View from a downstater, and a skier who loves Gore:
newpylong;c-61441 wroteI think a lot of it is simply that Gore lacks the allure that all of the others have. What is better for Joey Hedge fund to tell his buddies, that he went Upstate or to Vermont?
Joey Hedge fund is looking for something bright and shiny, wint an established name to, in his opinion,
invest in. North Creek doesn't have that.
The downstaters I know who frequent Gore are more of the management and trades types.
NELSAP;c-61442 wroteSome additional observations:
Gore is easier to reach than most VT mountains for New Yorkers coming from the south - all highway until Warrensburg, then mostly 55mph roads to the mountain for 25 min. VT destinations are found more on winding roads.
2. Everybody that I've spoken to on the lifts at Gore from downstate say they love it, and they are really glad they found it, and are also surprised that it is less known than VT mountains. They also find the views stunning from Upper Cloud and other locations.
3. I'd imagine that if Lake George and all the hotels there were even just 10-15 min closer, it would be a whole different story. North Creek just doesn't have the bed base.
4. Having no real slopeside accommodations at Gore may also make it less of a draw. There are a few inns close to the mountain but not slopeside.
5. Larger passes - if Gore and the other NY state mountains were on Epic or Icon, I'm sure that would make it even more popular. I'd love to have a few more options on my multi pass, but I get that through the Indy Pass too so it's not all that important to me.
#1 + #2 That's why we love it. However, the ride is still too long for us to just go up to Gore for a weekend unless you are in a position where you can get be off, work early / late.
#3 True that, however for an hour more in your car, you have Lake Placid. It has cachet, a great bed base, and a lot to do for non-skiers and on bad weather days. When it's raining on Christmas week, North Creek is not where you want to be.
#4 Slopeside would be really helpful. Just being able to use the skibowl as a base for the majority of the season would be a huge improvement.
Just having more available hotel rooms / rental houses would be an improvement. We rent via VRBO, Air, B&B or ADK by Owner, and the stock of available properties has gone down since Covid.
#5 Passes. This is huge. Many of us downstaters who do not own, try and mix up where we ski. We still have a kid in school, so we are tied to the school calendar. We traditionally do the East over Christmas (snow is iffy everywhere) and Presidents week out west. We also try and go somewhere over MLK. You get a lot more bang for the buck with the mega passes. We did make an ORDA trip with a MC pass work economically until the MC pass dropped Sugarbush and the East coast became an afterthought.
Not Mentioned:
I'll get flamed, but the ski shops in the area are not great, and rental gear been lacking.
Broadband. This is actually a big thing. Based on our experience, North Creek's provider uses a satellite connection. When it rains hard or snows hard, days that you would not be skiing, the internet in our rental houses drops down to dial-up speeds at best.
The Name: Gore. It could use a tweak i.e. Gore Skibowl, North Creek Skibowl at Gore etc. When we say we went to Gore, nobody knows what it is.
Online Experience: Buying tickets online for the ORDA areas is a chore. I shouldn't have to go through that much trouble to have them take my money.
Suggestions:
Run some fiber
Passes really need to be rethought:
Find out how many skiers at the ORDA areas also have Mega passes. I suspect that the number is low.
Hookup with the Mountain Collective, but have all 3 ORDA Areas = 1 area. That's 2 or 3 days through the pass with additional days at 50% of walk up rate.
or
Offer a 50% off walk up rates to IKON and EPIC pass holders. Do it through the frequent skier card so that the number of discounted visits could be limited per season.
This could also be tailored to the individual areas, with the discount 25% at Whiteface, 33% at Belleayre, 50% at Gore or 3 at each area.
