WF lifts and wind

Because they are half the vertical!  Jesus!  Every mountain in this area had lifts down yesterday and today.  The wind is sick.  I thought my house was going to blow away last night.  It is weather...nothing you can do about it so stop trying to blame the mountain. Pay attention to forecasts and find something else to do--Its Lake Placid, #1 in off-hill activities.  Then wind was forecasted days in advance.

Ausable skier, you really are a pice of work.  you should just move!

You could ski a 2000 vert run at Sugarbush today if one choses

Rolled into town Thursday night. Skied WF Friday, Sat. Snowshoe hike Sat. Ate some great food, drank some Guinness and UBUs, then back home last night. All good. Let's hope the mountain is open for the next holiday, even if windy......Memorial Day!
p.s. Was stuck Friday afternoon on Freeway lift for 15-20 mins at around 3:00. Sat the lift started and stopped briefly during one trip up about 15 times (not windy at all). Still wondering what the issue was. I got off at mid out of fear the ride would result in an evacuation and went elsewhere. To the best of my knowledge there is no back up engine on this lift. Also wondering  why this is the case if true. Most old school lifts of this type I have ever ridden appear to have a gasoline or diesel engine for standby power.

this is at noon ish. it was 70s all morning

all ski lifts by law must have an evacuation engine.

My son was evac'ed during the incident a few years back. Never heard the cause following the investigation. This fueled my decision to get get off at mid on Friday after an unusual number of stops and starts.

ORDA NEWS RELEASE

DATE:            December 30, 2010
 
CONTACT:    Jon Lundin, ORDA public relations coordinator, (jlundin@orda.org) at (518) 523-1655 ext. 213

Lift Malfunctions at Whiteface

WILMINGTON, N.Y. --- On Wednesday, Dec. 29, there was a lift malfunction on Lift I (Freeway Lift) on Little Whiteface Mountain, in Wilmington, N.Y.  Seventy-six people were on the lift at the time of the incident and one employee injury was reported.

An investigation is underway as to the cause of the incident, but it has been determined that the malfunction was not caused by wind and the lift line and chairs were never in danger of falling to the ground.

“First, our thoughts are with those affected and we are thankful that there were no serious injuries.  One ski patrol staff member suffered an injury during the evacuation and is being evaluated,” said New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) president/CEO Ted Blazer.  “The Whiteface crew and responders did an outstanding job following procedure and evacuating the lift, ensuring everyone’s safety.”

The malfunction occurred at 10:58 a.m. and immediately Whiteface ski patrol began skiing the lift line, notifying the people on the lift about the situation.  The lift was fully evacuated by 12:45 p.m.  The ski industry’s standard for a lift evacuation is two hours from the time of the incident.

Lift I was built in 1978 and passed inspection in November 2010.  The lift has 121 chairs, 23 towers and measures 4,100 feet in length.  The lift’s vertical rise is 1,458 feet and can carry as many as 800 skiers and riders to its top per hour.

Harvey44 wrote

As stated, most of the northeast is on windhold. This isn't a Whiteface thing.

At noon Whiteface is reporting all upper mountain lifts on wind hold and Gore is reporting all lifts operating.

ausable skier wrote

Wind blows every where but it affect WF way more than other ski areas due to the unique topography of WF.  They need another lift that is not wind prone out of the base area.  This needs to be priority one going forward!

More of the ORDA budget should be directed toward Belleayre.

x10003q wrote

Harvey44 wrote

As stated, most of the northeast is on windhold. This isn't a Whiteface thing.

At noon Whiteface is reporting all upper mountain lifts on wind hold and Gore is reporting all lifts operating.

Yeah, some days are just like that;  there's no skiing so you have to go to Gore.

skimore wrote

You could ski a 2000 vert run at Sugarbush today if one choses

wow!  that's so epic!

ScottyJack wrote

skimore wrote

You could ski a 2000 vert run at Sugarbush today if one choses

wow!  that's so epic!

And how long would you wait on line to do that?

SJ you and Pants just fly off the handle just because I wrote it and didn't even bother to read what I wrote.  This is why I have pretty much given up on the forum.

Wind issues today affected ski areas many ski areas in the Northeast but WF is more prone to wind issues to the local topography of the Notch that causes the wind to funnel and pick up speed.  Its a part of life and nothing can stop the wind but what can be done is add another lift that is properly sited from the base area to around mid station so when this does frequently happen it will allow for a decent ski experience.  

I never avocated loading lifts when its not safe.  

How long will skiers from down south keep coming back to WF after days like today?  I had a cup of coffee and went home but families that come from 5 hours away for their one week end of skiing per year can not be happy campers.

Face4Me wrote

ScottyJack wrote

skimore wrote

You could ski a 2000 vert run at Sugarbush today if one choses

wow!  that's so epic!

And how long would you wait on line to do that?

I wouldn't, but I'm guessing the vacationers would prefer that wait vs waiting for another day

Face4Me wrote

ScottyJack wrote

skimore wrote

You could ski a 2000 vert run at Sugarbush today if one choses

wow!  that's so epic!

