The cold, snowy party that started in December and extended into early January came to a end with a thud in the middle of the month, when a warmup and a dose of liquid H2O did a number on conditions across the northeast.
Base depths were whacked across New York, and the Catskills were hit especially hard, with natural snow trails showing bare ground.
Skiers wondered: would this be another one of “those years?”
A small but passionate contingent of NYSkiBlog contributors live north of the border, in a place affectionately called The Hinterlands, also known as the province of Ontario, Canada.
One could argue that the skiers up there connect with the New Yorkers because the “mountains” of the Hinterlands are, geologically, part of the same range. The Adirondacks and the hills of Ontario are all part of the mass of rock known as the Canadian Shield, connected by a feature known as the Frontenac Axis.
The problem is that while the Adirondacks dodged the bullet on the last glaciation, the Hinterlands did not. Consequently, the “mountains” north of the border, while being really old, are also really worn down. Which could be a problem, for skiers.
Whiteface is well-known and well regarded for several superlative attributes. The northern Adirondack ski resort has the most vertical of any mountain in the east and has a huge amount of expert terrain. But to our way of thinking, nothing is more unique about the mountain than The Slides.
The Slides are loaded. The varied, gnarly terrain is a combination of open slide paths, boulders, krumholtz and extremely tight tree skiing that captures the imagination of expert skiers looking for a challenge.
But before an experts can even test themselves on New York most exciting sidecountry, they have to meet the challenge of getting onto The Slides. As we mentioned in our Slide Guide, the terrain is only open when conditions are determined by patrol to be “perfect” — stable and soft.
In The Forums