Whiteface Conditions
- Thread starter NYSkiBlog
- Start date
Nice day at the face, cloudspin, lower skyward, McKenzie, wilderness were standouts. Couple of blowdowns on empire. Pretty decent base in cloudsplitter trees, hopefully forecast for R**n next week changes. Send off day for my Salomon qsts so I skied anything and everything.
Capdistski
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2020
Whiteface lodge is out of coffee creamer. How does that happen? I guess the Grand Union must be out of it too…
Otherwise a beautiful day here - mountain is in great shape. Summit will be scraped off soon but be really great this morning. Looks like they are close to opening Approach and Mtn Run.
Otherwise a beautiful day here - mountain is in great shape. Summit will be scraped off soon but be really great this morning. Looks like they are close to opening Approach and Mtn Run.
snoloco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
They said on the snow report to "be on the lookout for snowmaking". I thought it was too good to be true. Then someone sent me a screenshot of the Bear Den webcam, which showed guns going on Wilmington. Later on, they posted a video on Facebook showing top to bottom snowmaking on the trail. Given that there was already a natural base up there, and the perfect temps they are getting, I would expect it to open on the 26th or 27th.
It's hard to state how significant this is. It is arguably a bigger change than when they started opening the summit on opening day. For perspective of how much earlier the opening has been moved, my season pass history goes back to 2016-2017. The earliest opening of Lookout that timeframe was January 29th in the 2019-2020 season. All the other openings have been in February. I believe the earliest it has ever opened was December 27th in the 2010-2011 season. I believe it also opened in early January a few times in the early years. Back then, it was prioritized a lot more, I think just because it was new. Then it got pushed further and further down the list, until now. It will open a full 7 weeks earlier than it did last year, and 5 weeks earlier than an average opening, which I considered to be the first weekend of February.
It's hard to state how significant this is. It is arguably a bigger change than when they started opening the summit on opening day. For perspective of how much earlier the opening has been moved, my season pass history goes back to 2016-2017. The earliest opening of Lookout that timeframe was January 29th in the 2019-2020 season. All the other openings have been in February. I believe the earliest it has ever opened was December 27th in the 2010-2011 season. I believe it also opened in early January a few times in the early years. Back then, it was prioritized a lot more, I think just because it was new. Then it got pushed further and further down the list, until now. It will open a full 7 weeks earlier than it did last year, and 5 weeks earlier than an average opening, which I considered to be the first weekend of February.
snoloco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2021
It's best to take care of Wilmington when there is a weeklong window of perfect weather. So they are being opportunistic in taking advantage of it. They've also performed very well with snowmaking this season. They have taken advantage of their elevation when they only had good temps up high, and took advantage of colder windows to open lower mountain terrain such as Bear Den. I'd say the only mistake so far is not making snow on Calamity Lane, which means they can't have Approach open if there is racing on only Draper's. I would hope that there is some capacity left over to rectify that while they are still working on Wilmington.
In terms of how priorities have changed over the course of my season pass history, they have moved Bear Den and especially the summit way up the list. I guess now Lookout is added to that. Meanwhile, I think there has been less priority on getting Mountain Run, and the trails around the Warhorse lift open. Still, they are opening terrain way faster than they did 5 years ago. I would guess that at the same time as Wilmington, they use any spare capacity to finish Calamity Lane and Mountain Run, and that after that the go to the last couple trails off the Facelift. After that, they'd probably be in position to move to Skyward. I could also see Skyward being moved up the list if they are in a situation where temps are good up high, but only marginal down low.
In terms of how priorities have changed over the course of my season pass history, they have moved Bear Den and especially the summit way up the list. I guess now Lookout is added to that. Meanwhile, I think there has been less priority on getting Mountain Run, and the trails around the Warhorse lift open. Still, they are opening terrain way faster than they did 5 years ago. I would guess that at the same time as Wilmington, they use any spare capacity to finish Calamity Lane and Mountain Run, and that after that the go to the last couple trails off the Facelift. After that, they'd probably be in position to move to Skyward. I could also see Skyward being moved up the list if they are in a situation where temps are good up high, but only marginal down low.
