Gore Snowmakers Shine Amid Sparse Conditions

By Alex Kochon

Anyone who has skied at Gore Mountain in North Creek, with 108 trails across nearly 448 acres, can vouch for the superb snowmaking and grooming this season. The state-owned ski area hasn’t been blessed with abundant snow – instead, the opposite. Like other downhill ski resorts across the state and country, they’ve been dealing with one of the more lackluster winters on record.

According to Gore Mountain Snowmaking Supervisor, Dan Feiden, the amount of natural snowfall there has been on par with the winter of 2015-16, “the winter that wasn’t,” as he called it. That was his first year as the head of snowmaking; he managed Gore’s tubing hill before that. They opened about 50% of the mountain for skiing and snowboarding that year.

Fast-forward to this season, a similar winter with temperatures hovering just below freezing most nights, and Gore’s snowmaking team produced enough snow to open nearly 95% of their trails. This can be credited to Gore’s hardworking employees, whose snowmaking team was one of eight nationwide to earn a nomination in Ski Area Management magazine’s “I AM a Snowmaker 2024” contest: saminfo.com. Together with Gore’s grooming team, they made mountains out of molehills. 

Snowmaking typically begins in November when temperatures allow and continues through January, usually later. Snow is blown in piles, which groomers push around to spread evenly over the trails. Sometimes, these mounds are left for days to let the moisture leach out – especially when the snow is made during “marginal” air temperatures: about 16-30 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything warmer than that is too warm to make snow, and colder (0-15 degrees) is optimal.  

“It will typically take two or three nights to get a trail ready after we’re done making snow on it,” Dan explained. “The groomers spend the first night or two just pushing the first piles around to evenly smear it around the trail, then they’ll do a night or two of grooming with the actual tillers down and turn it into the nice corduroy that people like to ski on.”

They start by covering half the trail with snow from top to bottom. The other half is left for natural snow or snowmakers to fill in later. They prioritize opening the trail, then moving snow guns or pushing snow around as needed. If all goes well, snowmaking can wrap up in late January, “but that never happens,” Dan explained. “It’s either Mother Nature is not working with us, or some equipment maintenance is needed, but more times than not in recent years, it’s Mother Nature.” 

The goal is to make as much snow as possible through February. “Usually, by then, we’ve been running so much equipment for so many hours that the mountain starts seeing enough snow made that we can scale back the snowmaking.” Dan explained. “Our goal is to stay open as long as possible.” he added. “The year before last, we went to the first weekend in May.”

Throughout the season, his team works around the clock during “cold weather windows,” running as much snowmaking equipment as possible when temperatures drop below freezing. This season, they’ve been limited to snowmaking mostly at night and in the wee hours of the morning, as their equipment requires temperatures colder than 30 degrees. While Gore’s snowmakers have operated most evenings this winter, temperatures have been mainly in the marginal range, except for a few “optimal” snowmaking nights thus far.

“When we get 90 to 95 percent of the mountain open on a year like this, it makes me really happy with the improvements we have made,” Dan said. 

In the last eight years, Gore has nearly doubled its snow-gun fleet to almost 2,000 snow guns spread throughout four peaks. Some of these are permanently fixed to the slopes, others are mobile, and hundreds are energy efficient – producing ten times the amount of snow with the same amount of air required by an older-style snow gun.

This has resulted in substantial energy savings for the mountain, bolstered by a recent $1.2-million-dollar National Grid incentive to cover half the cost of these high-efficiency snow guns: goremountain.com.

This year, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which operates the Gore, Whiteface, and Belleayre ski areas, purchased 136 energy-efficient, tower-mounted snow guns for Gore in partnership with National Grid. A press release stated that these are expected to conserve more than 2.1 kilowatt-hours per year while pumping out 190 acre-feet of snow.

This makes a big difference for the mountain, with the most terrain of any ski area in New York. Gore is three times the size it was two decades ago, yet it uses about the same amount of energy as it did back then.

“The higher-efficiency system is not just to get it done quicker, but with climate change and our cold-weather windows getting smaller and less of them, we have to have more efficient equipment, or we’re just never going to get it done,” Dan explained.

The snow guns pull from a reservoir halfway up the mountain that holds 30 million gallons of water. Since Gore uses about 300 million gallons of water to make snow each winter, it pumps up from the Hudson River to fill the reservoir.

Dan explained that Gore has been using water from the reservoir since 1976 and additionally drawing from the Hudson River since 1996. These pipes and snowmaking equipment require nonstop maintenance, which is a massive part of the snowmakers’ job.

“When you move 300 million gallons of water through above-ground pipes when it’s ten below zero, stuff tends to break,” Dan explained. 

His seasonal crew includes about 25 employees, who work around the clock over three shifts: 7:30am to 4pm, 3:30pm to midnight, and 11:30pm to 8am. They work closely with the grooming team to ensure they follow the same plan and everyone is safe, especially when sharing the trails with groomers at night.

In the summer, Dan can keep about six staff members, including himself, on his core team. Two of them have been working at Gore for over 20 years. This marks Dan’s 16th season. 

This year, the crew earned their first nomination to the annual I AM a Snowmaker contest to recognize “the hard work, determination and camaraderie of snowmakers, and recognize their critical contributions,” according to Ski Area Management magazine. They were asked to create a “Day in the Life” video to capture the essence of their snowmaking team, which they did with the help of Gore’s marketing department: youtube.com/watch?v=w90sUpD7gk4.

While they didn’t win, (Greek Peak Mountain Resort in Cortland won), Dan said they appreciated the recognition.

“We’re the behind-the-scenes guys,” he noted. “Nobody sees what we’re doing or how we’re doing it. I think there’s a misconception that you just turn some valves on, go home, come back in the morning, and everything’s fine, but you have to be walking the trails constantly. 

“Guns and pipes freeze; the system and equipment can be temperamental. It’s never-ending work,” Dan added. “If I didn’t have these guys, especially my core group of year-round guys… I wouldn’t be able to get this stuff done. They’re the ones who know what they’re doing.”

Adirondack Sports would like to thank and recognize ALL the snowmakers and groomers at Gore, Whiteface, ski areas of New York, and across the Northeast, who have made the most of a challenging winter! 

Alex Kochon (alexkochon@gmail.com) of Gansevoort is a freelance writer, editor, and outdoor-loving mom of two who enjoys adventuring in the Adirondacks. A longtime journalist and former ski reporter, she has covered Olympics, world championships, and athletes of all calibers. She shares her passion for sports and recreation as a sales and content contributor for curated.com.