Epic Day: Whiteface, NY - April 15, 2007 - another powder day

This TR was written in the following days of this Epic Day at Whiteface in April 2007. Another powder day in the amazing 2007 season. Like I mentioned to Harvey, I've had numerous epic days at WF...not necessarily powder day, but also had some amazing Spring corn days. This day stands out due to the often notion by some that there isn't any powder days at WF. I have a numerous of report written in the past that I haven't migrated over to Ski Mad World yet. There are also reports from past years that I'll eventually like to write about like my first visit to WF back in 1980.


What a wonderful Sunday it was. Another April Powder Day, who would have though that we would get two Powder weekends in a row after that very Spring like April Fools. Yes, it fooled us all right.



These have been the best series (non-Spring) days I've seen in April.

Options for that Sunday were initially between Saddleback (free) and Whiteface. The advantages were that the latter could be done as a day trip from Ottawa. This was pretty important considering that the previous two weekends had me traveling toward Montreal for the weekend and that I will probably need to go through Montreal once my day drive option from Ottawa are over.

My daughter Morgane and I drove down from Ottawa (3 hours) and meet up with Lucky Luke, his friend Eric and SuperNat, my friend and Morgane's godmother. They were coming down from Montreal (less than 2 hours away). They also had rain all the way to Whiteface while we had snow for the last hour from Malone to Lake Placid. A storm was forecasted, this looked like it was going to be a good day.  :P Plus I had seen that the Slides were open the previous day. I think the last time I saw them open while at WF was in April 2002. [-o<

Lucky Luke and Eric were ready and stepped out for a run on the Cloudsplitter gondola. We were altogether for the next run. Started with the classic twisting (although much wider than before) Excelsior. Nothing hard about this run, soft soft soft and powder snow. Morgane isn't necessarily a fan of blue runs, but she loved this one. Onto the Summit Quad. Visibility wasn't good, it was snowing hard. It was great. We went down Skyward (top entrance a bit sketchy) and ended up taking a new (for the map) trail at the bottom of Lower Skyward, Blazer's Bluff. BB is steep drop off the side of the Skyward. Lucky jumped in, Morgane made a one turn then tumbled in  :? , but was okay. WOW...this is a great!!!

When everybody was warmed up, Lucky, Eric and SuperNat headed toward to the Slides while Morgane and I wanted to try Upper Cloudspin, but it was closed from the top. We ended entering UC on Lower Switchback. Fresh powder again.  :o  Morgane and I got at the bottom of the Summit Quad maybe a few minutes prior to the Slides expedition.

On the next run, I traded spots with SuperNat and headed with Lucky and Eric in The Slides. The last time I skied them, it was on warm and clear April day, unlike today. You couldn't sense the steepest of the Slides, you could only see 20-30 feet at a time. Slide #4 was closed, Slides #3 sounded sketchy, so #2 it was. Slide #2 is narrower than the wideopen #1 and pretty bumped up. Loose powder and bumps. Once you merged with Slide #1 toward the bottom, you have to negotiate a series cliffs/frozen or melting waterfalls. Stopping in the middle of these and looking up, you realize that this is pretty unique terrain for a lift-serviced stuff. \:D/

After lunch, Morgane and I skied Northway off Little WF which was fabulous (always love this trail) before meeting up with the group at the Summit Quad. We were able to hit the Slides one last time, last time of the year. Like the signed said: "The Slides closed,  Better Luck Next Year".  :mrgreen:

We skied the Slides a few times during the day. Lucky (4 times), while SuperNat and Eric (3 times) took one run each with Morgane. I skied them twice on this day, which was okay, as I was the only one in our group that had skied them before.

Morgane wanted to ski something different off the top, the open other open option was The Follies (top Paron's Run was closed) then Excelsior. She loved the zigzags and narrow trail even if it's relatively flat.

At around 2:30pm, SuperNat and Eric called it a day, Morgane stopped skiing at 3:10pm. Her hands were frozen. She had changed her wet mittens for lighter DRYER gloves after lunch. Lucky and I ended back to the top using Facelift and Summit Quads. On this day, we virtually didn't ski anything else than the Summit, the snow and mid and lower mountain was wet powder. The bottom was a mixed of frozen slush base and with wet snow. We were wet and it was really snowing hard. Temps was hovering around freezing.

