Sorry for the late post on this one, I pretty much shut my life down last week with the storm as I know some of you did and have been picking up the pieces the last 3 days or so!
The plan was simple, have the fiancee call in sick to work and leave Ithaca at about 6 AM to head up to Gore on Friday to ski the 38 inches of snow they had. I had joked earlier in the year that the only way we were going to take another ski trip was if somewhere got 4 feet of snow, and I got my wish.
The drive up was absolutely horrible courtesy of the Lake Ontario snow band settling on the I81 and I90 area. People were off all over the place, and then all of a sudden we broke into blue skies and sunshine about 10 miles east of Utica. Nevertheless, the drive up took about an hour longer than it should have, and probably would have taken longer without our Silverado.
We got to Gore around 10:30 AM and were still able to park in one of the closer parking lots. It was clear the place wasn't overly crowded. We headed in, got our lift tickets, got our gear on and were out on the trails by about 11:30 AM. We started with a blue run on Fox Lair as a warm up under the gondola. Things were somewhat choppy with some very badly wind blown areas (the wind was really going in areas of the mountain with western exposure), but overall things looked pretty good. We quickly decided to get off the main trails and start exploring. We skied Cave Glades which was only opened last year, and this may have been the first time they were able to open it at all. It was a great shot with a lot of fresh untracked snow in it. Very narrow gladed area, with lots of interesting variability in pitch and what not. We just took our time, and had a lot of fun. We were not able to find the "cave" that you can ski through anywhere though.
Further runs that day included a lot of moguls up top in the Straight Brook area including The Rumor. The skier's left side of the headwall was blown off, but you could still edge into it. Otherwise, the trail was just 3 to 5 foot tall bump after bump of great natural snow. Straightbrook Glade was in good shape, but wasn't anywhere near as fresh due to easier access. We wrapped up the day with a run on Twister which wasn't groomed (it was great hearing the more everyday skiers complain about Gore not grooming out some of the blue trails).
The next day we headed out from Saratoga where we were staying at about 7 AM. We wanted to get to Gore around 8:15 AM or so. We ended up parked at about the same place we did the previous day (bad sign) and I ended up stuck on line for a lift ticket for about 30 minutes since I used a recipricol season pass discount and they wouldn't sell me a two day ticket on Friday (it wasn't eligible for the holiday). Once we got skiing around 9:30 AM though, things quickly looked up. Blue trails were completely clogged up and there were definite choke points on the mountain. Nevertheless, we never waited longer than maybe 5 minutes in a lift line anywhere. We skied the Twister glades early in the day while you could still find untracked and had a great time skiing the liftline glade under the triple. The other liftlines were open, but did have some bare patches and a lot of drops, so we decided to give them a pass due to generally being worn out.
Lies was in incredible shape other than for a bit of ice at the top, and Upper Steilhang (another one of their double black trails) was an absolute blast (we finished up the day with it). Riding up the North Quad we talked to a massive burly guy on 194 Stormriders who seemed to be a regular. He told us Gore broke their record for skier attendance that day. I'd believe it, since cars were actually parked all the way down the access road to Peaceful Valley Rd. The incredible thing is that the mountain never felt that crazy, other than when we had to get lunch.
Overall, absolutely great day. I think I've heard people mention that Gore has inbound terrain as hairball as anything in northern VT, it's just rare that they have the snow for it. Well, they actually had the snow for once, and it was great. If any of you have ever thought about skiing there and haven't checked the place out, this would be the time to do it, especially if they get a bit more fresh snow (with the current bit of thaw and freezing going on).
The plan was simple, have the fiancee call in sick to work and leave Ithaca at about 6 AM to head up to Gore on Friday to ski the 38 inches of snow they had. I had joked earlier in the year that the only way we were going to take another ski trip was if somewhere got 4 feet of snow, and I got my wish.
The drive up was absolutely horrible courtesy of the Lake Ontario snow band settling on the I81 and I90 area. People were off all over the place, and then all of a sudden we broke into blue skies and sunshine about 10 miles east of Utica. Nevertheless, the drive up took about an hour longer than it should have, and probably would have taken longer without our Silverado.
We got to Gore around 10:30 AM and were still able to park in one of the closer parking lots. It was clear the place wasn't overly crowded. We headed in, got our lift tickets, got our gear on and were out on the trails by about 11:30 AM. We started with a blue run on Fox Lair as a warm up under the gondola. Things were somewhat choppy with some very badly wind blown areas (the wind was really going in areas of the mountain with western exposure), but overall things looked pretty good. We quickly decided to get off the main trails and start exploring. We skied Cave Glades which was only opened last year, and this may have been the first time they were able to open it at all. It was a great shot with a lot of fresh untracked snow in it. Very narrow gladed area, with lots of interesting variability in pitch and what not. We just took our time, and had a lot of fun. We were not able to find the "cave" that you can ski through anywhere though.
Further runs that day included a lot of moguls up top in the Straight Brook area including The Rumor. The skier's left side of the headwall was blown off, but you could still edge into it. Otherwise, the trail was just 3 to 5 foot tall bump after bump of great natural snow. Straightbrook Glade was in good shape, but wasn't anywhere near as fresh due to easier access. We wrapped up the day with a run on Twister which wasn't groomed (it was great hearing the more everyday skiers complain about Gore not grooming out some of the blue trails).
The next day we headed out from Saratoga where we were staying at about 7 AM. We wanted to get to Gore around 8:15 AM or so. We ended up parked at about the same place we did the previous day (bad sign) and I ended up stuck on line for a lift ticket for about 30 minutes since I used a recipricol season pass discount and they wouldn't sell me a two day ticket on Friday (it wasn't eligible for the holiday). Once we got skiing around 9:30 AM though, things quickly looked up. Blue trails were completely clogged up and there were definite choke points on the mountain. Nevertheless, we never waited longer than maybe 5 minutes in a lift line anywhere. We skied the Twister glades early in the day while you could still find untracked and had a great time skiing the liftline glade under the triple. The other liftlines were open, but did have some bare patches and a lot of drops, so we decided to give them a pass due to generally being worn out.
Lies was in incredible shape other than for a bit of ice at the top, and Upper Steilhang (another one of their double black trails) was an absolute blast (we finished up the day with it). Riding up the North Quad we talked to a massive burly guy on 194 Stormriders who seemed to be a regular. He told us Gore broke their record for skier attendance that day. I'd believe it, since cars were actually parked all the way down the access road to Peaceful Valley Rd. The incredible thing is that the mountain never felt that crazy, other than when we had to get lunch.
Overall, absolutely great day. I think I've heard people mention that Gore has inbound terrain as hairball as anything in northern VT, it's just rare that they have the snow for it. Well, they actually had the snow for once, and it was great. If any of you have ever thought about skiing there and haven't checked the place out, this would be the time to do it, especially if they get a bit more fresh snow (with the current bit of thaw and freezing going on).
