Sharon":1r25xm3d said:
Gore has fantastic terrain which is on par with the Vt resorts (on average)...only difference is that Gore just doesn't get the amount of snow that Vt gets, so the epic days are fewer.
Gore's terrain and recent (in the past 15 years since they put in the new gondi) lift layout really spreads people out on busy days. I think the lower mountain is the most crowded, but for the advanced skiers there is so much terrain that crowding is never an issue. Lift lines at the upper mtn lifts are usually less than 5 minutes if any wait at all. Judging by the trail map Gore has more glades than Loon. The glades at Gore are plentiful, varied and awesome. It isn't Stowe or Jay, but for it's size, there are plenty of places to go off the beaten path and lots of potential for fresh tracks after a snow.
No surprise that I agree with that 100%.
kcyanks1":1r25xm3d said:
Aside from lower snowfall, though, Gore suffers from brutal over-grooming and short runs. Recent additions like Double Barrel help a bit.... I skied Hullabaloo this year for the first time in many years. When I was younger it was a much tougher run. The headwall, while only a couple turns, was somewhat hairy, with the center being almost cliff-like, making one of the sides the only real options, sometimes only skier's left. Now it's a groomed flat thing straight across the trial without any character. ... The first year Rumor was open it was far harder than it is now. They later widened it, and then started grooming it.
Also, the vertical per-run is just too short. The Straightbrook chair is probably 600-700, and the most of the expert runs (Hawkeye, Rumor, Lies) are well less than the full vertical of the chair. High Peaks chair is equally short, and the expert trails on that lift also only take up a fraction of the lift's vertical. It just doesn't compare to Northern VT areas.
With snowfall, Gore can be a lot of fun despite the above issues....
Gore has better terrain than Okemo.
I agree with some of that too.
The lift vertical for the primary (non-learning) lifts:
Gondi: 1703
Express: 1500
BRQuad: 1432
Topridge: 998
Straightbrook: 900
North Chair: 750
High Peaks: 684
Sunway: 520
Now I bet KC's first thought is..."yeah but all those long lifts are the least important." He's right.
In order of importance for me are some short lifts:
High Peaks: 684
Straightbrook: 900
North Chair: 750
Topridge: 998
Gondi: 1703
BRQuad: 1432
Sunway: 520
Express: 1500
Truth is High Peaks and SB are probably tied.
North Chair is slow as hell and it helps keeps the Tahawas woods sweet.
Topridge serves some great terrain. Topride itself is steep and long for Gore. The run under the TR chair...High Pines...is an awesome, fun irregularly soft bumped dream. In fact Gore has three great under the chair runs High Pines, Dark Side and Double Barrel. Any day where you ski all three is a great day.
I only rank the Gondi fourth because you need it. It's the fastest way to the summit. There is some good terrain off it. I just think it's a pain in the butt. It's the only lift on the mountain that you have to avoid at certain hours.
The new Quad is very worth skating to, if there is powder and the trees are open. It's sad that a fanatical skier like me would put the new big bucks quad 6th out of eight. On a powder day with the trees open it would probably be 3rd.
The Express is a redundant, but...key feature. The Gondi can be down or on wind hold, but you can still access the summit.
A couple other points of view:
For me, the Hullabaloo headwall is plenty cliffy. Maybe at times they blow so much snow on it it gets flattened.
And also I think both Rumor and Lies are great runs. They might be better narrower. But they really don't get groomed that much. Rumor maybe just a few times a season.
There's lots of different kinds terrain and it spreads people out.
It comes down to what Tony said:
"...Harvey44 is on telemark skis. I might think Gore's terrain is tame on alpine, but I'd have my hands full on teles."
For me...a guy who never really rode lifts until age 40...it's a great place to teleski.
Huge percentage of terrain is trees, small huckable cliffs, high speed groomers, and (an admittedly limited amount of) steep terrain. Off the map in-bounds stuff doubles the size of the mountain.
With a permit, I can actually ski from the Gore summit, back to the cabin. For me...that's sweet.
My rambling 2¢.
