Whiteface NY 17th,18th

K

kingslug

Active member
Spent 2 days up at Whiteface. Sunday was nuts, record attendance over 5000. First half of the day was great, the new snow they got helped. Tough getting around all the masses but I had a great tour guide, High Peaks Drifter, great skier. the second half of the day it got pretty scraped off. At the top it was a 100 foot slide to get to the goods, Upper Cloudspin, nice moguls and pure snow. Not a bad day at all. Killer vertical!!!!
Monday was Spring skiing and no lines. Guess everyone packed it in when they heard the weather report. Their loss. It started out rainy but quickly cleared up. Warm temps made for some great skiing, all the ice was gone and you could rip it any where you wanted. The top got socked in, so blind skiing was the way down. Spent the day with High peaks Drifter who showed me some more of the place including where the slides let out. The slides where uncovered, nasty looking. Found some good bump runs, upper makenzie was nuts, huge moguls. It got colder as the day went on, sun went in, which worked out great as the snow set up nice.
All in all a great 2 days at a place not a lot of people seem to go to. Killer vert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The place is very underated. My TR's of the place get no replys over at Alpine Zone, cause it's not a bump mountain. But I find it a unique place, one that will hand you you're ass if you're not careful. Great place to practice handling long vertical.
 
I'm in total agreement about Whiteface. I was there both sunday and monday, and you couldn't have explained those two days better. Monday was amazing. Sunday was really crowded. It should help when they open up the new terrain. Unfortunately, the terrain is more of the same, blacks and blues, which shouldn't help distribute beginners that clog the face lift. However, it should help spread out a few of the intermediates on the mountain.
 
Gore had similar crowds. Very busy on Saturday and crazy busy on Sunday. I wonder why Sunday was more crowded than Saturday. Is it reverse psychology? "it will be too busy on Saturday kids, so let's go on Sunday, since people will be in church and it is supposed to rain in the afternoon"

Whiteface is definitely a different kind of mountain. Big vert, long runs, steep flat icy zones and not a whole lot of bumps or variety. There aren't a lot places to "get off the beaten path". The woods are very dense, and the glades there are decent, but limited, and get skied off quickly.

I plan to get up there in the spring.
 
Sharon":3blf9kwu said:
...not a whole lot of bumps or variety.
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While I disagree with you about the variety, I do think the mountain lacks in the bump category. The limited trail mileage doesn't help any.

Sharon":3blf9kwu said:
There aren't a lot places to "get off the beaten path".
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There are a few places that I know of but certainly not to the extent of a mountain like Gore. An abundance of thick balsam forest, less active pruners and a compact trail network have limited the off-trail opportunities.

It will be interesting to see how next year's expansion changes the mountain. The new runs will open up two new mountain faces for exploring, not to mention a 60 acre hardwood glade. Should go a long way in addressing some of the drawbacks of Whiteface.
 
And the REAL strange thing was that they where booked solid.....for Tuesday. Poor people, I'm sure the place was .............a bit sporty after the freeze. They all missed out on Monday.
 
Sharon":2kt6vcy7 said:
Whiteface is definitely a different kind of mountain. Big vert, long runs, steep flat icy zones and not a whole lot of bumps or variety. There aren't a lot places to "get off the beaten path". The woods are very dense, and the glades there are decent, but limited, and get skied off quickly.
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I kind of agree with this.

Very few Western mountains offer a lift with as much vertical as the Whiteface gondola. And its good vertical. More than any other lift on the East Coast (with the exception of the Killington Skyeship - which does not serve anything worth skiing repeatedly). And the summit area is quite good.

The woods are really, really, really dense. I decided to create my own entrance into the Cloudsplitter Glades from the Approach trail -- seeing a some fluff and openings. Wildly unsuccessful after 3-4 turns. Stuff so dense there was no room for 2 skis widths between the brush.

The official glades can be skied off very easily since they are only one run. Cloudsplitter glades to the trees off Mackenzie. 4 or 5 names - one run.

I thought there were enough bumps around - Essex, Northway, Mackenzie, Wilderness, parts of Thruway & Parkway.
 
kingslug":z8neq8xd said:
Monday was Spring skiing and no lines. Guess everyone packed it in when they heard the weather report. Their loss. It started out rainy but quickly cleared up. Warm temps made for some great skiing, all the ice was gone and you could rip it any where you wanted. The top got socked in, so blind skiing was the way down.
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I'd ALWAYS rather ski the day of the moisture event than the hard freeze afterwards. Especially if the rain is light/clear up.
 
ChrisC":20bqy0bu said:
kingslug":20bqy0bu said:
Monday was Spring skiing and no lines. Guess everyone packed it in when they heard the weather report. Their loss. It started out rainy but quickly cleared up. Warm temps made for some great skiing, all the ice was gone and you could rip it any where you wanted. The top got socked in, so blind skiing was the way down.
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I'd ALWAYS rather ski the day of the moisture event than the hard freeze afterwards. Especially if the rain is light/clear up.
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I think a factor here was the holiday. If it's going to rain on Monday, why fight the traffic on Mon nite? I skied Fri, Sat, Sun and left Sun pm to avoid the traffic. It worked for me.
 
I thought about skiing on Monday at Gore. I knew it would be decent and soft and less crowded...but I was sore from 2 days of backcountry and needed to drive 4 hours to get home, so I didn't think it would be worth the cost of the lift ticket, not to mention, most of my friends had to go to work.

But it is always better to ski in the rain than to ski the day after the temps drop into the freezing zone.
 
I'd ALWAYS rather ski the day of the moisture event than the hard freeze afterwards. Especially if the rain is light/clear up.
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Again, I couldn't agree more. I was there on monday and it was really quite delightful. I also showed up on tuesday, but only to drop off my fiancee's rentals. It was really crowded. Far more crowded than monday. I bet it was really scratchy.
 
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