It looks like you are using an ad blocker. That's okay. Who doesn't? But without advertising revenue, we can't keep making this site awesome. Click the link below for instructions on disabling adblock.
Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post.
Register to become a member today!
am i the only one who thinks that isnt as bad as people always say? maybe it's smaller than it looks, in which case maybe im wrong, but it looks like a sort of weird but interesting feature. it's not amazing but it's become this icon of shitty park features when there are so much worse at most mountains
Lower New England/NY has some of the worst terrain parks in the country IMO. They only have whiteface. The only place that has worse parks is Ohio. The midwest has some kickass parks. App Mountain has better parks than most of NY.
THEDIRTYBUBBLELower New England/NY has some of the worst terrain parks in the country IMO. They only have whiteface. The only place that has worse parks is Ohio. The midwest has some kickass parks. App Mountain has better parks than most of NY.
THEDIRTYBUBBLELower New England/NY has some of the worst terrain parks in the country IMO. They only have whiteface. The only place that has worse parks is Ohio. The midwest has some kickass parks. App Mountain has better parks than most of NY.
sometimes shitty parks are fun for tranny finding and other stuff. i sort of miss when hills would throw together a half ass pipe that was more just a big ditch with all kinds of weird side hits and random trannies here and there
Gore really isn't a mountain that you go to for a park. They're known for they're glades and steeps (by NY standards) for a reason. Not a bad mountain, just not big with the park.
Titsandwich11am i the only one who thinks that isnt as bad as people always say? maybe it's smaller than it looks, in which case maybe im wrong, but it looks like a sort of weird but interesting feature. it's not amazing but it's become this icon of shitty park features when there are so much worse at most mountains
agreed.
nothing wrong with having sketchy street-like features in a park as long as they're not all like that.
also, shitty parks build character and can arguably make you a better skier. there was none of this jiminey cricket ass progression park 5ft rails and dancefloors where I was learning, but I still learned.
GORILLAWALLACEagreed.
nothing wrong with having sketchy street-like features in a park as long as they're not all like that.
also, shitty parks build character and can arguably make you a better skier. there was none of this jiminey cricket ass progression park 5ft rails and dancefloors where I was learning, but I still learned.
but a majority of them used to be like that, which was the problem. there's gotta be some sort of starting point.
as to your second part-most definitely. I learned to ski park at jiminy peak and gore, and when I started going to Carinthia, so many features seems so easy compared to what I was used to.
This should be in regionals but I'll keep it going..
Toggenburg south east of Syracuse ain't all that bad. It has that po-dunk small town ski area vibe which one can appreciate. That'd be my go-to for the central NY region, especially for the price ($15 w/ college ID). Given the absolute shit winter last year the rail set ups were pretty good and kept my attention even through a full day of lapping. The rest of the hill isn't anything special but being from the midwest - I'm used to it. You can haul ass and throw some deep carves down the big open front facing slope down to the lift and grab some beers @ the Foggy Goggle afterwards.
I'm not sure if this is the case with gore but the reality is this..the resorts that can't maintain a decent park program are the ones who aren't investing in one. If you don't pay a livable wage or provide a reasonable budget to staff, there's only so much you can expect.
THEDIRTYBUBBLELower New England/NY has some of the worst terrain parks in the country IMO. They only have whiteface. The only place that has worse parks is Ohio. The midwest has some kickass parks. App Mountain has better parks than most of NY.
Swains parks are decent, windham was off the chain this year, peek n peak has phenomenal terrain parks, I'd argue they have the best in NY but whiteface just has the size for bigger features where we don't. Bristol isn't bad at all, holiday valley is meh but still fun. Try actually skiing the majority of NY before you make these claims.
New York has better terrain parks than CT/MA besides maybe nashoba but I'd make the argument that peek n peak is just as good.
Chubz.Swains parks are decent, windham was off the chain this year, peek n peak has phenomenal terrain parks, I'd argue they have the best in NY but whiteface just has the size for bigger features where we don't. Bristol isn't bad at all, holiday valley is meh but still fun. Try actually skiing the majority of NY before you make these claims.
New York has better terrain parks than CT/MA besides maybe nashoba but I'd make the argument that peek n peak is just as good.
Yeah Nashoba is the shit. Good rails and I like the jumps. Lots of gapers though.
