Whiteface March 6, 2010

[Powderqueen]

The Slides at Whiteface aren't open very often. In 2008 I was lucky enough to ski them for the first time. They didn't open last year and they would not have opened this past week if it wasn't for that big dump we got last week.

The Slides are pretty exciting skiing. They are wild and gnarly and they require skiers to use all their skills.

It was a cold morning so we didn't go for a super early start, though we did get on the snow before 10. We packed up lunch and beer in a backpack, so our first run was down to Wilderness to drop off our sustenance at the mid mountain lodge.

At this point I got a text from Chuck who said they just opened the slides, so up we went.



Our first run was Slide 3, since it was still early and this #3 seems to get the most sun. We climbed up and traversed over and came upon a group of young guys, some skiers, some snowboarders clogging up the entrance of Slide 3. One of them couldn't keep his ski on his ski boot. His friends took off and left him as we watched he and his skis and poles slide down the first narrow chutes into Slide 3. Mark offered to help and noticed his 15+ year old skis were set at a DIN of 5. He said he hadn't had them checked in 10 years (when he was probably a child), and now he weighed 200lbs and 6 feet tall. Mark adjusted them and it enabled him to get down.

Once we got past this guy, Slide 3 opened up nicely





Slide 2 is kind of amorphic and has a lot of small trees and tight squeezes.



Mark at the bottom of Slide 2




Slide 1 is the most wide open and has some nice soft snow





Slide 1 also has a huge waterfall, which was quite tricky to maneuver and required mandatory air.





Slide 4 was our favorite. There's a tricky traverse over slides 1, 2 and 3. Slide 4 starts off pretty open with some soft sweet turns.

Mark dropping into slide 4






Half way down it narrows down considerably.

Mark in the narrows.





We pick our way down though tight trees and blind turns and then we come a horizon line.


Slide 4 waterfall





We did 4 runs in the slides between 10:30-2pm and were ready to crack a beer and eat some lunch at Mid Mountain.






After lunch we decided to head over to Lookout Mountain to check out the new terrain.

Wilmington Trail





Lookout Below had big soft bumps and was a lot of fun





This sign made us very sad since it was 3pm when we got there.






The Sugar Valley glade looked pretty awesome and we were greatly disappointed to have missed it.

The day flew by and the lifts close at an early 3:30. The Cloudspin deck was rockin, but we by-passed the deck party for a tailgate with our own beer, snacks and lawn chairs.

Whiteface is an incredible mountain that has kept me challenged ever since I've been there. My best days there have been in the spring when the sun was shining and the temps were over 32. It can be a tough mountain mid-winter and when it snows, usually the wind blows. I think I will likely continue the Whiteface pilgrimage in the spring for years to come.

[rfarren]

The Slides are pretty exciting skiing. They are wild and gnarly and they require skiers to use all their skills.

They are a ton of fun. And by the looks of it you got it while the getting was good!

The Sugar Valley glade looked pretty awesome and we were greatly disappointed to have missed it.

They were pretty fun, and certainly help give the mountain some more protected areas when the wind really picks up. Next year the entire glade system opens to almost the top of lookout. It should really be nice to have such an extensive tree area at WF. If it is anything like the bottom part (which I skied earlier) it should be wonderful. I heard it should be steeper than the bottom part so that should be an added bonus.

[rfarren]

Whiteface is an incredible mountain that has kept me challenged ever since I've been there.

IMHO, Whiteface is one of the best mountains in the east coast. Especially, when it snows and doesn't blow.

My best days there have been in the spring when the sun was shining and the temps were over 32. It can be a tough mountain mid-winter and when it snows, usually the wind blows.

I think the best time of the year to hit it is in the spring when it softens up. Indeed, I thnk Whiteface is the best spring mountain in EC.

[Patrick]

This sign made us very sad since it was 3pm when we got there.

The Sugar Valley glade looked pretty awesome and we were greatly disappointed to have missed it.

Looks can be deceiving, I was there yesterday and having seen that they closed at 2:30pm, opted to try them out. Besides the first drop, the glades is a long traverses with little fall line skiing. There is also another negative, it wasn't clean up after it was cut. There were a log cut logs in the trail.

So I give that glade before the Slides... The slides had been shutdown when we got at the top at 1pm. Mind you, i've skied the slides a few times before, so...it wasn't that bad.

I thnk Whiteface is the best spring mountain in EC.

Although I regard WF hightly, I wouldn't say it's the best Spring mountain in the EC. There are a few others that are equally fun and great which standout in the Spring time.

[Powderqueen]

I went to Gore on Sunday, and we had super spring conditions and plenty of beautiful glades with soft corn snow. I believe it was better than Whiteface without the Slides and the meager glades they do have. Bummer about the logs and such.

We took our friends with us who are from Lake Placid and mostly ski at WF even though their passes are good at both Gore and WF. They were hugely impressed with the skiing we did and thoroughly enjoyed Gore more than WF.

Typically, they go to WF and do 3-4 runs and call it a day. We kept them out until the last lift ride at 4pm! They loved it and probably skied more runs at Gore on Sunday than they did at WF all season!

[rfarren]

Looks can be deceiving, I was there yesterday and having seen that they closed at 2:30pm, opted to try them out. Besides the first drop, the glades is a long traverses which little fall line skiing. There is also another negative, it wasn't clean up after it was cut. There were a log cut logs in the trail.

So I give that glade before the Slides... The slides had been shutdown when we got at the top at 1pm. Mind you, i've skied the slides a few times before, so...it wasn't that bad.

