Whiteface Conditions

[DanS]

Face lift was not running at 8:30, there were some people stuck on it. Still not opened at 10:40. Summit on windhold.

skiing is weird, in some spots the snow is great, others sort of weird, kind off like ungroomed snow making mounds but without the mounds.

mountain run was pretty good. I thought
Lower Mackenzie was ok, thin cover for sure.
Victoria did have a few moguls, but they had groomed close into them and there where some chunks in between which messed with the lines.

snow in the bear den area is actually amazing, great spot to learn.

 

[Face4Me]

Lift issues ... lots of ice ... chocolate chips ...

Trying to find the positive, but ...

 

[GoreSkiMom]

Agree with Dan S., pockets of goodness but holy hell you had to be ready to hit skating rink ice at any moment. They are serious about face masks. We saw a skier escorted out of the midlodge by patrollers who were taking the patron to the bottom where a trooper was waiting. The guest was flagged for no mask and also refused to surrender their lift ticket. No wind, nice temperature and some blue skies but boy we need a snowstorm.

 

[DanS]

Regarding the temp, this was the first sub 20 day for me and I have turned into a wimp. Granted, it was almost sub zero when we booted up, but given what I have endured in the past I was unpleasantly surprised by my endurance for the cold.

On the positive, the views were amazing today. And, given the forecast, I believe some great terrain will be open in the next couple weeks.

 

[snoloco]

Totally agree on the conditions. They've had almost no natural snow this season.

Tons of lift problems in the morning. Summit Quad on wind hold, which also reduced the speed of the gondola. Facelift down for 2 hours. Little Whiteface and Freeway seemed to be overheating as they skipped chairs and/or ran at reduced speed at times. Snowmaking on Skyward started in the afternoon.

Oddly, I didn't see anyone get in trouble for no mask. Must be better compliance in cold weather. They need to enforce the rules and repeat offenders should have their passes pulled, but I think it's a really delicate balance to avoid being overzealous. Escorting someone out like that should only be reserved for the most egregious of offenses.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Tons of lift problems in the morning. Summit Quad on wind hold, which also reduced the speed of the gondola.

I have it on very good authority that it wasn't wind.

 

[DanS]

Much better day than yesterday. The blue run off the summit was in good shape. There was a good, albeit short, bump line on Victoria. Run off the day was whatever trail is skier’s right of mountain run. it was under the snow guns with nice piles and ridges.

most lift lines were pretty short and the mountain did not feel crowded to me.

 

[JTG]

I have it on very good authority that it wasn't wind.

Sorry, I call discussion board party foul. More info must be shared!

Excited they fired up the guns on Skyward, hopefully they make a push to have it for MLK weekend. Six days should be sufficient time? Maybe not. Last year for MLK I think I remember it being a mess, when they tried to groom it in before the snow had drained properly.

Think firing up Sky first means anything for Lookout, as far as opening this season? Last year they prioritized Wilmington over Skyward, IIRC. Of course, before last year they usually did Sky first, and it was often tight getting it ready for MLK. Still relatively early, with (normally) another month of snowmaking after MLK.

 

[Face4Me]

Much better day than yesterday. The blue run off the summit was in good shape. There was a good, albeit short, bump line on Victoria. Run off the day was whatever trail is skier’s right of mountain run. it was under the snow guns with nice piles and ridges.

most lift lines were pretty short and the mountain did not feel crowded to me.

Agreed ... much better morning today than yesterday, though by 11:00, things were started to get pretty well skied off, so I left at around 11:30. Conditions were decent early on ... mostly hard pack, but you could put an edge into it.

Definitely not anywhere near as crowded as yesterday, but, there weren't any lift issues today. Also, I don't believe there was a race today, which was not the case yesterday.

I thought about skiing Upper Thruway (the trail skier's right of mountain run), but I honestly just don't trust the guns this year ... they've been blowing so much wet snow, and I don't want to take any chances with an already bad knee. As I was riding the Little Whiteface chair, I saw a guy who had yard-saled on the downhill side of the big mound of man-made right at the start of Upper Thruway ... not sure if it was related to wet snow or not ... I didn't actually see him go down ... just the aftermath. Yesterday, a friend of mine skied through a gun and almost double-ejected. I saw another guy go through the same gun, ejected out of one ski and got spun around and was almost tagged by another skier coming by on the side.

As a side note, it was an absolutely beautiful morning ...

 

[JTG]

While I’m not at all optimistic for conditions next weekend (hard pack trails, skied off early), having not been on skis since last Feb I’m stoked just to be in the mountains on snow. Those views are spectacular.