Sharon
New member
It was PFC in Lake Placid this weekend. It was minus 30 when we woke up and didn't get above minus 10. Most of the group thought riding the lifts at these temps was not a good time and decided to go on a nordic tour. Four of us bundled up and braved the cold and had a blast. Wind Chills were in the minus 40 to minus 50 degree range. I think it was a little windier on sunday, though saturday was a bit colder. <BR> <BR>The best snow was under the guns. It was so cold the snow was a very light talcum powder. Creamy soft powdery turns. We found some boiler plate here and there, but for the most part, we saw a lot of man-made snow. Very chalky and carveable in many places. Skyward had some serious death cookies, but they were also carveable. <BR> <BR>When the Summit Lift was down, we took our runs on the double. Mountain Run had some nice day-old manmade snow on it. The World Freestyle Competition was there last week and the competition mogul course on Wilderness was vacant this weekend. We took a few runs down it to warm us up. It worked. Really perfect man-made lines on that run. <BR> <BR>High Country Glade was in nice shape. Good snow quality with fresh snow to track in various places. Some small wood and rock to avoid, made the trail more technical, but enough snow to make it all skiable. <BR> <BR>McKenzie was interesting to say the least. The snowmaking whales were huge and firm by sunday. We skirted back into the woods where the snow was more powdery. <BR> <BR>Sunday the Gondola was not running. We really could have used some shelter from the cold and we might have skied longer. Riding the slow chair lifts was really a challenge. Especially when the Summit Lift stopped about half-way. We all got a little scared, but luckily it started back up after a very uncomfortable minute of uncertainty. The views from the Summit were spectacular. The Adirondack panorama was so inspiring that I forgot how cold it was. <BR> <BR>I was very impressed with the resurfacing efforts of Whiteface. They really cranked out a lot of new snow all over the mountain. They left snowguns blasting all day so creamy freshies could be enjoyed in a man-made snowstorm. <BR> <BR>Whiteface skis differently than other mountains. It's a big fast mountain. I really love the long steep runs. I got going pretty fast in some places that I almost scared myself. But I relied upon my edges and the manmade snow that made it possible to fly without worry about skiing off the trail. There were, however, some places where that was entirely possible. Some uncarveable stretches of boiler plate made some windy intersections interesting. Luckily they were just isolated patches. <BR> <BR>One might imagine what the mountain might be like if it wasn't for snowmaking. Scarey thought actually. <BR> <BR>Not a lift line anywhere. The Gondola didn't run on sunday, so we braved the slow lifts. The Summit Lift had some mechanical problems on saturday. But there was plenty of good skiing at The Face. <BR> <BR>15 of us really enjoyed our weekend in Lake Placid. Some folks went out to the Lake Placid Brew Pub and saw a show at the Performing Arts Center. The rest of us stayed at the house and cooked dinner. The house was very comfortable, even with 15 people. There was ski jumping going on right across the road. From the hot tub you could see the jumpers go down the ramp and launch. You couldn't see them land (because there were trees obstructing the view) but you could hear the thwap of the skis on the landing. The weather wasn't very conducive to spectator sports unless you were sipping a beer in the hot tub across the road.