<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/20/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Day two of my mini binge finds Jim and Shirley and snowboarding daughter Shana heading out for Gore Mt. at the hour of 7:15. It's not easy to rally the troops that early on a day off. The weather forecast was calling for big snow and we had deja-vu visions of the trip home from the weekend we skied with Zipp's family. <BR> <BR>When we got there around 9:00 we found open parking right up along the outer bank in the right hand lot up close to the lodge. Oh yeah, that's right, it's a Friday and I didn't realize Gore had midweek pricing and I had another coupon for $10 off for Shirley's ticket on top of that. Excellent way to start the day. <BR> <BR>They weren't running the North Quad supposedly due to a burned out motor and I actually had Shirley willing to try the Tahawus Glades when we got there. That's one area I hadn't found open yet in my several trips there and I was psyched. Poaching them was not an option since it would require a hike back out the full length of the North Quad. Bummer! Even worse, there were no glades open at all. The ski patrol said that it had rained for about an hour and a half at the end of the big snowfall on Monday into Tuesday and left a crust that might give people trouble. Later in the day I skied the upper part of the terrain park that was the first time I had ever seen that open and it was ungroomed. Shana and Shirley went around the Sunway trail to my right and I told them I would catch up somewhere below. When I get to the actual terrain park part I tend to get claustrophobia from the slick surface and high intensity maniac traffic through there. I must have thought I was back at Smuggler's because I never broke stride and just beelined off to the right through the woods and over towards Sunway. I didn't find the crust to be any problem. This aint Jay or Smuggler's, I don't know what the big deal was. <BR> <BR>I must digress for a moment about what constitutes opening a trail there or not. A couple of years ago Greg and I had got to Gore very early on one of our midweek jaunts and actually got invited to join a young ski patroller on an inspection of Lower Steilhang. This was back when I was just getting back into skiing and the only skis I had were my old Rossis. The patroller says, "wow, my dad said he used to have a pair of those before I was born." So we all duck the rope and head down. Greg and I take a line where the best cover appears and have no problem. The kid heads across a ledge at max warp and spins out and biffs on the ice. He gets up and does it again. Then he proclaims it's too dangerous, no way he's going to open it. I can hear Greg sigh under his breath. <BR> <BR>So anyway, we took our packs up to midstation lodge via the triple and did a warm up down Twister and cut over below the last drop before the bottom to come out on the line in side of the gondi. Gore is a lot like Titus Mt. in that you have to try to plan your routes to minimize poling and skating as much as possible. Like Titus the day before, the snow is excellent, if you like groomed, but somewhat stiffer. The ground up natural crust from earlier in the week gave the surface an unfortunate similarity to ground up manmade. The amazing thing was the complete excellent cover on Showcase under the triple chair. Every other time I have been there it has been solid glazed over ice. We made the trip up the gondi and over and up Straightbrook to the top and headed down Cloud. I wanted to see if Lower Steilhang was open and showed Shirley and Shana how to go around the blue squares so we would meet up at the base of the high peaks double. (Leigh, if you are listening, they got it this time (- It wasn't open but Hullabaloo was and I found it to be in probably the best condition I have ever skied it. My own personal opinion is that the snowmaking crew at Gore does much better texture wise than their counterparts at Whiteface. There was no ice at all and no grooming. The texture was like soft gypsum or talc as opposed to the really stiff Styrofoam type they blast on Whiteface on the more wind exposed trails. On riding up the high peaks double I noticed people skiing down upper Darby. Bonus, bay-bee, like that trail is almost never open. It's a short but steep and winding totally natural trail with no snowmaking and it gets scraped off rather easily. I jumped at the chance and told Shirley and Shana how to meet me by going down the Cloud, headwaters connection to meet at Straightbrook. Two for two Zipp, I'm on a streak. I'm just bombing through the moguls on the first part that cuts across the ridge when I come upon two families with little kids side slipping the center of the trail in sheer terror. There is a huge sign at the entrance warning people that this is for experts only, you must be an expert, warning, danger etc,etc. Either they can't read or it attracts them like flies. I slalom between two petrified kids,jumpturn off the highest side of the trail and hop over a ledge and bounce off two moguls in a row like Bernstein at Orford and pick up a fairly decent rhythm below the entourage. This crosses Open Pit and intersects with Cloud coming down and Shirley and I meet at exactly the same time. She's definitely getting better pretty fast. On the way up the quad I jokingly comment want to try Chattimac. Shirley smiles and says yeah, sure. Shana just gives me her usual teenage scowl. This was an excellent run with well spaced and soft moguls that they could handle. Again, no ice anywhere to be found; amazing. They enjoyed that so much we took Hawkeye next. I'm wondering when the luck will run out but Hawkeye was ditto like Chattimac and the usually sheet ice headwall just above the left turn under the chair was perfect packed powder. Next ride up I explain I have to do Lies and explain to them to do Cloud/headwaters again. Lies was just super, absolutely the best I have ever experienced it. Not a bit of ice anywhere and not groomed. Excellent well spaced moguls and totally edgeable. I screwed up in telling the gals I would meet them at the headwaters/cloud intersection and realize Lies doesn't come out there. OOPs. Shana gets too far ahead of Shirley and Shirley screws up and takes Open Pit. Eventually we all find each other at the lift and Shirley's smiling. She's picked up where she left off the day before and wants more diamonds. <BR> <BR>After lunch at mid we do the pole-skate-shush trip over wood in to get back to the high peaks chair. I do another trip down upper Darby with no people to slalom anywhere this time. The gals meet me at the chair and this time I just had to do Rumor. I decided to brave the steepest part on the farthest left of the headwall and hit the only ice of the day I found anywhere. A twenty foot patch on the very top was not edgeable with the little Elans and I found myself gripping just about 12 inches of inside edge tip on my downhill ski in enough snow to hold me. Ever get that feeling in your gut that if you move you are dead? The snow on top of the snowmaking pipes looked firm enough to turn on and just wide enough to get two or three turns to get me below the ice spot. I also calculated that if I fell I could snag a sapling or spigot pipe as opposed to nothing in the middle of the headwall. Bingo, I hit the turns and back out onto all the sloughed off loose stuff below the headwall and started cranking turns. The snow from my deep carves was avalanching down the trail faster than I was descending. This was another truly awesome run. To sum up the conditions at the top I would say that all trails were open and as perfect as they get; and there were no glades open. I then pushed my luck a little too far by taking the gals down Lower Darby. It's rated single black and I figured it would be just like the others. Wrong. Heavy loose chowder and erratically spaced snowmaking whales were not to the gals liking. Shirley survived but Shana took one of those god awful full spinning, whiplashing, body slamming, head banging, face planting falls that I often witness of snowboarders. I still can't see having both your feet fixed and immobile to catch or save yourself. One thing snowboarders don't have is yardsales. (-: Time for a midstation break after that. Shirley gives me an "ahem" when she sees Lower Darby listed as a double diamond on the wall map in the lodge. I assure her it isn't but I think she really wants to believe it is. We finished up the day doing a couple of easy cruisers from midstation down. Shana and I do some tight figure eight type turns on the far left side of Twister where we find untouched powder. This helps her regain her enthusiasm after the fall on Lower Darby. Another excellent "10" day in my skiing book. On the way up the road Shirley asks when can we go again. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!
Gore Mt., NY 2/18/00
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