Whiteface Slides Open for Lunch

Posted on by CoachZ

I was at work on Monday when I saw the images of the earliest opening of the Whiteface Slides that I can recall. I was hungry to return to some of my favorite terrain and determined to get to the mountain for a run during my lunch break on Tuesday.

Whiteface Slides Open

When I arrived I heard that The Slides weren’t open, so I left my beacon in my locker. When I got to summit I saw that they were open. I booked back down to the base, grabbed my Ortovox and shot back up to the top.

As I was riding the lift, I watched a cloud socking in the summit and had just about talked myself out of going in alone in low visibility. Thankfully, when I arrived at the top there were a couple guys headed in and I asked to tag along. I passed Patrol’s beep test and headed in.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, The Slides, Whiteface6 Comments

Return to Plattekill Mountain

Posted on by Harvey

In the early days, ski areas were high elevation places, where snow accumulated and trees were cleared to create an open slope where people climbed up, and skied down.

Plattekill Mountain

In the mid-1930’s, enterprising individuals — like Carl Schaefer — pushed the ski area concept to the next level. By using an automobile drivetrain attached to a pulley and rope system, they towed skiers up the slopes. Not limited to the amount of vert they could sidestep, skiers could get several runs in a day. Later in the decade another noted New Yorker, Averell Harriman, pioneered the first chairlift at Sun Valley Idaho. Skiers traveled uphill in relaxed comfort.

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Tagged: Catskills, Plattekill9 Comments

New Faces at Whiteface

Posted on by ml242

Skiing Whiteface can be a life changing event for some skiers, an inbounds approximate for the terrain in Tuckerman Ravine perhaps. Some of the aura comes from the two Olympics that Whiteface hosted. Seeing the start gates and score boards makes the mountain the ski equivalent to the old Yankee Stadium.

More importantly to me, the Adirondacks have a seemingly infinite wilderness, even from the safety of the manicured slopes of its signature ski resort. If nothing else, on a sunny day the views reinforce the actual meaning of the word awesome. My first pilgrimage to the steeps this year found the mountain in excellent shape, certainly set up for a big spring. After brutal winds shut down the upper mountain on Friday, today seemed earned even if we were only riding the lifts.

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Tagged: Adirondacks, Whiteface1 Comment