Monday, January 12, 2015

Gore Mountain: 01/11/2015

Beth skiing the Topridge trail at Gore, Sunday 01/11/2015.

The Saratoga Skier and Hiker, first-hand accounts of adventures in the Adirondacks and beyond, and Gore Mountain ski blog.

With the ski season interrupted by multiple thaws this year, we’ve had to get our snow back inch by inch lately. Those small amounts, combined with some nice stretches of snowmaking temps, have made a difference. So go hug a snowmaker!

I had to work on Saturday, so we didn’t get up to the mountain until Sunday. Though it was forecast to be the milder day of the weekend, temperatures were still plenty cold: around 10 degrees when we pulled in and hovering in the teens all day. Some late afternoon sun poked through the clouds to make the day at least feel a bit warmer.

Twister

We spent the first part of our day on the front side groomers and found good snow conditions on Twister, Showcase and Sleighride. Despite the cold temperatures and a full parking lot, the gondola never seemed to form a line. The decision between Burnt Ridge or the summit was settled with a coin toss in favor of the summit, so up we went. We never did make it over to Burnt Ridge, which is fine by me since the best terrain there (Sagamore and the glades) has yet to come on line (Sagamore should open for the season this Tuesday).

Daniel and Sylvie (pink helmet and pants) heading down Ruby Run

As always, the best snow was found along the trail edges. Cloud and Headwaters held onto nice edgeable snow late in the afternoon. Regrettably, we didn’t hit Lower Darby or Hulaballoo, which were said to be in great shape from recent snowmaking. Instead we spent some time poking into a glade or two up top. Although the trail report for the day listed just Darby Woods as open, we found the ropes had been dropped in one or two other spots as well, with nice snow in some of the low-angle trees. It seems that another 6 inches or so (looks like we may have gotten half of that on Monday) could put a decent amount of glade terrain into play.

Upper mountain glade

More cold temperatures in the week ahead should keep the snowmaking crews plenty busy. It appears that we may have some Ski Bowl terrain available next week. No word yet on Rumor, but one would expect the snowmaking crews will be setting up there soon. Following Monday’s clipper, there’s no significant natural snow on the horizon, but fingers are crossed.

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