Sharon
New member
The weather was in the 40s all night and when we woke in the morning it was gray. The forecast was for ‘rain, heavy at times’. So while it wasn’t <BR>raining we decided to beat feet and head to the hill before the deluge. <BR> <BR>Arriving at Whiteface, we were unsure if the place was even open. It was eerily brown and quiet, however there were some cars. We parked right up in front next to the main base lodge. <BR> <BR>The Gondola was running, so there must be something going on. We went inside to see what was up. <BR> <BR>The base lodge was nearly empty except for a half dozen people in line to get their seasons passes. We got in line and sure enough they sold us lift <BR>tickets. Our Greek Peak season’s passes provided us with a 50% discount and we skied for $17.50 each. If the price was $35 I don’t know if we would have considered it worth it to go up there to ski a few runs before the rain, but for $17.50, it was worth it just to see what they had up there. <BR> <BR>Gondola to the top. No line. There were more lift attendants and Whiteface employees than I saw customers. Excelsior to Summit Express to Valley Rd were the only trails running. Just one way down, and not all the way down. Just to the bottom of the Little Whiteface double chair lift. The snow was pretty soft in most places, but there was one section around the second bend that was a little chunky with death cookies. Excelsior is a series of S-turns. You can really get booking and you can really get a burn going, as it is fairly long, even to the mid-mountain lift. After the chunky section it was hero corn snow <BR>the rest of the way down. Fun carving turns in the stuff. We skied 8 runs before the rain started. Our legs were feeling the work-out around that time, so it was good timing to call it a day. When we got in the car the heavier rains came and we returned to the house for lunch and hot tub. <BR> <BR>The weather was warm and rainy all night friday night, but by the morning it was snow...sideways snow, with 30mph winds and higher gusts...all day <BR>long. No one went skiing, and bagging a High Peak was out of the question. The lifts were not running due to high winds. So we lounged around all morning and had a long breakfast. Got dressed and bundled up and went out for a stroll around Mirror Lake. The wind was rippin, but we were all in our ski clothes, so we stayed warm despite the gusts that nearly blew us over. We ended our stroll at the Lake Placid brewery where we enjoyed UBU and pub food. They got some good grub there. <BR> <BR>We retired for the afternoon to our friend's place and made good use of the hot tub, VCR, sofa, stereo and blender. Mass quantities were consumed by 14 people until midnite when we all passed out. <BR> <BR>In the morning it was snowing again. Bodies moving, coffee brewing. Check the website for the conditions. 2" windblown, but still snowing. Our <BR>friends had not yet even skied. There was no question we were going to ski. Everyone's expectations were quite low since it poured all day friday and froze up saturday and got windblown. We figured dust on crust. But our friends wanted to make their first turns so we headed up the road to Whiteface to ski, no matter the conditions. <BR> <BR>It was much more wintery on sunday contrasting with fridays mild conditions. It was snowing and windy. <BR> <BR>Up the gondola to the top of Little Whiteface into the soupy gray abyss. The clouds were low and visibility was limited, but not debilitating. Same trail as friday. Many laps were done. The conditions far exceeded our expectations. They had done a great job grooming, resurfacing with snowguns blowing throughout the day. Really nice surfaces. No ice to speak of. Everything was carveable. It was fast if you let it rip and you could also take time and make many perfect arcs in the fresh soft snow. It snowed most of the day so the natural snow stuck nicely to the manmade snow further softening the surfaces. It was 3-4x busier on sunday than friday, but there was still plenty of room. Still had to beware of teenage boys on snowboards going full throttle and making unpredictable moves. <BR> <BR>Two times this week our expectations were more than met and we had 2 great days despite less than perfect weather conditions at Whiteface.