Whiteface Conditions

[Brownski]

Nice pics, Face!

 

[Face4Me]

Nice pics, Face!

I very rarely take pictures while I'm skiing, but I made an exception today!

 

[snoloco]

Last year was the only year Wilmington was prioritized over Skyward. This is the first time I can remember that Skyward is being prioritized over Follies. I believe the goal is to direct people away from Paron's, and Skyward does that better. I'm fairly certain the Chevy event is cancelled, which means MLK Weekend should be somewhat tolerable.

 

[Kevin]

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 ...

Saturday was a bit of an exercise in patience as facelift was down for hours and then the summit shut down. We saw snowmobiles racing up to do an emergency extraction. It was definitely mechanical, we heard from a lift worker later. Sunday was absolutely beautiful day, bluebird all the way. Yes things got skied off halfway through the day, though with much fewer skiers (2500 apparently) things lasted much longer. So happy to have the summit open even though the middle of Paron’s got a little scrapey. Still plenty of snow on the sides. My son’s first trip to the summit and he was appropriately amazed. Some pics below. Worst mess I saw was on Mountain Run. Wish I would’ve gotten there earlier to hit the speedy corduroy! Was all chopped up by the afternoon after we emerged from the summit. I will agree with earlier poster who says snow they’re blowing is incredibly sticky. Stops my freshly waxed skis right in their tracks. Saw people tripping up on it.

 

[CarlS]

Anyone know what the situation with the Gondola is? Has not run the past 2 days.

 

[JTG]

While I’m not sure I plan to be using the gondola, I hope it’s open this weekend to keep the line for the Face Lift from getting long.

Fortunately temps for Sat/Sun look like they may stay around 30, but Monday looks colder. Not gonna lie, it going to be tough not having the gondola or lodges to warm up in.....

 

[Face4Me]

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.

Looks like you got your wish ... according to the Whiteface Facebook page, Skyward & Niagara are open!

 

[DanS]

Probably three inches of heavy snow at the base. Absolutely nuking at the moment. A little windy on the drive over so that may cause some problems.

 

[DanS]

Best day of the year for me. Snowed all day, and the snow was definitely heavy. It’s hard to give a total, there were around 3 inches on my car when we left but I am pretty certain the total was closer to five or six while we were skiing (in addition to the three overnight).

skyward was not open on our one trip to the summit, but the snow guns were on. It may have opened later in the day, but I don’t know. All the diamonds off LWF lift were very good.

wind was not an issue, visibility was poor, and I got completely soaked, first time I have ever been able to squeeze water out of my mittens.

 

[JTG]

Agreed, very good day! Wet....tiring....weird.....but good. Yes, Skyward and Niagara opened in the afternoon. After we were done eating sandwiches in the car Skyward was open.

Everything skied well. Overall I’d say 6 inches was fair, maybe slightly more up high. Some decent wet powder runs early, and the wet packed powder also skied well. Upper Sky was fun, but different. The least snow I think I’ve ever seen on it, kind of skied more like Cloud down the skiers right. Big whales down the middle.

Hopefully the wet pack doesn’t set up too firm overnight, but I’m sure they will groom everything in well. That, and the Winter Storm Warning continues until 4pm tomorrow, another 6 plus possible as the snow ramps up again overnight and tomorrow.

I was shocked at the lack of crowds. From talking to Ron Kon waiting for first gondola, right to the end of the day, the lifts were walk on. Kind of sad almost, knowing what MLK weekend should be....but I’ll take it.