Gore Mountain — Attraction in Town of Johnsburg

I unfortunately didn't have the greatest experience Gore offers due to external factors none to Gore's fault. I definitely want to come back again and redeem my time here because I'm not a quitter.

My boyfriend and I had come up to Gore on Friday the 13th in December 2024, no less. So maybe that's where all my bad luck came from?

PARKING There's a ton of parking, but coming later in the day results in parking far. It's quite a walk to the main lodge and kiosk when you do. Parking is free!

PRICE I can't talk about price because my boyfriend works in the industry and got our tickets through his line of work.

SNOW CONDITIONS Packed base, icy, mind your tailbone.

I would highly recommend starting on some easy greens just to get the feel of the conditions. I've only been snowboarding for 2 years, but have had over 150 hours on snow already and 45ish days. But at the start of the season, everything is new ish again.

My boyfriend is an experienced rider. Riding for over 10 years, way more days and hours than I have, and had his start in Colorado. I asked for greens just to warm up, while I do ride on blues, I was riding on a new board and it didn't end well for me. Failing to plan is planning to fail after all.

I wish I got a trail map at the beginning, and they should be widely more available to find. Not everyone has great cell service in the mountains.

While at the top, near Saddle Lodge, it starts off green, at the beginning of the season there's not many runs open and soon I found myself on a blue on a very playful and new board. It threw me in for a loop since my last board was VERY stiff. The complete opposite!

During my second lap of the day I fell wrong and whatever was in my kangaroo pocket jabbed my rib. I couldn't get down on my own due to the pain and nausea and ski patrol had to bring the toboggan.

I hated it. I hated having to cut it so short! Gore was a dream mountain of mine and I didn't get to experience it fully. My expectations for myself became defeated. Swallowing that pill was hard.

I will be back towards the end of the season to reclaim my experience. After I have more time on my new board. I just bought another one, which is in between both the stiff and very playful board.

SKI PATROL I want to thank Zac for staying by me and my boyfriend while I tried to get myself down. I really didn't want to quit. I'm not a quitter but my boyfriend did say, "It's better to quit now and ride another day than make it worse and be out all season." After thinking about it and how dizzy and nauseous I was I gave in. Just knowing I had the support was reassuring.

Zac was also very calm and reassuring. Once I made up my mind to that I couldn't go further on my own, he brought me down with the toboggan. I never rode on a sled before in my life, and it was fun, but let's definitely not make it a habit!

It's been almost a month now and my ribs are 100% better. It was an intercostal muscle strain. It hurt like hell for a week and a half, but I rode again at a smaller mountain the next day because we didn't want to end the trip early. I had better runs, no falls, despite the insane amount of pain.

GIFT SHOP I had a very lovely chat with the lady who works in the gift shop. I bought many Gore Stickers for my scrapbook! She and I bonded over our love of scrapbooks, and I know that's not something snowboarders regularly do. Mainly stickers go on helmets and boards, but I love them on & in my scrapbook and planners.

Pricing is definitely a little more than average. But the stickers are amazing quality so worth it!

They also sell just about anything you would need in the shop at the base area lodge. We bought one of those screwdriver sets.

OVERALL I highly recommend saving the PDF version of the trail map to your phone for easy access ahead of time before you go anywhere near the mountain. The views are out of this world!! Gore is definitely a place to ride and check out and I will be back with a better...

Gore Mountain has been my go-to venue for skiing due to it’s convenient location and amenities. Went there yesterday to catch some of the FISU World University Games action. We arrived at 10:30 AM for the events and the place was expectedly mobbed. While Gore’s popularity is definitely no secret, the way the property and its representatives presented itself yesterday was a shocking experience which led me to write this review.

Upon arrival, a line of probably 75-100 cars was backed on Gore Mountain Road because the main parking lots were full. Instead of stopping cars at the entrance and direct them to park on the shoulders immediately, everyone was asked to drive all way up the road then turn around and find parking on the while headed out. This caused unnecessary traffic in both directions with people having no place to walk up to the lodge safely. Parking lot attendants and other volunteers seemed completely overwhelmed and did not have the situation under control to guarantee safety for guests which should stand as undefeated number 1 on the list of priorities.

By the time we were turned around on Gore Mountain Road, shoulders were filled up almost entirely forcing us to park probably 1/4 mile from the entrance and thus we had to walk a good portion to lot G to take the bus to the lodge. There was no space to walk so it was unavoidable to step into the roadway at times. Despite me wearing a bright red jacket, I still seemed completely exposed to being overseen by oncoming drivers who had to observe traffic and people on both lanes making it hard to focus.

Gore mountain road is not wide enough to handle cars and pedestrians headed in both directions safely. The speed of oncoming cars was also way beyond the posted limits with zero intervention by state enforcement despite their presence. Just being there does not cut it nor deter visitors to act civilized anymore as pedestrians were honked at by several drivers going way over speed as if they didn’t care.

After 30 mins, we finally made it to the lodge and found the area heavily trafficked with no control over safe operation between skiers coming off the slopes, headed to the gondola and those just visiting the games. Skiers were not asked or directed to slow down which caused several unsafe situations and near-miss events.

While watching the games in the finish area, we saw 3 skiers coming off the mountain in rescue sleds w/in a 3 hour time frame.

Logically individuals attention, skill-level, register for self-awareness or knowing boundaries is beyond Gore’s direct influence; but it was an eye opening experience for me and I’d like to think that my post will awake management to step up and reject visitors when the place is simply above capacity.

Much in line with another recent post here, please know your limits and when to intervene or stop the line before someone gets...

Just had 2 family ski days @ Gore for xmas holiday 2017. Coming here for 25+ years and have seen new lodges, gondola, trails & mtn peaks opened over that time. NY Olympic Authority (ORDA) continues reinvesting to keep fresh, new & competitive. 2018 starting out as a great snow season. Positives, as always, are: great family vibe, value, lodge area/services, snowmaking, green efforts, lift system and trail variety especially the many glades. This really is a great ski area that showcases the Adirondacks and is not overly commercialized. But stars deducted for a couple opportunities. 1 - the MANY almost unavoidable uphill sections coming off lifts and on connecting trails - exhaustive. Every year I'm expecting this to improve, but not so - just can't understand, maybe mandatory upper body development program, but keeps crowds away from Burnt Ridge. 2 - Advising NOT taking website open/closed trails as accurate. There's a "status can change without notice" disclaimer, but example this week is key trails like Sagamore & linked glades marked open for days when closed & far from ready (huge mounds of gun snow). Assuming some internal disconnect between marketing & operations, but this can be interpreted very negatively by consumers. 3 - The mid-mtn Saddle Lodge kitchen overwhelmed by holiday lunch volume, some bringing own meals, but conversely the Tannery is a bustling apres-ski experience with quick service and responsive staff! Single degree temp had Open Pit Grille/patio empty but great lunch & go BBQ on prior visits. Overall a great family ski option that's always evolving for the positive. Just factor in all aspects for the best...