Just got back from a ski trip up to Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks. A month ago it looked like we might not even have a ski season this year, but this was our fourth trip, and our first to a big mountain in many years. I’ve never been to Gore before. It’s very nice, on the level of places I’ve skied in Vermont. It’s a big mountain with lots of terrain and lots of lifts, and the snow conditions were excellent, with fresh powder on top a groomed base of several significant recent snowfalls. Good as any snow I’ve skied on the last few years.
The mountain is owed and run by New York State, which is nice in that it’s not all overdeveloped with condos. However, that means there’s not a lot of places to stay nearby, and it’s a four-hour drive from our house. So we drove up Friday night and stayed in Lake George, about a half hour away. The hotel had a nice dinner and a bar featuring maple-bacon old fashions, and a basic breakfast of coffee and muffins.
Fresh snow was falling Saturday morning, on top of a large snowfall earlier in the week. We met our friends Mark and Kelly at the base lodge; they came down from the high peaks area to the north. It was a great day skiing. I’d finally gotten comfortable on my new skis, and it was great to be able to go all out on good conditions. The mountain was too big to keep count of how many runs we did, and the runs were much longer than a place like Catamount anyway. It felt like we went all over the mountain, but we really only explored one quadrant. We mainly did blue runs, and spent alot of time in a zone served by the North Lift, where there was a good set interconnected trails, all of which were very beautiful. The lift didn’t have long lines because you had to take several trails and lifts to get there. We skied for about three hours then tool a break for lunch at a lodge up on the mountain, then went out for another hour and a half until we were exhausted. The last few runs we went all the way up and down again, over 2,000 feet vertical.
Afterwards we went back to Mark and Kelly’s, about and hour and half further north. Mark built a fire and made us an excellent dinner and we talked and sipped whiskey until late into the night. Kelly turned me on the records of Alice Coltrane.
I would definitely go back to Gore for a weekend again. But not this season cuz it’s an overnight trip. Still, there’s a big snowstorm on the way upstate, even though it’s rain down in New York City, and we get yet get in one more ski trip before spring arrives.
