Gore Mountain (ski resort)


Gore Mountain is an alpine ski resort on Gore Mountain in the Adirondack Mountains, located in North Creek, New York. The mountain is a popular winter destination, attracting skiers from all over the east. It is the largest mountain in New York nearest to the Capital District metro area. Gore Mountain is one of the three ski areas owned by the State of New York; and is operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority, a state agency.
Gore Mountain has 107 trails and 15 lifts, and one snow train. Gore mountain has a wide variety of alpine terrain catering to alpine skiers of all levels. Gore also has 12 Nordic trails for cross country skiing.
The ski train to North Creek, which had not operated since the 1940s, was revived in 2011 under the Saratoga and North Creek Railroad. The new train runs from the Saratoga Springs Amtrak station to the North Creek depot, with a free shuttle from that point to Gore Mountain. Breakfast and dinner are served on trains. On Saturdays, the peak point of operation, there are two northbound and three southbound trips. Road access to Gore is usually by the nearby route NY 28.

History

Skiers first began using Gore Mountain in 1934 when a ski excursion train brought visitors to the North Creek Depot. The lower mountain or "Old Gore" was later improved through the addition of "New Gore" in 1964. The two resorts operated independently from one another until 2003 when ORDA reintroduced operations at Old Gore which had ceased in the 1980s.
Gore Mountain has recently expanded its resort limits to combine with the historic North Creek Ski Bowl.
In 2008-2009 ski season Gore added 5 new runs to the mountain as it completed its Burnt Ridge expansion. This new quad offers skiers an opportunity to ski four new glades, two intermediate trails and one expert run. This expansion coincides with an expansion at the state run Whiteface Mountain Ski Area.
Gore Mountain was voted in the "Top 10 for Value" by Ski Magazine in 2006.
In the 2010-2011 season, Gore opened a connector called Little Gore Mountain, including a beginner trail called "Peaceful Valley," four intermediate leveled trails called "Pipeline", "Eagle's Nest," "Oak Ridge Trail" and "Moxham," an intermediate glade called "Half and Half" and an expert trail called "46er." Now one can reach the bottom of the Ski Bowl and return via Peaceful Valley and Eagle's Nest without having to take the shuttle back to the main mountain.

Mountain

Gore consists of four peaks. The three smaller peaks are below Gore, so the peaks are not separate.
The summit area contains the Straightbrook and High Peaks areas, on either end of the summit ridge that the Cloud trail follows. Straightbrook is served by a quad chairlift to the Gore summit and contains The Rumor, the resort's steepest trail which is also usually considered the most difficult. The Straightbrook Quad is just south of the lift line of Gore's old gondola, which went from base to summit when it operated. Under the two lift lines is the Double Barrel glade. Like The Rumor, which is on the same slope, Double Barrel is double-black-diamond terrain. Its difficulty is compounded by the fact that it is often filled with boulders and moguls. The popular Chatiemac trail on the south side of Straight Brook is used to access several marked glades and unmarked backcountry trails. The High Peaks area is on the other side of the summit and is served by a double chair, one of the mountain's first. It is known for its expert trails and glades.
Bear Mountain's south, east, and north sides contain the Topridge, Northwoods, and North Side areas, respectively. The Northwoods Area is the lower mountain and base trail area, wholly containing the Northwoods Gondola. The Northwoods area is also served by the Adirondack Express II, a newly built high-speed quad chairlift. It replaced a high-speed triple chair built in 1984, which was the only high-speed triple in the eastern USA. The AEII While the gondola reaches the summit of Bear Mountain, the quad reaches slightly below this to an area called the Saddle, providing access to most of the Northwoods and all of the North Side. A double chair also serves the southern part of Northwoods, along with several surface lifts around the base. Twister, an intermediate trail in Northwoods, is the resort's longest run and most-used racing course. The North Side is served by a quad and contains several easier trails. Additionally, it provides direct access from the Saddle to the High Peaks area and North Creek Ski Bowl. The Topridge area is served by a triple. Its most prominent trails are Topridge, Uncas, and Pine Knot, the latter two of which are heavily used as connecters from the Bear Mountain summit to the Straight Brook Quad. The Cave Glades, located in the Topridge area, are named for a large cave found along them.
The Burnt Ridge Area is one of Gore's newest. It is served by a four-person chairlift, the Burnt Ridge Quad. From the summit of Burnt Ridge Mountain, the Sagamore and Echo trails are most popular. When open, the Barkeater Glades provide a link to the Ski Bowl. The Hedges links the Burnt Ridge summit to the North Side via the Tahawus Glades. Burnt Ridge can be reached either by Cedars Traverse from the Northwoods area or by Eagle's Nest from the North Side or Ski Bowl. The Burnt Ridge Quad also services the Cirque Glades, the longest glade in the east.
The most recent development at Gore has been focused on the Ski Bowl. It is served by two triples, the Village and Hudson chairs. The upper part of the Ski Bowl, including the Hudson Chair, was completed for the 2010-11 season. Although it had lift service when it was opened in 1946, the ski bowl did not have a chairlift until the Village Chair was installed in 2007. The ski bowl now has alpine skiing, nordic skiing and night skiing, a terrain park and half-pipe. New glades were developed for the upper area for the 2011-12 season, but were not open for long due to the lack of snow that season.

Trail names

The theme for trail names throughout most of Gore is locations in the Adirondacks, particularly the names of the Adirondack Great Camps. These include: