Mar. 13, 2015 - Fri.: Granite Gorge
The last time I skied at "Granite Gorge" was Superbowl Sunday, 1976. It was operating as Pinnacle Mt. One of the trails in the re-constituted area recognizes that piece of history and is in fact called Pinnacle.

If I were to compare Granite Gorge size-wise and feel-wise, I think Whaleback is about the closest comparison. Pretty much everything about Granite Gorge felt low-key and I really liked that.

They claim to be 525 vertical. I had to compare what it might have skied like under reasonable conditions. I went down Evan's Glade which looked like it would have been fun before the Tuesday-thaw/Wednesday-refreeze. I went down an ungroomed thing called Headwall that would have been a nice mogul run had conditions been better.

The Upper Lift Line was rated Double Diamond. It hadn't been cleared and had a lot of small saplings on it as well as some large stumps. In its condition today, it clearly deserved its Double Diamond rating. There was no "closed" sign or rope on it, but I declined to try it. I suspect it would be a solid black diamond with adequate snow and some tree work - and maybe even a double diamond if it mogulled up.

There were a number of lovely Blue Squares that were well groomed and made for some good cruising. Size-wise, it felt like about the size of Crotched's Valley Chair. But in terms of shape, it felt like Pat's Peak without the runout at the bottom.

Snowmaking was limited to the area to the left of the chairlift (looking up), but the equipment that they had looked like a reasonable collection of Areco fan guns.

Signage was good with every trail and intersection clearly marked.

I had a nice time there. I see Granite Gorge as a wonderful local feeder hill.