Titsandwich11am i the only one who thinks that isnt as bad as people always say? maybe it's smaller than it looks, in which case maybe im wrong, but it looks like a sort of weird but interesting feature. it's not amazing but it's become this icon of shitty park features when there are so much worse at most mountains
YES YOU ARE!
Thank god OP. I was waiting for this thread. Almost made one today on here or the nyskiblog.
Fuck gores park.
Gores park sucks because they don't care about it. They kept around Jason Ohara, who after several trips to cutters camp and one of the nicest machines in the industry, still builds a completely shit park.
I went a few years ago for a day. EVERY feature in the park had a ridiculously huge gap on. I had a picture on here somewhere of the aframe. It's a 22' foot aframe set maybe 1' and change at the highest point, so the front end is very low with a 10' ish gap on the front. Think about that. A low takeoff, a low rail, and a gap the size of the first rail section on an UP.
That's fucking madness.
Also they have the kiddie park there which is very important. It's in a pretty solid location IMO. Unfortunately it's built like shit. The features are not fitting the ability level. There was a pole jam set up nearly vertical, some gaps onto rails etc. It wasn't all horrible, but it just showed that they have no concept what a beginner feature was.
There's a picture I have of 3 pole jams next to each other on wild air. What a waste of space.
Gore seems to have started building better jumps but it's very inconsistent. You really don't know what you're running into. Then you have some of those super super thin and floppy and risk shaving in and getting hurt. You can feel the rail shake.
Basically the mountain is state funded, can spend anything on the park, has a fleet of very new PB's and Jason has a Park Bully that's only a few years old. They have the terrain, they just have no concept of what they're doing.
They had a sunrise photoshoot a couple of years ago.
Look how ugly that jump looks. They planned a photoshoot on THAT? Nobody cut the sides, nobody even gave the top a rake to remove that small pile of snow?
Gores parks look like shit, ride like shit, and are comprised of shit.
I'm usually ridiculously nice on not shitting on peoples parks, at least not in the forums, but fuck gores parks. It's funny that I worked there at one point.
As much as that place sucks, I'd like for them to get it together and build a decent park for the kids.
There's a reason why every serious park skier from gore, gets a drivers license and gets the fuck out to better mountains.
While on the ski blog I found this
"January 3, 2012
GORE MOUNTAIN OPENS THE ONLY HALFPIPE IN THE EAST OVER NEW YEAR'S WEEKEND
NORTH CREEK – Gore Mountain offered the only halfpipe currently available in the East at the North Creek Ski Bowl January 1-2, despite the challenging early season weather. The Ski Bowl schedule is concentrated around weekends and holidays; guests should look for that terrain and its adjacent 800' lift-serviced tubing lanes reopening on Friday, January 6."
The pipe there is ghetto as shit. I got "fired" while hand raking the halfpipe because Jason couldn't cut it worth shit, and I wanted to ride it. Also they really couldn't have put it in a worse place. The pitch is too flat, and the drop in was built with dirt from the inrun. So you drop down into a hole and then go up hill to the pipe. It's hilarious.
Idk, I have no patience for people who fuck over good people, and build garbage parks while having all the resources. Jason has been running that park since like 04, maybe even earlier. He's been running a cat since 06/07, but you wouldn't know that from looking at the product gore puts out in the park.
Is it the worst park in the world? Of course not. But the argument of "There are worse parks" is shit imo. There are parks with no budget, one old half broken cat, and no man power putting out better products.
Honestly other than not having jumps even Oak Mtn, a tiny mtn with no budget had a better rail setup at least than Gore that met all ability levels.
Gores park sucks because they don't care about it. They kept around Jason Ohara, who after several trips to cutters camp and one of the nicest machines in the industry, still builds a completely shit park...
amen..
gore doesnt care about their park but knows its a necessary evil nowadays. Their pipe is a joke and the layout of "wild air" is dumb. I honestly only go to gore for the upper trails, doublebarrel, woods, etc... the park is something to cruise through on the way down (if im coming down from mid mountain)
If you want state funded parks, go to whiteface. Or just drive to Southern Vermont. No one on here should be going to Gore for their park. They have great woods and steeps up top that you should all be hitting instead.. lots of jibs and cliffs in the woods. Im sure ill see some of you up there this year. pray for snow!
just to be clear, i dont know anything about gore. i was only commenting on that one picture that people pass around as "the worst park feature ever!!!" i fully believe you all that gore's park isnt what it should be. just always seemed odd to me that that picture got so much use when there's so much worse shit out there
THEDIRTYBUBBLELower New England/NY has some of the worst terrain parks in the country IMO. They only have whiteface. The only place that has worse parks is Ohio. The midwest has some kickass parks. App Mountain has better parks than most of NY.
