The Adirondacks Blog

Up, Up and Away: Whiteface

Posted on by Harvey

Last Friday, after a hard week at work, I walked home, with no plans to ski. None. Saturday morning I made coffee and raked the leaves, which were finally all on the ground. Then I took a walk.

Santa-skis
Santa at Whiteface

On my walk I started to consider the possibilities. If I could get to the cabin at a “reasonable” hour that night, I could ski Whiteface on Sunday. The forecast wasn’t sunny, but I was optimistic that surfaces would warm up enough to soften.

I arrived at the cabin with a sandwich in hand at 7:30 pm. I ate it, drank some water, checked the forums, took some photos and crashed. I set two alarms: our normal Adk 6am alarm, plus a supplemental alarm 15 minutes earlier at 5:45. Just in case.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Whiteface6 Comments

El Niño Thanksgiving

Posted on by Harvey

I’ve gone into this season flat footed, not really ready in any way. Life was especially difficult this offseason and without significant blasts of cold air to focus my attention, my preseason prep was non-existent.

Gore Mountain opening day 2015

The car thermometer read 61 degrees driving up Route 28 towards Gore on Friday. I almost didn’t care. One benefit to my lack of prep: I’d left my mountain bike up at the cabin, and it paid off. The trails were in great shape.  We rode and walked after we settled in.

Saturday morning was foggy up high in North River. The afternoon had the potential to get sunny and I wondered, for a moment, if we should wait to let things soften up.  As is my way, we headed over early and it was the right call.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Gore Mountain6 Comments

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Posted on by Harvey

Everything changes and from what I can see summer vacation is no different. In the old days, we’d use our time off to explore the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and the south central Adirondacks.

water-sports

We’d push our week or ten days of time off as late in the season as possible. That time right after Labor Day is possibly the best time of the year in the mountains, outside of ski season.

Now we take it when we can get it. When our daughter entered kindergarten, like many families, we moved our vacation into late August, after camp and before school. Sometimes, our schedule of activities shortens that long week in the mountains into a long weekend.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Biking, Hiking, North Creek Ski Bowl, Ski Life4 Comments