Snowboarding at Gore Mountain: What Went Wrong and Why I’ll Be Back
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I unfortunately didn't have the greatest experience Gore could offer 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!!!
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 helped get our tickets through his line of work through an industry discount.
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 newish 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 trail on a very playful and still new board. I’ve ridden it at Big SNOW, but riding indoors is NOT THE SAME as riding outdoors on mountains. It helps you learn and progress, but many people cannot take what they learned at Big SNOW onto real mountains.
This is because Big SNOW is as big as a person’s comfort zone. Going out onto bigger slopes can really excite you and make you scared all in one go because your expanding your comfort zone. To do something outside of our comfort zone requires twice the energy! This is because your nervous system will try to protect you when it sees anything as a threat. And you doing something new is a threat to your nervous system.
Our comfort zones are small, and they grow and get bigger over time through pushing our boundaries. When we utilize crutches or training wheels too long, we delay that growth and make it harder to take the next step. Eventually, we have to trust ourselves, let go, and embrace the challenge so our comfort zone can truly expand.
That fear, that crutch I had, it threw me in for a loop! My first board was VERY stiff. The exact opposite of the one I rode on during my first lap. We switched me back to my stiff board, which was a mistake but we didn’t know at the time! Hindsight is 20/20. I also realized the only way I get better at my circumstances and expand my comfort zone is by doing the same thing over and over again, the same way, changing a little each time. This helps expand my comfort zone slowly and makes me realize there’s nothing to be afraid of. Which then loosens me up and I can ride freely as I would indoors or how I did last year at Blue Mountain or at Bear Creek.
Anyways, 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 practice 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 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 99% 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, as mentioned in many of the other mountain reviews above!
Pricing is definitely a little more than average. But the stickers are of 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 because we were in dire need of one!
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 updated review!
