The Whiteface Blog

After a year off, the Climb to the Castle returned to Whiteface Mountain on October 3rd. I drove up on Saturday with some misgivings. Two weeks earlier, I DNF’d the Macedonia Brook 25 kilometer trail race in Connecticut. I ran my plan in the hills and on the flats. But there were two brutally steep, technical downhill bits where I was so slow I didn’t feel like I was racing. I dropped halfway through. I drove home wondering if I was done.

After collecting my bib and buying groceries, I headed to the hostel. As it turned out the the Saint Lawrence University women’s nordic ski team was staying there. They were racing the Climb to the Castle to top off a long training weekend.

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It felt like the middle of winter as we walked across the bridge from the River Lot. The night before I dragged my friend Blue up from Utica and we stayed in a cheap hotel. I have chased the powder all year and I was determined to go after this storm too.

The 3 hour drive and questionable weather conditions did create some hesitation but the thought process was simple. I didn’t want to be sitting on my couch some crappy spring weekend wishing I had made one more trip. We grabbed our tickets and shortly after the lifts spun, we headed up the gondola to the top of Little Whiteface.

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I did what I needed to do, to get first chair, on Whiteface’s opening day 2020. I cleared my schedule and drove to the Adirondacks on Friday afternoon. I woke up at 5am Saturday morning and left our place at six. I arrived in the River Lot at 7:30 and booted up there.

I went over the bridge to the base lodge, through the tunnel and up to the Face Lift. A small group waited patiently as mountain ops finished the grooming on Fox, the final stretch of the only way down. Broadway to Lower Valley to Fox.

Ron Kon saw my skis, which pretty clearly ID me, and he introduced himself. We talked about Whiteface, and uphill policies, and ski days. It was Day #13 for him.

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