Sharon
New member
With the recent warm n wet weather and a small window for snowmaking this past week, we were not sure what the skiing would be like at Gore this weekend, but I had a group of 20 people planning to ski, so we were going anyway for a long holiday weekend.
The skiing each day exceeded our expectations.
Friday was warm n misty. The condition of the mountain was more like April. The snow that was there was soft corn. Very easy to ski. Where they had blown snow it was pretty decent. Where they hadn't spread recent snow was firm, yet carveable due to the warm weather. I thought for sure if it were to get cold, the conditions would not be as friendly.
It rained quite a bit friday night and saturday morning. It was tough getting going with such dreary conditions. The hard core left the lodge at 9am and were skiing by 10. Again, we were surprised. It was snowing on the mountain and the skiing was pretty decent on the trails that were open. Maybe an inch of snow, but every little bit helps.
By the afternoon they were blowing snow and the soggy ground was freezing up. We thought sunday would be scratchy, but surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. Some places were getting skied off, especially the tighter and steeper places like on the Hawkeye headwall and the Foxlair funnel. There was plenty of loose granular to keep it skiable and fun. Having good friends around made it even better.
Many laps on Hawekey and Topridge throughout the weekend with some cruising on the blues and greens which held snow very nicely. Traffic on Hawkeye flowed, and it was never too busy on Topridge, however, they did choke off half of that slope for a race, making some tight places with variable snow conditions, i.e. ice n rocks a tricky challenge.
New snow was being made on Twister and Open Pit. When snowmaking conditions continue, more terrain will open up. It was snowing when we left the mountain in the afternoon and a big storm was predicted to dump natural snow. We were psyched and ready.
Monday we woke to a solid inch of ice on everything with sleet and freezing rain pouring down. We called the mtn and they said that some lifts were closed due to ice, but the gondola was running. So 5 of us headed up there. The roads were a mess, but we white-knuckeled the icy roads and got ourselves up there in time to do 2 runs before they closed the Gondola. The snow was a good amount of loose granular that skied very nicely. We didn't have anything too exciting to ski besides the blues off the Gondi, but they skied very well and everyone was a hero once again. Can't say we got our money's worth out of the lift tickets on monday with just 2 runs, but overall we had 3 1/2 days of decent skiing. The trails seemed busy as they funneled down through the lower mountain, due to the limited terrain, but we never waited on a lift line.
My friend who had been to Killington the weekend prior said that Gore was way better than anything at Killington.
-Sharon
The skiing each day exceeded our expectations.
Friday was warm n misty. The condition of the mountain was more like April. The snow that was there was soft corn. Very easy to ski. Where they had blown snow it was pretty decent. Where they hadn't spread recent snow was firm, yet carveable due to the warm weather. I thought for sure if it were to get cold, the conditions would not be as friendly.
It rained quite a bit friday night and saturday morning. It was tough getting going with such dreary conditions. The hard core left the lodge at 9am and were skiing by 10. Again, we were surprised. It was snowing on the mountain and the skiing was pretty decent on the trails that were open. Maybe an inch of snow, but every little bit helps.
By the afternoon they were blowing snow and the soggy ground was freezing up. We thought sunday would be scratchy, but surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. Some places were getting skied off, especially the tighter and steeper places like on the Hawkeye headwall and the Foxlair funnel. There was plenty of loose granular to keep it skiable and fun. Having good friends around made it even better.
Many laps on Hawekey and Topridge throughout the weekend with some cruising on the blues and greens which held snow very nicely. Traffic on Hawkeye flowed, and it was never too busy on Topridge, however, they did choke off half of that slope for a race, making some tight places with variable snow conditions, i.e. ice n rocks a tricky challenge.
New snow was being made on Twister and Open Pit. When snowmaking conditions continue, more terrain will open up. It was snowing when we left the mountain in the afternoon and a big storm was predicted to dump natural snow. We were psyched and ready.
Monday we woke to a solid inch of ice on everything with sleet and freezing rain pouring down. We called the mtn and they said that some lifts were closed due to ice, but the gondola was running. So 5 of us headed up there. The roads were a mess, but we white-knuckeled the icy roads and got ourselves up there in time to do 2 runs before they closed the Gondola. The snow was a good amount of loose granular that skied very nicely. We didn't have anything too exciting to ski besides the blues off the Gondi, but they skied very well and everyone was a hero once again. Can't say we got our money's worth out of the lift tickets on monday with just 2 runs, but overall we had 3 1/2 days of decent skiing. The trails seemed busy as they funneled down through the lower mountain, due to the limited terrain, but we never waited on a lift line.
My friend who had been to Killington the weekend prior said that Gore was way better than anything at Killington.
-Sharon
