Gore Mountain named among most affordable ski destinations in the U.S.

Accolades come as ski centers countdown to start of snow season

By Rick Karlin, Staff Writer

Gore Mountain has been rated one of the nation’s most affordable destination ski areas by a national vacation rental firm, which looked at the cost of lift ticket prices and lodging near the Adirondack resort.

Surveyors concluded that a trip to North Creek-based Gore, with lift tickets and lodging, can be had for $195 per day. That’s based on a $107 lift ticket and about $88 per-person vacation rental cost.
 
“This spot offers a memorable winter escape without the high price tag,” according to HomeToGo, the Florida-based firm that conducted the survey.

The trouble is, there is no lodging at the base of Gore Mountain and very few traditional ski lodge or hotel facilities nearby.  That was news to HomeToGo spokesman Richard Forbes, who admitted that he, being a native Floridian, has never seen snow.

Still, the numbers make sense when one considers that there are numerous vacation rental homes near Gore and the surrounding North Creek area. The per-person cost assumes that several people will share a rental. HomeToGo, which competes with companies like Airbnb and VRBO, surveyed ski areas it serves and calculated the per-person cost for various lodging options based on the size and capacity of the facilities, Forbes explained.

Ski operators at the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which operates Gore as well as Whiteface and Belleayre, were glad to highlight the ranking, along with another review they recently received from Ski Magazine.

The magazine recently ranked Gore number eight in its Top 20 Ski Resorts in the East list.

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ORDA ski areas, in addition to being publicly owned, are also unique in that there is no true slopeside lodging, or the kind of large hotel condo developments that have in the last two decades sprung up around other Northeastern resorts.

“People like that we’re not overly developed,” said Gore’s marketing director, Ian Tomasch.

Happening tonight

Join representatives from ORDA and Gore, along with former NYS senator Betty Little and local economic development leaders, for a discussion on Gore Mountain’s contribution to the area’s economy.

A Q&A will follow the presentation.

7 p.m., tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 12 at at Tannery Pond Center in North Creek

Awaiting this year’s ski season

The report, as much as anything, also means that another ski season is upon us. 

Like other ski resort operators in New York and New England, Tomasch was anxiously watching the weather, which has been unusually warm for November, with temperatures reaching the 60s and even the 70s in the Capital Region in recent weeks.

That doesn’t bode well for snowmaking, which generally needs temperatures in the 20s to be effective.

Still, ski area operators may be glad that, this year, Thanksgiving weekend is coming late on Nov. 28. That weekend is often keyed to the start of ski season. ORDA areas are looking at a Nov. 29 opening day, weather permitting.

Other resorts including Windham and Hunter in the Catskills are also looking to open around Thanksgiving if the weather cooperates.

The story is the same in Vermont, with many resorts looking at a late November opening. 
  
Snow-starved skiers have already had a taste of winter: The Sunday River ski resort in Maine was open for a day earlier this fall and a handful of ski touring diehards have already ascended and descended the Whiteface Mountain toll road in the Adirondacks, after a storm dropped several inches there in October.

Additionally, several Colorado resorts, including Keystone, Breckenridge, Winter Park and Wolf Creek resorts, have already opened for those willing to travel.

Countdown to snow season

So when will it get cold enough for snow, either human-made or natural?

“Models for the last couple of days have finally been hinting for a change on about the 14th (of November),” said Matthew Scott, who operates the Snowology website that tracks numerous forecasts of interest to skiers. He added that, to start making snow, resorts need about four days where they can run their snow guns for 12 hours per day.

“Recent model runs suggest a potential pattern change as we head into the end of next week (Nov. 14 and 15) with snow possible from one modeling system, but a continuation of warm weather out of another (modeling system),” added Jason Cordeira, with OpenSnow, another ski-weather site. “Overall, it’s looking like a delayed start to the winter season as far as ‘November coverage’ goes,” he added.

Ski area operators are nothing if not optimistic, and Tomasch pointed out that only takes one big storm this time of year to get the season started.

“Things can take quite a turn pretty quickly,” he said.