Whiteface Conditions

[D.B. Cooper]

Nothing staged on Skyward yet. Paron's opened.

 

[DanS]

How was the snow? Gore got some ice mixed in with 5 or so inches, which made things somewhat interesting as the day wore on.

 

[Face4Me]

I would say that Whiteface got about 5-6 inches of dense powder. It was certainly the best day of the season so far. As could be expected, the snow piled up pretty quickly, with some hard-pack between the piles, but it was still pretty good.

Paron's run opened ... The snow was better than I expected, especially the section above the junction with The Follies. From there to Excelsior wasn't as good. Also, the visibility was awful.

Mountain Run opened, but by the time I found that out, they had already closed the Little Whiteface chair (and the gondola) due to high winds.

I think tomorrow has potential to be very good, assuming they do a decent job of grooming tonight, to work all of the new snow into the base. They really needed this snow, and could use a few more!

 

[snoloco]

Nothing staged on Skyward yet. Paron's opened.

I would expect Wilmington before Skyward like they did last year. They need to open extra lifts to spread people out.

 

[ADKmike]

I would say that Whiteface got about 5-6 inches of dense powder. It was certainly the best day of the season so far.

Saturday was great up until around noon when I left. Was there for first lifts...excellent morning and agree on the 5-6...salvaged the whole holiday week as things were pretty thin prior to that. I bet Sunday was real nice too (wasn't there).

Here's a nice pic I took from New Year's morning as the storm was moving in...

 

[Face4Me]

I bet Sunday was real nice too (wasn't there).

Conditions on Sunday were about as good as they've been, though maybe not quite as good as I was expecting. There was a lot of wind on Saturday afternoon, so a lot of the new snow may have been blown into the trees. If nothing else, most of the chocolate chips were gone.

Sunday's issues were operational ... The Little Whiteface chair didn't run first thing, which led to long lines at the gondola and the Face Lift. The Summit Quad opened at around 9:30 or so (maybe a little earlier). I did a couple of runs on the Face Lift, and then I decided to deal with the line at the gondola. As has been mentioned in another thread, riding the lifts with other people, and the social aspect of that, is definitely missing in this COVID-19 world in which we live. I find it REALLY depressing riding the gondola alone ... This was the first time I had used the gondola since they started running the Little Whiteface chair a couple of weeks ago ... Somehow, riding alone isn't as bad on an open chair.

After finally getting to the top of Little Whiteface, I saw people coming down Paron's Run so I made my way to the Summit Quad. The line wasn't really too bad there. I did a couple of runs there. The visibility was SO MUCH better than it was on Saturday, and the top half of the trail was in pretty good shape ... not so much on the bottom half. I then headed down to the mid-station to check on the Little Whiteface chair. It still wasn't running.

I went down to the base area, and at that point, the lines were now really long at the Face Lift as well as the gondola. Between having to wait on the lines, and then skiing the same trails over & over, I decided to just call it a day. As I've said before, it just wasn't worth the effort. As I was leaving, they finally had gotten the Little Whiteface chair running ... that was around 10:30 or so, but I was told they never opened Mountain Run, so I wasn't sorry I left.

They were still making snow on Upper Thruway & Mountain Run on Sunday, and they had a pathetic effort going on Victoria ... TWO low energy guns in the middle section of the trail blowing dust ... mostly into the trees from what I could see from my two rides on the Summit Quad. I still can't understand why they don't blow Essex. They could probably get that covered in 2 or 3 days, and at least it would provide another way down from the top of Little Whiteface and provide a little variety.

I will say, I do think they're doing a very good job with respect to COVID-19 ... They've had people in the lift areas making sure that people are wearing their face masks, and overall, compliance with that seems to be very good. I did see one jerk completely ignore and blow off an employee who asked him to put his mask on while he was walking through the drop off area in front of the lodge. You're always going to have entitled people who think they can do whatever they want ... You can't fix stupid!

 

[DanS]

Anybody ski whiteface today? The report says there are some bumps on a few trails which is nice. Hopefully they don’t groom them for the weekend.

 

[CarlS]

Anybody ski whiteface today? The report says there are some bumps on a few trails which is nice. Hopefully they don’t groom them for the weekend.

There were bumps on Victoria. They are still blowing snow. May still have bumps tomorrow, but no promises

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Snowmaking top to bottom of Thruway and on Danny's Bridge/Brookside. I don't know if that's for park features or to add coverage. Approach seems to be open as there were skiers on Mt. Run even though LWF wasn't open. No sign of impending activity on Skyward. At this point I doubt Lookout will open this year.

 

[snoloco]

Approach opened and they posted about it on the website and social media. The Freeway lift was also reported open, though I'm not sure if one can ride past the mid station at this point. I'm surprised that Lower Thruway is a priority, though it doesn't take long to open. Same with resurfacing on Danny's Bridge and Brookside. I don't think large park builds have been prioritized at any resort this season, but they may be doing it for coverage. Lookout is an absolute necessity in any year, but there's especially a need for it this year for the extra lift. There is still plenty of time to get to it as well as Skyward. Last year, Wilmington opened before Skyward, and they started making snow there around MLK weekend and opened it around the end of January.