This is Gore Mountain in Lake George, New York. It’s where we ended up spending our family skiing vacation after spending Christmas with Chris’ Mom in Putnam Valley, NY. In researching ski resorts in the NY area, we found there really wasn’t much to choose from due to lack of snow. Many of the ski runs were closed due to weather – meaning there was no snow, and it wasn’t even cold enough to make snow. But – we dug around until we found one mountain that was open and that’s where we headed. Gore Mountain was about a 3 hour drive north from where we were staying at Jane’s house – so it wasn’t that far out of the way.
Here is a picture of Gore Mountain from the ski lodge. You can see areas where the grass is peeking through the snow (under the ski lift) – those areas weren’t open for skiing, but they did have 13 other runs open:
Here’s a picture of the “Northwoods Gondola” – it’s what we used to get from the bottom of the mountain, to the top. Sometimes we used the Gondola.. othertimes, we used the regular ski lift:
We arrived on our first day and purchased a 3-day ski pass for each of us. We settled into our hotel and then hit the slopes. Here’s Missy upon arrival on our first day – - she’s never gone skiing on a real mountain before.. she’s very excited:
While Ben.. is very contemplative of the events that lie ahead of him…
Chris, on the otherhand, is rarin’ to go…
Here’s a picture of Chris and Ben riding the ski lift up the side of the mountain – obviously, Missy and I are in the chair behind them…
And a picture of Missy sitting next to me on the lift:
Chris was able to snap a picture of the three of us making our way down the mountain:
And a picture of Ben in action:
And a few rare pictures of me actually on my feet (not on my butt!):
And a picture of Chris helping Missy up after a tumble:
All in all, we had a great time. Even if the weather was a bit mild for skiing – it was cold enough at Gore Mountain that they were making snow all day long. At the very top of Gore Mountain – we were at 3200 feet and the temperature was 12 degrees. At the bottom, the temperature was 30 – - just enough to keep the fake snow from melting. We skied for three straight days and had a lot of fun doing it, despite the weather.
Of course, on Friday, the morning we left… wouldn’t you know that we started the drive home in a snow storm? Why it couldn’t snow like that while we were skiing the past three days.. I’ll never know. Next year? We’re thinking of taking the kids to Tahoe for a ski vacation!
Happy New Year, everyone!
1:34 pm on January 1st, 2007
looks like a lot of fun! Happy New Year!
5:53 pm on January 1st, 2007
We had a blast, thanks! Happy New Year to you, as well
8:44 am on January 2nd, 2007
Lisa, Happy New Year!
You drove right by my home. I’m about 40 minutes south of Gore. Sorry, that you did not experience normal ski conditions here in NY. Although it does look like you were enjoying yourselves.
Us non skiers have been enjoying the mild winters so far. We may even get close to 50 this week.
10:39 am on January 2nd, 2007
Happy New Year to you too, Bob.
I remember that you live in that area from what you told me back when I was blogging about our NY wedding plans. We probably did drive within shouting distance of you!
The winter conditions are just as pathetic here in Wisconsin as they were in upstate NY – - but we had fun on the fake snow anyways
11:44 am on January 2nd, 2007
I was surprised to hear that you did not go up to Killington, VT. They have some pretty extensive snow making capabilities and a much larger trail system.
Definitely within shouting distance.
12:02 pm on January 2nd, 2007
We were actually looking in to Vermont in the beginning of our planning stages… but we ran out of time to thoroughly investigate options so we left the choice of mountain up to my daughter and we ended up at Gore.
She did all the searching and found Gore on the internet… so, at that point, because she made the choice – we had to go there 
1:03 pm on December 16th, 2008
Looks like you had a great time skiing despite the lack of snow. I hate skiing on man made snow when the weather is not right as it often is more ice then snow.