Here is the Whiteface snow report reflects what we had ... 16 inches fell during Sunday. \:D/   \:D/ \:D/ \:D/ \:D/

I guess if this report could have emoticons, it would. :mrgreen:

<blockquote>So I am typing todays report! Over 30 inches will fall with this storm of historic proportions in April! This is going to be off the hook! We are closed Monday-Thursday this week, super high winds will be in town Mon and tues with the storm dying down on Wednesday. We will be reopening for Friday Saturday and Sunday April 20, 21, and 22. This will be fantastic!

I skied all over the mountain today and the summit it is a whole different world I have never seen it so fabulous in April ever in my life. The slides opened today and once again I totally chickened out. Someday I will get my nerve up. I love the trail to the slides it is so majical and gorgeous it is my favorite trail on the mountain. But I go in turn around and come out. I am still freaked out at the very thought of skiing over a frozen waterfall of slide one.

While I was the huge chicken, many people were enjoying 2 fabulous days hittin' the slides.

Powder Powder everywhere,,,,,,,,,,,,if I had my podcast I would seriously be singing my off-key POWDER song for you. on second thought it is probably better for you that it is not working. Really thinking about this my podcast could have been sabotaged by my coworkers that hate my off-key powder day song.

See you on Friday, hunker down for the next couple of days rest up and be ready to rip!!!!!!!

See you at Whiteface,

Bridget "oh please of please never let winter end"; Hinman</blockquote>

A great day all around, but it wasn't over? :shock:

As Lucky, Eric and Natalie left East toward the I-87 and Montreal in a snowstorm, Morgane and I headed West on Highway 86 toward Lake Placid which would eventually lead us north to Ottawa. Maybe 2 miles from the parking lot in Wilmington Notch, I was told that two SUVs collided which resulted into the road being blocked. :?

Over one hour waiting in the pouring snow. At around 6pm a firefighter told us that the road wouldn't be freed until at least another hour. I figured that on a normal day without snow, I had another 3 hours to drive to get home in Ottawa plus my daughter was getting hungry.
 #-o

From local news on WNBZ...

<blockquote>Several other road and highway mishaps occurred during the storm, including a two-car, head-on accident on Route 86 in Wilmington Notch. The Lake Placid Fire Department sent two trucks and 23 members to assist Wilmington Fire and Rescue at 4:51 p.m. Sunday.
One person had to be extricated from their vehicle. But State Police in Wilmington reported no injuries from the crash.</blockquote>

Also newspaper story about the conditions on that Sunday.

Heavy snow causes power outages in upstate New York - Press Republican on April 16th

At this point, I made a decision, the notch is really the only easy access across the Adirondack at this time and it was shut, so I decided to head toward Montreal. Much snow had fallen in the last 1-2 hours, the drive was mostly on fresh tracks on route 9N. The drive here and on I-87 was at about 40mph (60kmh). Many cars were off the road. After supper at Plattsburgh, we ended up waiting 40 minutes at the border, also got the second degree from the border guard because I didn't have any ID for my daughter (I had forgotten for once).
 :oops:  8-[  :x

Once in Quebec, the road hadn't been plowed at all in this snowstorm and over 6 inches of snow, which means driving 20mph (30kmh) all the way to Montreal.  :x  :x  :x Arrived at my mom?s house passed 11pm, totally exhausted.

THE WORST PART???

There was no way I was going to be able to drive 125 miles (200 km) on a Monday morning and bring my daughter to school and get to work a day after a snowstorm (maybe 6-8 inches feel on Montreal). It was raining hard this morning. I was thinking, great we'll go to Mont Sutton and ski some fresh powder!!! SuperNat was ready to join us and skip work, but no, Sutton was closed due to a power outage. How about Bromont and St-Sauveur, both closed due to weather. Jay? I wasn't going to risk crossing the border again. So on this Monday, I had to use a Vacation Day not to go skiing after a snowstorm. The question was, Will anybody believe me at work???

Hoping to go back at Whiteface on Sunday with Morgane, however this time forecast is for sunny and 66F (19c). I guess it will be really Spring skiing this time. 8)

Edit: I forgot to mentioned that the mountain was virtually deserted except in the Slides (which isn't exactly a ton of people).



Originally posted on Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:13 pm on  
firsttracksonline  and now posted on Ski Mad World

That was truly epic: epic skiing, epic driving, epic snow and an epic border crossing thrown in for good measure.

This was the same winter we drove home from JP in a snowstorm, took four hours to get to Montreal (usually 1.5) then found the 40 was closed in all directions off and on the island. The normal route to Ottawa was not an option. Detoured on to the 20 and then 401, drove to Cornwall in a blizzard and spent the night in the lovely Anchor Motel. Drove home the next day in clear weather. Should have stayed in VT and skied!