And how long would you wait on line to do that?

I heard that there were no lines on the upper WF lifts today.

x10003q wrote

I heard that there were no lines on the upper WF lifts today.

That's true ... because they weren't running of course.

But rather than sit around with their thumbs up their arses, waiting on 45-60 minute lift lines to ski 1000 vertical feet, like they'd have to do at many other mountains, people had the option of spending their day in Lake Placid having a good time skating at the Olympic Oval, tobogganing on Mirror Lake, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, shopping in town, going for dog sled rides, riding the bobsled at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, and more.

Seems like a pretty decent backup plan to me.

Hey AS,

Do you honestly think wind data was not studied to determine best location for lifts?  If so, I need to inform you it was a big factor.

The Notch is a wind factor but the fact WF serves up the highest lift service in the east is the biggest factor.  Hell,  Little Whiteface is at a higher elevation than most NE ski resorts.  The higher you go, the stronger the winds -  you've heard of that think call the jet stream right???

You came online to search for your negative thread because on a busy holiday WF was getting hammered by winds of insane speeds....  That's really constructive!  What a supportive move for a so called local to do on behalf of an anchor of our economy.  

You didn't comment about how awesome the snow surface is despite two nasty thaws.  You didn't comment about the fact WF figured out a way to groom Hoyts High and provide just an amazing ski experience to start the holiday period...  

No, you commented about wind holds.  And then you have the audacity to say I went off w/out reading your post?  I read every word of it...  With utter amazement.

And in conclusion to the Charlie Bright Lights idea of a quad to the top of Mtn Run.  All time most stupid idea in the history of stupid ideas.  Really, A quad to dump loads of beginners and intermediates onto expert only terrain?  

I think not!
   

Face4Me wrote

That's true ... because they weren't running of course.

But rather than sit around with their thumbs up their arses, waiting on 45-60 minute lift lines to ski 1000 vertical feet, like they'd have to do at many other mountains....

Seriously, there is not another mountain that has hour waits for 1000 vert in this day and age. Do you mean just because the winds were howling? Since HSQ's became widespread in the 90s, lift waits even in holiday weekends are way down. I literally complain about 5 minute lift lines. The worst lines I had all year were at Okemo, and those may have just kissed 17minutes at 11:15 on the main lift. Maybe.

As far as the Bush goes, they didn't have a great weekend for winds from what I heard but at Gore, all lifts were running and the only line I saw was for the Gondola, so I pulled my gaiter up and skied right onto the ADK express.

I don't see why Ausable is wrong to think WF should look at a way of mitigating the wind risk. If the family vacationer ends up doing a bobsled it doesn't really help them sell lift tickets!

edit to add: Scotty, It's hard for me to keep up with all the WhiteFace threads, but this one does say WhiteFace and wind at the top of it.......... It doesn't seem like the worst place to complain about the holds. I have 4 days at the hill this year, and it has been a big issue for HALF of them. And not the kind where you can sack up and ski either, because the place is shut down. And yea, I was in Lake Placid, so rather than buying tickets other days I went for tours and hikes because the place was messed up.

It's just not the place to be for a windy day right now.

My 1st idea was a fixed grip quad with a mid station that would replace both the Bear and Freeway lifts.  After several people (not SJ or Pants) posted good constructive comments on why that would not work I amended it to a lift that to a fixed grip quad to around Mid station.  SJ has made widely know in the forum he prefers wind holds so he can hike up and have the place to himself.  What I'm proposing is for the benefit of the average ski tourists with kids that drove up 5-6 hours to ski.  How could anyone argue with that?

SJ do you really think that the Gondi was optimally sited to be out to the wind?  

That was possibly the worst routing that they could have chosen.  It put it right in the prevailng wind tunnel that is the notch.  The best route would have been from out of where the pay parking lot is (Snowballs would have loved that one) and run to the the flat spot on the very top of Excelisor so that it would have been protected by the ridge on LWF from the prevailing wind.

The Face lift was not optipmal either but it had to follow the old lift lines for cost reasons.  

Harvey Road is like fantasy football for wannabe Directors of Mountain Operations.

 

ScottyJack wrote

  You didn't comment about the fact WF figured out a way to groom Hoyts High and provide just an amazing ski experience to start the holiday period...  

Why all the praise for grooming Hoyts?

ScottyJack wrote

And in conclusion to the Charlie Bright Lights idea of a quad to the top of Mtn Run.  All time most stupid idea in the history of stupid ideas.  Really, A quad to dump loads of beginners and intermediates onto expert only terrain?  

I think not!

It is funny to read a comment about dropping off "loads of  beginners and intermediates onto expert only terrain" when there is a high capacity Gondola dropping off at the same place. A FG quad should do better in the wind than a double and it would be cheaper to run one lift out of the midstation. A stupid idea is installing a very expensive gondola to an area with zero green trails and one blue trail and a bunch of expert terrain that stops about halfway down LWF.