When I skied there earlier this winter it was the day it opened, or the day afterwards, so there was plenty of fresh left. Maybe that had to do with my opinion of them. Next year you will be able to acces them from close to the top of the wilmington trail. That should make them much more extensive and also provide more sustained steep fall line skiing. As it is now, you access the glades from very near where the wilmington trail ends.

[rfarren]

I went to Gore on Sunday, and we had super spring conditions and plenty of beautiful glades with soft corn snow. I believe it was better than Whiteface without the Slides and the meager glades they do have.

My only issue with gore is the layout and sustained vert. Whiteface is one of the few mountains in the EC where you can really get your legs burning. I like fast GS turns so trail like Cloudspin and Skyward make me happy.

[Powderqueen]

I went to Gore on Sunday, and we had super spring conditions and plenty of beautiful glades with soft corn snow. I believe it was better than Whiteface without the Slides and the meager glades they do have.

My only issue with gore is the layout and sustained vert. Whiteface is one of the few mountains in the EC where you can really get your legs burning. I like fast GS turns so trail like Cloudspin and Skyward make me happy.

We never got to ski Skyward and Cloudspin this trip. We were in the slides for 4 hours, then lunch, then Lookout and the day was done.

Gore does have a funky layout, but the mountain itself has some very interesting terrain, big boulders and such. I actually prefer shorter glade skiing than the big 3000' vert...but that's just me. Remember, my usual hill is barely 750 vert...so skiing 1000 vert at a time is just fine. 3000' is fun once in a while, but burns me out pretty fast.

Right now Acidchrist is at Snowbasin skiing the big vert at mach speed like it's his last day of his life on skis. He just texted me to tell me that.

[Admin]

Right now Acidchrist is at Snowbasin skiing the big vert at mach speed like it's his last day of his life on skis.

Interesting, because he was looking pretty wiped last night.

[Powderqueen]

Right now Acidchrist is at Snowbasin skiing the big vert at mach speed like it's his last day of his life on skis.

Interesting, because he was looking pretty wiped last night.

He recovers pretty fast and is an animal when he's out there with his buddies in the testosterone cloud.

[Powderqueen]

Right now Acidchrist is at Snowbasin skiing the big vert at mach speed like it's his last day of his life on skis.

Interesting, because he was looking pretty wiped last night.

He recovers pretty fast and is an animal when he's out there with his buddies in the testosterone cloud.

He just texted that he's done 18,000 vertical before lunch. That's only 6 or 7 runs?

[rfarren]

Gore does have a funky layout, but the mountain itself has some very interesting terrain, big boulders and such. I actually prefer shorter glade skiing than the big 3000' vert...but that's just me. Remember, my usual hill is barely 750 vert...so skiing 1000 vert at a time is just fine. 3000' is fun once in a while, but burns me out pretty fast.

Right now Acidchrist is at Snowbasin skiing the big vert at mach speed like it's his last day of his life on skis. He just texted me to tell me that.

My father likes to count his vert ever since I bought one of those fancy altitude tracking watches. I think in 06' before I got him the watch we did some 45,000 feet before lunch at Alta. If remember right, it was a low snow year and the snow was firm. So we did laps on collins trying to see how many feet of vert we could get. The liftees were pretty impressed everytime we came down. I think we got to around 80,000 or so before the day ended. Our legs got tired from just speeding down as fast as possible and we ended up slowing down as the day wore on.

A couple years back at Whiteface I think we got about 80,000 or 85,000 feet in a day. We avoided the summit and just did laps off the Gondola. It was an empty day, and we never waited for a line. I think we rode the gondola some 30 times that day, and went bell to bell.

[Powderqueen]

Gore does have a funky layout, but the mountain itself has some very interesting terrain, big boulders and such. I actually prefer shorter glade skiing than the big 3000' vert...but that's just me. Remember, my usual hill is barely 750 vert...so skiing 1000 vert at a time is just fine. 3000' is fun once in a while, but burns me out pretty fast.

Right now Acidchrist is at Snowbasin skiing the big vert at mach speed like it's his last day of his life on skis. He just texted me to tell me that.

My father likes to count his vert ever since I bought one of those fancy altitude tracking watches. I think in 06' before I got him the watch we did some 45,000 feet before lunch at Alta. If remember right, it was a low snow year and the snow was firm. So we did laps on collins trying to see how many feet of vert we could get. The liftees were pretty impressed everytime we came down. I think we got to around 80,000 or so before the day ended. Our legs got tired from just speeding down as fast as possible and we ended up slowing down as the day wore on.

A couple years back at Whiteface I think we got about 80,000 or 85,000 feet in a day. We avoided the summit and just did laps off the Gondola. It was an empty day, and we never waited for a line. I think we rode the gondola some 30 times that day, and went bell to bell.

Those are incredible numbers. I didn't think anyone could really do close to 40 runs off Collins. 5+ runs per hour is pretty impressive.

[Patrick]

A couple years back at Whiteface I think we got about 80,000 or 85,000 feet in a day. We avoided the summit and just did laps off the Gondola. It was an empty day, and we never waited for a line. I think we rode the gondola some 30 times that day, and went bell to bell.

Really? Not that I'm doubting it, but I think that a 80k or 85k riding the gondola at WF is unlikely.

To reach 80k you would need 33 runs in one day.

33 ride up the gondola would last 6 hours 40 minutes. Let's say you get on the first gondola at 8:30am. Riding it the equivalent to 33 times, you would have to ride it continuously until 3:10pm. Last gondola is at 3:30pm, so that would give you more or less 20 minutes to ski 33 runs - that would leave you less than one minutes to ski a 2,452 vertical feet run from the top of Little Whiteface to the base. No room for breaks (toilet or other). And all that is only for 80k.

[Anthony]

How do you guys keep track of all this stuff , hard enough keeping track on how many times out on the boards .