Even whiteface was pretty mediocre in rail setups until maybe 5 years ago. Tyler Watson (who's now at Sbush) and some of the other guys really sparked some growth in that place. Whiteface had good jumps forever, but the rail setups just weren't right. Like the huge dfd box being under the height of the takeoff so you couldn't see it. Shit like that. But now they're building new features, building more creative and generally more proper features and setups.
SammyDubzWindham was pretty good this year.
Keith from Nashoba moved down there 2 years ago. Last year was the first big year. They built a new shop and he built a TON of new rails. Dude knows his way around a welder and rail design. I'm very eager to see what they do in the next few years. Windham really needed a good change like this.
RparrPlease send help NS, it's bad out here
It's scary though. Honestly have had some shit luck even on the fixer uppers in better areas. It really depends on the management. If the management doesn't want things to change, even the best park people can't really make things work.
GORILLAWALLACEagreed.
nothing wrong with having sketchy street-like features in a park as long as they're not all like that.
also, shitty parks build character and can arguably make you a better skier. there was none of this jiminey cricket ass progression park 5ft rails and dancefloors where I was learning, but I still learned.
It's not even street like features, they're just sketchy. Like somebody would sue because of getting hurt if these things were the handrail sketchy.
Shitty parks really don't make you a better skier at all. Sure you're more able to deal with shitty parks, and maybe more appreciative of good parks but there's no coincidence that the level of riding is so high in better parks.
Properly built parks allow you to seamlessly flow from first time in the park all the way up. Things are gradual. You're able to learn a trick on an easier feature, and progress upwards. Let's say an 8'-12' down rail set up urban but low. You try a spin on, and regardless of you're balance, you're off very quick. Also it's maybe 1' off the ground so there's little risk. You try something new. You start to feel confident and you move to the slightly higher, slightly longer version etc.
Also properly built jumps are honestly essential for progression.
T.L.I'm not sure if this is the case with gore but the reality is this..the resorts that can't maintain a decent park program are the ones who aren't investing in one. If you don't pay a livable wage or provide a reasonable budget to staff, there's only so much you can expect.
They buy a brand new PB every 2 years. The mountain is state run and could spend 10k plus a year on the park and it wouldn't hurt them. The mountain taps directly into the hudson river so there are no water shortages. They also have an obscene amount of guns. Plenty of new fan guns, the whole parks are lined with tower guns. The Park Manager runs maybe a 4 year old Park Bully. Oh and he went to cutters camp west at least twice starting in 06/07 before a lot of people even really had those opportunities.
Honestly the pay isn't necessarily bad. Their problem is they've run off any good workers they've ever had. In 07/08 we had a pretty stacked crew as well as a good scene of local park rats. None of us worked there the next year, and none of those locals really road there more than another season or two.
The problem is they're comfortable with the Park Manager. He's been working year round there I think even before he ran the park. Anyway they see no reason to change things so it won't.
Anyway I hand built this 6.5' ish step down a cat pass wide. Straight cut sides and nice and flat side to side. In addition to rolling the edges down all the time he would undercut the corners and they would fall off. You would rebuild it, and the next day it would be fucked again.
For the amount of money, the machine, the time etc, they've invested in him and the park it's crazy to see how bad the park still is. Gore is in this bubble world. I think they actually believe they're cutting edge and throwing down a sick park these days, but it's still sketch.
Bummed for the kids stuck in the region. Even if Jason left and the job opened I would never work at that place again. Management is too shady for my liking. IT was cool as a first park job for 2 years but never again.
gore doesnt care about their park but knows its a necessary evil nowadays. Their pipe is a joke and the layout of "wild air" is dumb. I honestly only go to gore for the upper trails, doublebarrel, woods, etc... the park is something to cruise through on the way down (if im coming down from mid mountain)
If you want state funded parks, go to whiteface. Or just drive to Southern Vermont. No one on here should be going to Gore for their park. They have great woods and steeps up top that you should all be hitting instead.. lots of jibs and cliffs in the woods. Im sure ill see some of you up there this year. pray for snow!
