Whiteface Conditions

At whiteface today. The snow surface was decent, although strangely the higher you were the icier it was. The lines at the facelift were small, gondola was 7 min the one time we took it. There doesn’t seem to be a a lot of variation in the way one can ski down the mountain, currently all the routes seem similar to me, all groomed intermediate trails. The trails were more crowded than I am comfortable with, but I felt social distancing in the non skiing areas was not a problem.

There was probably one inch of fresh snow. We did ski one run yesterday around 2:30, and it was way better today than yesterday. It is nice to see that f’(x)>0, but it seems there is a crappy rain event coming this Thursday.
 
DanS said:
At whiteface today. There was probably one inch of fresh snow...it was way better today than yesterday. It is nice to see that f’(x)>0, but it seems there is a crappy rain event coming this Thursday.
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Congrats for the use of calculus in a ski conditions report. Must be a lake placid thing.
 
tirolski said:
Congrats for the use of calculus in a ski conditions report. Must be a lake placid thing.
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Ha! I didn’t even realize I dropped that in there.

Anyways, woke up to a nice surprise of 1-2” on the car. The mountain skied nice this morning, there just isn’t much terrain yet. Definitely more expert options available at gore for now.

Other than to use the bathroom at the mid station lodge, I haven’t gone inside, but outside I feel very comfortable re COVID. I felt the women managing the gondola was doing an awesome job enforcing safety protocols.
 
Pretty much more of the same at whiteface today. Nice snow surface but not much variety in terrain. The little whiteface double opened, but no new trails to go with it. I must say the mountain is impressive.
57808C65-C9B4-42F4-9D36-386283D2B070.jpeg


with all the snow making they have accumulated I would have thought they would open at least some expert terrain at this point, but I know nothing about the logistics of mountain ops.

It was a nice day regarding the weather.
 
Lots of wet snow guns this aft. Lower part of Mountain Run (below Thruway) has not seen a snow gun yet. With super warm temps the next 2 days, touch ups will be needed on Excelsior and elsewhere. I don't see Mountain Run opening for about a week. Guns on Calamity Lane, although how do you get there without snow being made on Thruway?

Guns also on Paron's, Boreen, below cutoff to Bear Den, and on Draper's. Seems to be a hodgepodge of snow being made, but I don't know the constraints of the snow making system. Maybe Draper's or Paron's to open next?

Additional snowmaking capacity added over the summer is not evident. That is, one doesn't say, "Wow! They're making a crap ton more snow than last year!"
 
D.B. Cooper said:
Lots of wet snow guns this aft. Lower part of Mountain Run (below Thruway) has not seen a snow gun yet. With super warm temps the next 2 days, touch ups will be needed on Excelsior and elsewhere. I don't see Mountain Run opening for about a week. Guns on Calamity Lane, although how do you get there without snow being made on Thruway?

Guns also on Paron's, Boreen, below cutoff to Bear Den, and on Draper's. Seems to be a hodgepodge of snow being made, but I don't know the constraints of the snow making system. Maybe Draper's or Paron's to open next?

Additional snowmaking capacity added over the summer is not evident. That is, one doesn't say, "Wow! They're making a crap ton more snow than last year!"
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Heard from a friend who skied WF on Monday that the snowmaking system was upgraded with more powerful pumps(water) and the result was that several water pipes ruptured under the higher pressure. He said there were excavators or some type of heavy equipment on the hill repairing breaks that day. Could explain why the snowmaking is spotty on the hill. Of course it will all be shut down for the next 48 hours or so anyway with the rainstorm coming in.
 
Endoftheline said:
Heard from a friend who skied WF on Monday that the snowmaking system was upgraded with more powerful pumps(water) and the result was that several water pipes ruptured under the higher pressure. He said there were excavators or some type of heavy equipment on the hill repairing breaks that day. Could explain why the snowmaking is spotty on the hill. Of course it will all be shut down for the next 48 hours or so anyway with the rainstorm coming in.
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I've heard a similar story. Of course, why would you charge up the system to test it in October or early November when you don't yet need it, and when it would be easier to repair any problems? Broken pipes and hydrants have become an annual problem, and they don't seem to have any interest in coming up with a plan to deal with it.
 
That doesn’t make sense to me. Any snowmaking system should have the ability to regulate how much pressure is going up the hill. Water pressure is a very important factor. If they blew up a pipe it was human error or just a very old pipe.
 
Midcam back in action and it looks nice:

whiteface.com

Whiteface Lake Placid Webcams | Whiteface Mountain

Check out the Whiteface Lake Placid webcams from all around the Olympic Sites, including from the Whiteface summit, Olympic Speed Skating Oval, and more!
whiteface.com whiteface.com

It is linked on the appropriate NYSB weather pages.
 
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