Sharon Heller
New member
We left Ithaca friday in a steady rain. Half way into the 5 hour drive we noticed that the trees had a nice glaze on them as we approached Schoharie on I-88 on our way towards Albany. Rain was freezing onto the windshield as it fell and the roads were accumulating ice. We passed through the Capital District just after rush hour and found a brief interlude of wet roads. As we proceeded north just a few miles, the rain turned back to sleet and the sleet was piling up on the roads again. By Saratoga the sleet had turned to snow and the roads were white. It was puking snow from Glens Falls through Keene. Our 5 hour drive turned into about a 6 hour drive. <BR> <BR>When we got to Wilmington we were sad to see only a few fresh inches on the ground. We figured there would be more on the mountain. <BR> <BR>6 of us (Frank, Mike, DJ, Carolyn, Me and Bubba) and 4 dogs proceeded with the friday night arrival rituals, which included Ubu Ale and a lot of noise which was generated by the excitement of being together the night before a day out on the snow, exacerbated by 4 dogs that were very happy to be together. It was amazing that no one in the hotel complained. <BR> <BR>Saturday we got up to Whiteface early, purchased our half price lift tix awarded to us for owning Greek Peak season's passes, and made some tracks in the 4" of fresh from the gondola. 9" fell the day before, but it had been groomed down into the firm base. After a couple of runs on the gondola, we ran into Jeremy and Carl. 8 people makes for a full gondola. The rides up with my ski buddies packed into a small space were full of laughs and almost as enjoyable as the run down. <BR> <BR>Just before 10, they opened the summit, so we hopped on the Summit quad and made our way up to the top. Skyward was the ticket. Fresh snow on firm bumps. A couple of runs there and it got skied off rather fast. Seemed like the hoards all got to it at the same time. When our group gets on a trail it suddenly becomes crowded, but there were many others also attempting this classic Whiteface trail. <BR> <BR>Paron's and Upper Cloudsplitter were closed, so after a couple of runs on Skyward and a run on Follies, which seemd to have better snow than Skyward, we headed down to mid-mountain. We ran the double for a half dozen runs or so. Wilderness had some nice snow left natural on top of very large bumps on skier's left. We <BR>lapped this lift for a while while Jeremy went in search of his brother and to swap out skis and Carl went in to swap out his powder phatties to his all-mountain Super Stinx, since most of the powder was skied down to a nice fast base. By 12:30 we headed in for lunch at the mid-mtn lodge. <BR> <BR>Bubba went in a run or 3 before some of us and had lunch with Jim Dugan. The rest of us eventually regrouped there. Ran into a few <BR>kayaking/telemark friends. <BR> <BR>After lunch we went out for a few more quad burners on the 3350 vertical feet. A summit run all the way to the bottom and a few laps on the gondola, just to be sure that we burned our quads out enough. <BR> <BR>It sleeted a good part of the afternoon and at times it became painful as the pellets of snow would sting your face while at speed. Speed was something guaranteed at Whiteface. <BR> <BR>Skiing Whiteface is a different kind of skiing. Its about skiing fast on very long runs. Sure there are bumps and some glades (glades weren't open), but its the length of each run that will make your quads turn to jelly. Temps were around 30-35 with a mixed bag of precip throughout the day. Visibility was limited by not totally blinding at the summit and the wind was not too bad. They had the quad on hold for weather, but when they opened it at 10, it wasn't as bad as we had imagined. Overall, a good day at Whiteface. <BR> <BR>We stayed at the Adirondack Holiday Lodge in Wilmington. This place was awesome. A Campy/Adirondack style motel 'resort' 3 miles from the mountain with an 11 person hot tub and home cooked food on premises. <BR> <BR>The restaurant is very good and they make everything fresh in-house. Nice variety on the menu, from bar food, sandwiches, burgers and soups, to steaks, seafood and pasta. Good grub, friendly service, reasonably priced. They even have live entertainment. Comfortable bar and lounge. Vintage 1950's furniture in the rooms with televisions from the 70's that may have been the first color TVs made. We had 2 spacious adjoining rooms for 6 people. We kept our Ubu Ales on the balcony that had a view of the mountains (as well as a view of the chocolate shop across the street which is well worth the visit). The Holiday Lodge even permitted dogs at no extra charge. In Lake Placid, expect to pay $10 extra if they even allow dogs. There were 6 people and 4 dogs between our 2 rooms and there was plenty of room. Spring rates are a bargain at $49 for a deluxe room. <BR> <BR>It was so great hanging with our best ski-buddies, the people whom we have travelled with to so many mountains east and west. <BR> <BR>We could hardly believe we would have such nice snow so late in the season. It was like mid-winter. We had made plans to go long before snow was in the forecast, in hopes of the last chance to get in some skiing before the fat lady sings. We got way more than we had expected, and there was no fat lady in the 'dacks this weekend. <BR> <BR>Jeremy insisted that Gore would be better. He said he'd meet us there sunday and headed home to Glens Falls, barely an hour away. <BR> <BR>We heard Gore got 30" of snow, and we didn't doubt it based on what we saw friday night when we were on our way up. So we decided we'd pack up early and drive down to Gore sunday morning and see what Jeremy has been talking about. It was on our way, and I was the only one in our group that had ever been there before. Everyone was game. We set the clocks ahead for daylight savings time and were in bed by 9pm which was going to be like 10pm.