The Whiteface Blog

Snowmaking on Hoyt’s High

Posted on by NYSkiBlog

At this time of year in 2009 ORDA announced that snowmaking on Hoyt’s High — the signature expert trail on Lookout Mountain at Whiteface — would have to wait. The price tag for the project, estimated at $500,000 at that time, was too steep, when combined with reductions in state funding. Over the last two seasons, skiing on the trail has been limited to those days when the skies delivered enough natural snow to open the steep pitch.

Hoyts-High
Hoyt’s High on Feb 26, 2010

That is about to change. ORDA announced today that the construction of the snowmaking infrastructure is underway and will be completed by the beginning of the 2012-2013 ski season. From our conversation with Bruce McCulley this morning:

“We will be installing snowmaking on Hoyt’s High this summer. The pipe has started to arrive and we expect crews on site next week. This is a significant undertaking since the access is limited.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Whiteface12 Comments

Bruce McCulley to Retire as Whiteface GM

Posted on by NYSkiBlog

Whiteface Mountain.According to a story published in today’s Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Bruce McCulley the general manager of Whiteface Mountain Ski Center will step down from his job in September.  Bruce is leaving his position to become a minister at the High Peaks Church in Saranac Lake.

Late this week Bruce announced that he’s leaving after working for more than 30 years at Whiteface. McCulley began his career in the ski business as a teenager.

He started at Whiteface as a lift attendant in July of 1981. He worked as a snowmaker, on the trail crew, as the night snowmaking foreman, and as a lift supervisor. He was promoted to assistant general manager in 1996 and in 2009, he took the position of general manager, when Jay Rand left to become the executive director of NYSEF.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Whiteface7 Comments

A History of Whiteface

Posted on by NYSkiBlog
Governor Harriman at Whiteface 1958.
Governor Harriman at Whiteface 1958

Whiteface Mountain stands alone, separated from the rest of the High Peaks, presenting a ubiquitous presence that looms over Lake Placid and the northern Adirondacks.

Likewise Whiteface Ski Center has a prominent place in the history of skiing. The ski area’s development is linked to key figures and milestones in the sport. Jackrabbit Johannsen, a legend in both nordic and alpine skiing, was involved in the early development of trails of the mountain’s slopes.

The Whiteface Memorial Highway — which required a constitutional amendment to construct — was a first of it’s kind in the East, providing unprecedented access to high elevations. And Averell Harriman, a pioneer of the chair lift and governor of New York, was a driving force behind the development of the first trails on the slopes we ski today.

As part of our ongoing effort to develop profiles for the ski areas of New York state, we’d appreciate it if you’d take a some time to click the link below and read NYSkiBlog’s history of Whiteface Ski Center. Feedback, additions and corrections are welcome as comments beneath the piece:

NY Ski Area Directory:
The History of Whiteface

Tagged: Adirondacks, NYSkiBlog Directory, Ski History, Whiteface