Whiteface Conditions

[tirolski]

All 3 ORDA mountains have made snow in March. But they usually don't, because their snowmaking window only covers November, December, January, and February, and that is sufficient in most seasons. Due to the large power consumption of snowmaking, each month, they have to pay a large fee upfront, so they'd have to do it for March if they want to make snow then.

Could be return on investments & competition with other ski areas & outside activities later in the season.

Sun is brighter then &
WF trails are mainly situated SW,
Belle’s NE, &
Gore’s (ya gotta got to know) but mainly E except the dark side has trails going NE.

Lab closes before Song cause Song's trails point N with Lab’s going E.
However Lab usually opens top to bottom first lately. It’s darker in December.

 

[Endoftheline]

I'm in the Whiteface Conditions facebook group, which while new this year, now has about 2300 members. I honestly credit that group for bringing a lot of these issues to light, when previously they would've been swept under the rug, or otherwise gone unnoticed. There are firsthand reports posted there almost daily, so they can't hide anymore.

Almost every day, there were trails not groomed properly, bad snowmaking, lifts not running, etc. Not to mention that they were woefully behind on their terrain rollout. It took until President's Weekend to finally open The Wilmington Trail, and Hoyt's was skipped for the 4th year in a row. It was late January before Skyward even open. Going back even further, it took until January to open Approach, Essex, Victoria, and even the green route off Facelift.

They tried to blame the weather, but everyone else had crappy weather too, and they all somehow did better. Case in point, Gore opened everything they did last year, plus Fairview and Moxham, with worse weather than last year. Whiteface really has no excuse for how poorly they performed.

I have a hard time getting my hopes up for anything relating to Whiteface. While Gore and Belleayre saw significant improvements in their operations since I started skiing the ORDA mountains regularly in 2016-2017, nothing seemed to change at Whiteface in the same timeframe. They needed a reset (I'm not even sure I can call it that) like this 7 years ago, but we're only just seeing action taken now.

 

[Tjf1967]

Could be return on investments & competition with other ski areas & outside activities later in the season.

Sun is brighter then &
WF trails are mainly situated SW,
Belle’s NE, &
Gore’s (ya gotta got to know) but mainly E except the dark side has trails going NE.

Lab closes before Song cause Song's trails point N with Lab’s going E.
However Lab usually opens top to bottom first lately. It’s darker in December.

90 percent of Whiteface faces east. Geez where are these morons from. When you look at Vermont from virtually every trail you would think it would be easy to figure out

 

[tirolski]

90 percent of Whiteface faces east. Geez where are these morons from. When you look at Vermont from virtually every trail you would think it would be easy to figure out

I was wrong it’s SE not SW. Duh.
If ya look at any topo map most all runs have slightly southern aspect parts to them. Some more than others. Those parts can be more sun affected in the late season.

 

[Tjf1967]

I was wrong it’s SE not SW. Duh.
If ya look at any topo map most all runs have slightly southern aspect parts to them. Some more than others. Those parts can be more sun affected in the late season.

I wasn't referring to you. I was referring to the dumb ass in the article. If you ever skied there you would know

 

[Moe]

I've been a season pass holder for the last 8 years and have always been supportive of the snowmaking efforts. To me this year is a combo of bad weather - no snow and warm temps and it seems like WF strategy can't seem to get everything open.

They have been making snowmaking improvements for years but they still open trails at exactly the same time every year. Skyward opens the first weekend in February, every year. Wilmington a couple of weeks later. Upper Northway right after. They never make it to Hoyt's. You would hope / expect that with all of the improvements that progression would have changed.

There are always rumors and conspiracies why snowmaking isn't great. I heard this year that a pump was shot because after flooding filters were put in backwards. Regardless of if this is true, there just doesn't seem to be improvements despite the upgrades. Maybe the whole system was in awful shape and it took all this work to keep the baseline....

Hopefully one of these years the weather will cooperate and they will get it right. When it happens we will ski on a 100% open mountain from January until mid April.

 

[gorgonzola]

Aaah Hoyt's, my last run on it was quite memorable as it was the last run I took before my hip replacement 8 years ago. I'm sure its been open since then but I haven't seen it and have ski'd whiteface mid/ late season every year since with the exception of last year and this year...

 

[Deez]

Checked the Whiteface page - no snow guns running and its cold enough with warm temps on the way.
I guess maybe the theory of no snow making after Presidents Day Week might ring true - damn.
Next couple of weeks are warm and rainy.

 

[tirolski]

I wasn't referring to you. I was referring to the dumb ass in the article. If you ever skied there you would know

No problemo.
I try to proof read my BS sometimes.

I’d like to ski WF sometime midweek when the conditions look nice.
Make a few days trip outta it. See some of the old stomping grounds around Potsdam, Tupper Lake, Speculator... in the wintertime.

 

[x10003q]

No problemo.
I try to proof read my BS sometimes.

I’d like to ski WF sometime midweek when the conditions look nice.
Make a few days trip outta it. See some of the old stomping grounds around Potsdam, Tupper Lake, Speculator... in the wintertime.

Midweek WF is a dream. Bring your GS skis.