| Gore Mountain in North Creek, New York had never really appeared on my ski
area radar screen, so I didnĘt realize just how serious a ski hill it is.
They have 2,100 total feet of vertical 85 trails, 344 skiable acres. LetĘs
just say I was a little stunned when I clicked into my bindings and started
exploring.
It was kind of like visiting Lincoln Peak at Sugarbush or Okemo for the first
time. Gore doesnĘt look all that big to begin with, but each lift ride leads you
to a number of choices for trails which in turn lead you to other lifts and new,
ever-expanding vistas of the mountain.
Luckily, my sweetheart Marilyn and I ran into a friendly ski patroller named
Mark on the Gondola who got us pointed in the right direction with a warm-up run
down a mellow single-black diamond trail called Topridge before we headed to the
more challenging trails off the Straightbrook summit quad.
At Gore, beginners and aspiring intermediates are going to find themselves
right at home on the Bearcub beginner lift and the mostly-gentle cruisers off
the Sunway and Adirondack Express quad, all of which depart from the base area.
Stronger intermediates can explore the entire mountain. Each of the upper
mountain lifts has a nice mix of trails radiating from it, including at least
one blue square. So people of different abilities can ride the lift together and
have terrain they are comfortable with to get back down.
Experts will love some of the scary-steep trails like The Rumor and Lies off
the Gore Mountain summit, while intermediates will enjoy long, rambling cruisers
like Cloud and Twister.
Despite rain and ice a few days before, the snow conditions at Gore were
exceptional.
Unfortunately, none of the numerous glades on the mountain were skiable when
I was there, so IĘll have to go back later in the winter.
Gore is definitely worth more exploration. | 
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