The Ski Life Blog

When visiting Lake Placid, the long scar that runs down the western flank of Whiteface is hard to miss. Appropriately named the Lake Placid slide, this climb holds some of the best views in the High Peaks. Formed in the 1800s and “cleaned” in 1971 during a torrential downpour, this slide has become a classic route up Whiteface in the summer months and a coveted ski in the winter.

This backcountry ski descent is on my list to check out this next season, but for now my objective was to kayak across the entire lake, beach at Whiteface Landing, and follow the trail up until I needed to bushwhack to reach the base of the slide.

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Robert H Treman State Park has been on my radar for a long time. I haven’t been camping much lately but back when I was — spending weekends at North Lake or Little Pond in the Catskills — one of my customers, Chuck, suggested Robert H Treman.

Chuck loved the Ithaca area generally and Robert H Treman State Park in particular. He repeatedly described how beautiful the gorge was and swimming under the waterfalls. He painted an idyllic picture, really went for the hard sell. I put it on my list fifteen years ago but somehow never got there. Beach vacations, road trips and local staycations always won out.

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When does ski season start?

The summer solstice is, by our thinking, the farthest point from the ski season in New York. After the summer solstice, the days get shorter and forward we move closer to winter. We smile a little bit wider as it happens.

Fourteen years ago, we published our Ski Season Calendar, a list of milestones for skiers on the longest day of the year. It’s become a tradition to feature it on the home page and update it as necessary.  In the last few years life has returned to a more kind of more expensive normal.  One immutable truth: we had some excellent ski days this season.

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