The Final Cut

We have one last trail to cut over on Lookout.  

People who ski whiteface have been looking at the lay out for years.  From what I hear( a lot more than I remember) Their seems to be some flexibility as to how the last trail is cut.  

In my perfect whitey scenario I would like to see breakin skier left off of Hoyts as soon as you can possibly get under the lift safely.   The trail  would then loop back and forth all the way down the ridge  line into the  valley.  Make it a very gentle slop so it could be skied by intermediate skiers.   keep it thin so the snow will accumulate( Mad River).  have it run out back into Hoyts where they are putting that cut in for the cat.   What great new england trail that would be for the intermediate, for the experts all in between the cut backs are glades to be exploited.   WOW that would be nice.

Others ideas?

Sounds good to me. Anytime you can cut a trail and get some tree shots to boot is cool in my book. Maybe we'll map 'er out on our tour this year.

As i just posted on the wind topic Lookout has serious issues holding snow so utilizing Hoyt's at all does not make any sense since it holds snow the worst of any trail at WF.  

The new trail needs to stay on the marginally NE facing aspect that is to the skiers left of the lift.  It proablaby should run into the bottom of Lookout Below to stay in the shade as much as possible.  The bottom portion of Hoyt's is going to always be the 1st trail with snowmaking to close each season.

Hoyts is not going to melt out any quicker than Lower Sky.  Its the same layout.    

If you take a ride up and look to your right you can see all the snow that bowls into that canyon.  

tjf1967 wrote

Hoyts is not going to melt out any quicker than Lower Sky.  Its the same layout.    

If you take a ride up and look to your right you can see all the snow that bowls into that canyon.

I disagree.  Lower Sky is in a valley in the shade.  The top section of lower Sky where it melts first faces a different direction than the lower section of Hoyt's.  Hoyts catches more of the afternoon sun.  Hoyts is also lower in elevation for that section.

Other than bringing it back into Hoyt's I think we are talking about the same thing - there is a small bowl on a different aspect skiers left of the lift where the snow blows in and is out of the sun.  I also agree there is some good glade potential there as well.  This may be the first time You and I agree about anything.

I think that putting a new trail in the immediate vicinity of Hoyt's is a perfect solution. It would best if it were close enough to benefit from snowmaking blowover from Hoyt's (particularly because so much money was spent installing all that snowmaking).

WF will stock pile man made to help manage the melt zone on the bottom of Hoyts.  Skiers middle to left will have sun issues but skiers right is shaded.  

New trail is proposed to start from Wilmington just a short distance down the trail from the lift drop.  When riding the lift focus looker rights along the ridge line, look for the tallest two balsams that stick up like field goal posts only much further apart.  The new trail will drop in somewhere in between these tall balsams.  It is limited to 80 feet wide so it will be narrow and twist fairly straight down the fall line connecting back onto Hoyt's in the lower fat zone.  

Connecting the new trail to Lookout would result in skier collisions...      think about it.  

good point MC2.  plus a ton of natural snow is blown into that bowl from prevailing winds.  its deep in there!

It would be nice zig zag aross that canyon.  A straight down the fall line trail will allow the snow to blow up the shoot and over to Stowe....and it will be harder

But this is WF not K-Mart or Okemo!!  WF skiers slide the fall line!

Prevailing wind is across the bowl so snow will mostly blow over the ridge from W-trail, some from Lake Placid side and at times from Hoyts.

It has modest curves proposed, not talking Excelsior level but certainly not fall line like Empire...

and this thread post is mis-titled!  This will not be the final cut!!!!  

I dont know the ins and outs of the rules.  If they could build twice as much 40ft wide trail as 80ft it could be zigged all over the canyon.  Build it to catch the snow, no snow making.  

trail milage is calculated based on linear distance.  width does not factor into the milage cap.  

80 feet is pretty narrow!  Skyward and Victoria are 200 feet wide.  

It will catch and hold a ton of natural.

It is supposed to be a Blue right?  That will mean it needs to have a good number of turns to get the pitch not too steep.  Hopefully not too much blasting will be required so the glades can be good.

Scotty I'm confused - are you saying that they can cut another trail somewhere and stay under the limit?  Where would that be?

pull the ump from 2004 that explains the expansion.  There is a map that shows the lay out.  I do not believe it has to be followed to the tee.  It wont be a blue if they don't zig across that fall line.   If  they  make sweeping loops back and forth it would be and those glades would open up quick.    Im thinking like that Mad River trail skiers right on the mountain off the single.

O, man  TJ missed the 420 AM post by a mere two minutes!!  Rise and shine buddy!  

I edited at 420 but it did not stick.  Dog wanted to go out. Dumb ass it was -29.  I

If they could do a zig zag blue and then you had glades running straight down the fall line between the switch backs that would be super cool as long as they do not have to blast much.  Is this trail for sure going to be blue?  That pitch screams easy black.

Coach Z wrote

If they could do a zig zag blue and then you had glades running straight down the fall line between the switch backs that would be super cool ...

+1

In addition to the new intermediate on lookout, there should be a cutoff near the end of Hoyt's to the Summit Quad.

Secondly, as a resident from CT, I never seen a NY governor with his mind on upstate issues as the one you have now…in other words, if there ever was an opportunity to expand Whiteface's mileage cap…this may be the time.  There may not be $$$ for the work but the regulatory issues could be done now.