2 Days in the Adirondacks – Gore and Whiteface

We rolled in to the parking lot around 10.30am at Gore on a sunny, New England warm (18F) Thursday morning. With the lot about half full, there didn’t seem any panic to hit the lifts, So we geared up, snacked in the base lodge, and were on the gondola at 11am.

With all but one lift running, there was plenty of terrain to explore – in fact more than we could hit in 5 hours. I suspect, due to being just before the MLK long weekend, all the runs were groomed and in good condition. Even scary trails like Lies on Burnt Ridge were flat. A few bumps around the hill would have been good. And a few glades – unfortunately there wasn’t quite enough snow for the trees. So we shredded groomers all day long. Steep ones like Chatiemac, Hawkeye and Topridge, and cruisey winding trails like Twister, Uncas and Sagamore. Like giggles on bad sitcoms, there were occasional icy surprises, but basically the mountain was skiing well. Another foot and it’ll be skiing beautifully. Maybe one day we’ll be there for that. Gore is pretty darn good ski hill.

We woke up in Lake Placid the next morning with 2 inches of cold smoke on the truck, and temps lingering around 0F. Only the wind threatened a great ski day, and as we got our tickets at Whiteface, our worst fears were realized – no, not Mitt Romney standing for President again – worse, the gondola was on wind hold. So we rode the Face and the terrifying Little Whiteface double, and ripped the trail edges where the wind had loaded at least 3 inches of light fluffy good stuff. Serious cold drove us in for a very welcome coffee after 4 runs. And then, as if by magic, it stopped dumping, the winds dropped, the skies cleared, and the gondola started moving.

An excellent afternoon ensued. We basically did top to bottom laps, up the gondola, to the Summit chair, and from the top Skyward was the pick. Loaded with constantly refreshing wind blown, it just begged for high speed  wide radius turns. Victoria and Niagara offered soft, carvable alternatives lower down thanks to blazing snowguns, and then it was wash, rinse, repeat. Until 4pm when the gondola, rather inconsiderately I thought, closed down 😉

Gore 7400m, Whiteface 11,500m vert

Season totals: 15 days, 110,700m vert, 3 powder days

A New York State Road Trip

We’ve had several excellent ski days at Holiday Valley in New York. Unfortunately, this really wasn’t one of them. The previous day’s snow had turned to rain until 3am, when the freeze returned, followed by 4 inches of super light pow. By the time I arrived, there was little of the former left, but lots of frozen solid base that jiggled your brain cells at anything approaching cruising speeds. There were nice turns to be had, but a lot of less nice ones in between. It wasn’t a long day.

Further north in the Adirondacks at Gore Mountain, rain hadn’t been a problem and there were remnants from the recent storm adorning the upper mountain. The Straighbrook area, served by a fixed grip quad, offered some really excellent skiing – steep, smooth groomers and various pitches of bumps on Chatiemac and Lies that were guaranteed to get the circulation flowing on a cold, grey day. Another foot of snow and the multitude of glade runs would probably have been open. Some of these looked to hide some fabulous lines – worthy of return visit alone to play in these one day.

Only about 2/3rds of the mountain was open, but there was more than enough terrain to entertain me for a day. I interspersed long blue groomers off the gondola (providing welcome warmth) with slow chair rides to access some fine, advanced terrain. It was a great ski day on a mountain that looks to offer a lot of variety tucked away in its many nooks and crannies.

The next day, the sun came out, the temperatures dropped and the wind howled further north at Whiteface. After nearly freezing to death on a slow ride up the Summit chair, I decided that lapping the Cloudsplitter gondola and alternating routes down its 2400+ vertical feet was the way to spend the day. Before I knew it, 20 or so runs later, I’d cracked 50K vertical feet and it was time to relax.

These 20-ish runs brought some really nice turns on terrain that transitions from steep groomers and bumps alongside the Little Whiteface and Freeway chairs, to gentler windy cruisers like Essex and Northway. Similar to Gore, the mountain seemed a decent  storm or two short of opening the steeps and trees in this area of the mountain. I bet the skiing is pretty darn fine when those ropes drop.

Holiday Valley 5400m vert, Gore 9600m vert, Whiteface 15,900m vert

Season Totals: 25 days, 203,400m vert

2 powder days