Gore Mountain Report, Sat 27th and Sun 28th
Last weekend, I made 2 day trips to Gore. On Saturday I skied with my friend Brian from Intercarve (NELSAP webhost) and his family and Sunday with my friend Monica and her family.
Late last week, most of Gore had experienced freezing rain, so the trees were caked in icicles, so the good powder/packed powder they had previously was replaced with a mix of loose and wet granular. Both weekend days had plenty of fog, some of the thickest I had seen, mainly in the upper 2/3 of elevation, though it did meander up and down through the day. Thankfully I know the mountain well but if someone was new to Gore, it was disorienting with all that fog. Temps were in the 30s on Saturday, near 30F on top. There was a lot of drizzle on Saturday as well, freezing at the top, and I couldn't ski more than a few hundred feet before the need to wipe the goggles, so eventually I skied sans goggles.
Sunday was slightly colder, more like 32-34F lower part of mountain, upper 20s near top. Sunday also had a storm moving in, with a very wet snow developing early afternoon. This stuck to everything, and was relatively easy to brush off the chairs higher up, but lower down, the chairs were full of slush so by the end of the day I was soaked sitting in all that slush.
Skier trafficwise, Saturday was busier than Sunday, but neither had any kind of significant wait. Sunday it was rather deserted, especially in the afternoon, and felt like skiing midweek.
The majority of the snowmaking trails are now open, including down to the Ski Bowl and Burnt Ridge, which allowed me to ski them both for the first time this year. At the Ski Bowl, Moxham now has snowmaking, and was the best conditions I had seen there, instead of the thin cover I usually experience. Oak Ridge was also skiing nicely; 46er is one wicked steep trail in the middle, the soft snow made it skiable however.
Up on the summit both days, Hawkeye and Chatiemac were skiing beautifully, with the soft snow. Topridge was closed Sat (not sure why) but Sunday was open and had frozen granular conditions, but was soft enough that it was no trouble to ski.
A good weekend overall, 35k vertical total and 43 miles.
Hedges (the trail to the North Quad) off of Burnt Ridge on Sat in a break in the fog
Top of 49er on Saturday
Steep pitch on 49er, much steeper than the photo shows
North Quad in the pea soup fog on Sunday
Pine Knot on Sunday, in the fresh but wet new snow
Lower Uncas on Sunday, my favorite "hidden" trail, which was still freshly groomed into the afternoon. Most people just miss this as they use Uncas mostly to get to the Straightbrook Quad