I fully agree man. I love the mountain. The way it's laid out is perfect. When the lifts have a 40+ min wait you can lap the straightbrook quad with a 30 second line if any and ride some of the best terrain on the mtn. Lies on a mid feb morning around 10 am as the surface starts to bake is one of my favorite trails in the world.
There is a lot of good terrain there and I'm sure even after years I still know quite a few people working/riding there.
I might make it out for opening day and a couple times after but I'll likely be out by Dec either to CO/Utah or Europe depending on what job I end up taking. I was back in the region last year running Waste's park and meant to get up there but was too fucking busy and worked 7 days a week for pretty much the whole season. Unfortunately it was a shit winter for the east last year, and West didn't give me the resources promised and things didn't pan out. That said it was cool to be back in the region for a bit.
Titsandwich11just to be clear, i dont know anything about gore. i was only commenting on that one picture that people pass around as "the worst park feature ever!!!" i fully believe you all that gore's park isnt what it should be. just always seemed odd to me that that picture got so much use when there's so much worse shit out there
Do you realize how sketchy that feature is?!? That's an absurdly steep kink on a DF that isn't that long, with a fucking gap off a booter into it. So you pretty much land right before the kink and hit the kink as you compress from the landing, then get murdered when you hit the kink. The combination of the absurd angle and the horrific setup is amazing.
Apparently it was only in for something like a day and got pulled and rebuilt eventually. A lot of thought goes into building features at the proper angle for parks. You don't just weld some steel together and go "Let's see what happens".
theabortionatorDo you realize how sketchy that feature is?!? .
i mean, i probably would if i wasn't so sick....?
no i getcha. it's clearly not a well set up feature. but i sorta like the rag tag approach to stuff sometimes. as long as there are also safe easy features in the park, it's nice to have weird stuff set up all wonky. sorta reminds me of urban, which ill probably never hit again haha
your example of the weird lips onto up rails and stuff like that i totally feel ya. that's just the designer being inexplicably bad at design. maybe he/they don't ride enough to realize how stupid a setup like that is...idk
Titsandwich11i mean, i probably would if i wasn't so sick....?
no i getcha. it's clearly not a well set up feature. but i sorta like the rag tag approach to stuff sometimes. as long as there are also safe easy features in the park, it's nice to have weird stuff set up all wonky. sorta reminds me of urban, which ill probably never hit again haha
your example of the weird lips onto up rails and stuff like that i totally feel ya. that's just the designer being inexplicably bad at design. maybe he/they don't ride enough to realize how stupid a setup like that is...idk
Idk I like all kinds of weird creative features, but some stuff is just built wrong. There's those features you have to hit a bit or think about to figure out how to really use it well. That's cool. But this was more just poor construction.
fpushbrothe glades are good, the grooming is good but why do you suck at rail gaps?
I mean it always comes down to the park staff. Many really good shapers and cat drivers end up moving to resorts which are bigger and better. Sometimes you get lucky and a smaller place has a good crew that does a bang up job. Sometimes they don't.
Management likely feels they need to have a park to stay competitive, but the team building it needs some more experience.
There is no training available for park staff, so you really rely on the people hanging around to either figure it out or not.
Mr.BishopI mean it always comes down to the park staff. Many really good shapers and cat drivers end up moving to resorts which are bigger and better. Sometimes you get lucky and a smaller place has a good crew that does a bang up job. Sometimes they don't.
Management likely feels they need to have a park to stay competitive, but the team building it needs some more experience.
There is no training available for park staff, so you really rely on the people hanging around to either figure it out or not.
They're a not really a small place though. Gore has 2600 vert or something and more if you include the sketchy trails to the ski bowl. I think it's got like 80+ trails as well these days.
But you're right.
That said, Gore has had some good staff, it just drove them away. The Park Manager went to cutters camp at hood at least twice and has one of the best cats in the business, unlimited snowmaking potential, $$$$, and many other things that really give him a massive plus over any of the smaller resorts.
That said I think the staff some of the last years were pretty clueless or just very very green to working in parks. Anybody decent would go somewhere else and they probably can't find anyone good to work in their parks.
They started marketing their parks a few years ago a bit. That said they do it pretty poorly and don't understand how to market, or the target demographic in general. I think they honestly believe the park is awesome.
DIRTYBUBBLELower New England/NY has some of the worst terrain parks in the country IMO. They only have whiteface. The only place that has worse parks is Ohio. The midwest has some kickass parks. App Mountain has better parks than most of NY.
