planted into snow at the beginning of an expert trail, and it's roped off except for one spot, one skier wide, it means ... "a lot of mountains wouldn't open this terrain, but we think, if you've got the chops, and are careful... you're gunna love it."

Mother nature made Saturday great, and Gore's aggressive approach made Sunday great.

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I've only skied at Gore a couple days each of the last couple years; many years ago, I used to go there more. But I have always thought that they were quite bad at not opening trails with thin cover. Occasionally many years back Upper Darby and Lower Steilhang, if they ever opened, would be opened on thin cover. But generally speaking they seemed to keep skiable trails closed. I've seen many more thin-cover trails opened at Sugarbush in recent years (and many years ago, at Killington). This is one of my gripes with Gore actually. You are the Gore expert though so maybe my experience is off.

kcyanks1 said:

I've only skied at Gore a couple days each of the last couple years; many years ago, I used to go there more. But I have always thought that they were quite bad at not opening trails with thin cover. Occasionally many years back Upper Darby and Lower Steilhang, if they ever opened, would be opened on thin cover. But generally speaking they seemed to keep skiable trails closed. I've seen many more thin-cover trails opened at Sugarbush in recent years (and many years ago, at Killington). This is one of my gripes with Gore actually. You are the Gore expert though so maybe my experience is off.

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KC ... I've only really been a regulary Gore skier for about five years or so. And, I've only really been a BLACK skier for the last two or three, so I might not be the expert that you think. The terrain you are referring to ... Upper Darby and Lower Steilhang is definitely old school black terrain.

In addition my lift served experience is pretty limited - I haven't skied a lot of other mtns since I became a black skier.

That said I have found Gore to be pretty good about accessing terrain, based on snow cover. I remember once two years ago we'd have maybe 15 inches overnight and patrol opened Uncas with no mademade base under the natural. It got skied for an hour until rocks were exposed and then they shut it down. If you were in the right place at the right time, you got one great run out of it.

Mid-week lifts have always been a budget challenge, but IMO that's really a related, but different issue.

harvey44 said:

KC ... I've only really been a regulary Gore skier for about five years or so. And, I've only really been a BLACK skier for the last two or three, so I might not be the expert that you think. The terrain you are referring to ... Upper Darby and Lower Steilhang is definitely old school black terrain.

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I realize that those are old trails. I did regularly (say, about 10 times a year) in the Rumor/Lies days as well. I basically was trying to say that my remembrance of Gore and opening thin cover trails is basically a couple trails in the old days. Otherwise they generally seem to wait for (pretty) full cover. I do though recall them a couple times having the "natural" north and opening some intermediate trails there on natural snow -- but when I was there, it was with pretty good coverage, and basically funny to me that they had to make such a big deal about the lack of snowmaking.

harvey44 said:

That said I have found Gore to be pretty good about accessing terrain, based on snow cover. I remember once two years ago we'd have maybe 15 inches overnight and patrol opened Uncas with no mademade base under the natural. It got skied for an hour until rocks were exposed and then they shut it down. If you were in the right place at the right time, you got one great run out of it.

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Perhaps they have done such things sometimes, we can only speak from our own experiences. One of the times I was there in the last couple years, upper mountain glades were completely skiable (not a good surface, but covered enough), yet still closed.

On the other hand, I've seen Sugarbush open things that are essentially obstacle courses where you have to link patch to patch. I've seen them open things with water bars fully across the trail so that you basically have to side-step over. Now, maybe they are going too far, but the difference between my personal experience at Gore and personal experience at Sugarbush is night and day.

harvey44 said:

Mid-week lifts have always been a budget challenge, but IMO that's really a related, but different issue.

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I rarely was skiing midweek, so that definitely was not the issue I am discussing.

kcyanks1 said:

Perhaps they have done such things sometimes, we can only speak from our own experiences. One of the times I was there in the last couple years, upper mountain glades were completely skiable (not a good surface, but covered enough), yet still closed.

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Like I said ... I have a lot of experience over the past few years, but that's really it.

Last December, the best skiing was (by far IMO) in the trees, and I was consistently amazed at what they'd open. Beat the hell out of my skis, but hey... that's what they are for.

Sugarbush looks like a great place. Would love to get there.

Ripcord open with walking. Don't know how much walking though.

http://forums.skimrv.com/viewtopic.php?p=27191#27191

kcyanks1 said:

Ripcord open with walking. Don't know how much walking though.

http://forums.skimrv.com/viewtopic.php?p=27191#27191

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Sugarbush opened Ripcord yesterday. The lower part of the trail was closed and you had to walk about 80 yards on a cutover to Organgrinder. The snow coverage on the cutover was very thin and patrol actually brought in snow to cover over three gaps/streams. Some people just skied over the water on the route, most elected to walk.