Sharon Heller
New member
What a gorgeous day it was at Gore, sunny skies and 4 more inches of fresh snow, already on top of 3' of snow that fell that week. <BR> <BR>I haven't been to Gore in over 10 years. When I was there last, I decided it was a crowded mountain of boring blue square trails with only 2 black diamond bump runs and not worth going back to, when Vermont resorts were just another hour away. <BR> <BR>We had heard about glades and steep pitches and new expansions. A lot of snow had fallen there in the past 36 hours, so we figured since it was on the way home it was worth checking out. <BR> <BR>Jeremy, being a teacher, had a snow day on friday and skied there during the dump. I believe he was understating the truth when he said it was a good day of skiing. <BR> <BR>We figured there should be some left and that it was worth skipping a 2nd day at Whiteface. 3 of the 4 of us had not ever been to Gore. It was practically a brand new place for all 4 of us. <BR> <BR>3 new lifts since I was there, including an 8 person high speed gondola, a 3 person high speed detachable and Whiteface's old triple in a newly expanded area. <BR> <BR>We purchased our half price lift tickets using our Greek Peak season's passes for the discount. Met up with Carl and found Jeremy before we got on the Gondola. Jeremy was waiting for other friends, and since we had just run into another local, Derek, a kayakng friend of ours that we know from summers on eastern rivers, we decided to go with him. Derek took us on some really awesome gladed trails with knee deep fresh snow. The snow was so nice in there. He took us on some 'illegal' glades as well. We were wondering why we hadn't just stopped there on friday night and made a weekend of it. This was a different mountain than I remember from 10 years ago. The snow quality was way better than Whiteface and the terrain was far more interesting. <BR> <BR>We eventually caught up to Derek's friends, a local posse of telemarkers. Adding 5 of us, we became a very large group, not unlike the skivtler mob that we skied with at Stowe a few weeks ago. They took us through the woods and on some hikes for a few fresh turns and some sights away from the designated trails. I only caught a few names of these stashes (Grim Reaper, Tahawus, The Cave), and for the most part, had no idea where we were, as all I was doing was following the pack. It was beautiful in the woods and it was fun to be part of a group of more than a dozen people ducking ropes and skiing out of bounds. We were not the most discrete group, but our leader (who was off-duty mountain staff) didn't seem to mind taking a group that size on off-piste treks. Apparently at Gore they will take your ticket if you ski off the designated trails and glades. <BR> <BR>The designated glades were beautiful and had some really soft tracked powder. Untracked was found on the illegal glades. On one illegal off-piste trek, pole planting was nearly impossible as the pole would go all the way down up to the handle. We had a bit of uphill to negotiate, and without long poles with wide baskets, it was a helluva lotta work. We were pulling ourselves up by grabbing onto trees in some places. We skied over a creek and there were some interesting drops off boulders. It was a fun day of adventure skiing and exploring a new area by following the locals. <BR> <BR>For the most part, this group of pinheads was a lot of fun and had some good energy. Unfortunatley there was one woman, who happened to be a very strong skier, but had an attitude about alpine skiers hanging with the tele-pack. A few comments were made that were really unnecessary. I found this a bit disturbing. I really hate it when telemarkers become elitist snobs because they have different bindings and are working harder than alpine skiers. I just don't understand why some people think that telemark skiing is 'better' than alpine skiing and why they think that telemarkers need to ski in a gang and mock the alpine skiers that tag <BR>along...especially guests of a friend of the gang. It was just rude. As both a telemarker and alpine skier, I still don't get it why there has to be such an attitude from some telemarkers. <BR> <BR>My immediate family of snow sliders ride on different types of boards and bindings. Like the Skivtlers, we may alpine, telemark or snowboard...and there isn't any attitude that one form of sliding is better than another. What is best is what each person enjoys doing the most. And it should not be about what vehicle you ride, but just that you are out there enjoying the snow, the mountains and the people you are with. We didn't let the attitude of just one insecure person ruin our day. It was a fantastic day in the sunshine at Gore Mountain with fresh snow, good friends and some new friends. Gore gets a big thumbs up. It has come a long way in 10 years and should not to be overlooked when driving up the northway in a snowstorm