Nor-Easters and Whiteface ... Half the snow and twice the wind!!!
That said, I had an awesome morning at the mountain. When I woke up, there was about 3-4 inches on my car in Lake Placid, but the wind was blowing quite a bit. I debated going over or not, but ultimately decided to give it a shot.
They were not running the Gondola today (this was planned) and were running the Little Whiteface lift instead, which, as I've mentioned before, in the COVID era makes a lot of sense in my opinion.
I was on the Face Lift right when it opened and skied right over to the Little Whiteface chair via Broadway. They must have groomed it this morning, because there was only about an inch or so of snow on top.
When I got to the Little Whiteface chair, it wasn't running yet. Apparently, they were waiting for one of the lifties to get there. Once he loaded, they opened the line a few chairs later and off we went. A lot of people got off at the mid-station, and I could see that there were only 6 people on the chair in front of me. I immediately decided to ski Approach to Upper Wilderness to Lower McKenzie, figuring, that would be the least travelled route to that point ... I was right!!!
When I got to Upper Wilderness, there was only one set of tracks on it, obviously ski patrol doing trail check. It was unbelievable ... I'd guess about 6 - 8 inches, maybe more where the wind deposits were, of untouched powder. When I cut over to McKenzie, it was more of the same ... only one other track, and again, plenty of untouched powder all for me. It was one of the best runs I've taken in a very long time!!!
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I went back over to the Little Whiteface chair to do another run. The wind at the upper elevations was very strong, especially right near the mid-station, and then again at the top. When I got to the top, I asked a ski patroller if the Summit Quad was open, and he said that it was closed due to wind. He also suggested that I hurry to get another run on the Little Whiteface chair, because that would probably be closing too. I decided to do a repeat of my first run. When I got to the base of the chair, it was still running, so I jumped on again. This time, the wind was even worse than the previous ride.
When I got to the top, I figured the chair was probably going to be done, so I decided to ski Upper Northway. The top was completely wind blown, but about mid-way down, there was a ton of snow blown in on the left side of the trail. I was figuring that would be the end of my morning. When I got to where I could see the Summit Quad, I saw that they were loading it!!! I went over and got on.
The wind at the top was crazy ... I couldn't believe they were running the chair. I decided to ski Paron's Run, figuring that might have less traffic than Skyward. The top of Paron's was completely wind-blown, but once you got down a ways, it was much better. I made my way down Victoria, and I could see that they were still loading the chair, so I went back over. This time, I skied Skyward. Once again, the top section of the trail was totally wind-blown. Once you got down to about the ladies downhill start building, it was much better. There was a ton of wind-blown snow on the left side. I followed it down to Lower Skyward which was very good, though the snow was pretty "cut up". Luckily for me, when I got to the base of the lift, they were still loading. By now, the wind, especially at the top, was howling. When I unloaded, a patroller had just come out of the shack at the top, and he told me they had just closed the lift. I decided to ski Paron's Run again, so that I could get to On Ramp and get another run on Lower McKenzie. Lower Mac was still in great shape!!!
At that point, will all the lift closures, and considering what a great morning I had, I decided to call it a day and head home.
I'm sure we didn't get as much snow as the Cats, but I was very lucky with my timing this morning and was fortunate to get in an awesome morning of skiing.
Looking forward to reading the reports later today from down South!
