West Mountain Conditions

I skied west with my 5 year old daughter last night and I have to say I was really impressed. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the mountain was bigger, with a good amount of open terrain under the lights, great packed powder conditions, and ski on lifts all night. There were huge whales piled up all over the place and lots of old tower fan guns on the main trails. I hit a few icy patches that I didn't see coming, but over all everything was very edgeable. My favorite trail was from the top of the long double down to the triple. Great fall line and wide open. No idea what the name of it is. The chairs are old as dirt, but seem to be in good operating condition. You can tell some money has been dropped in the base lodge recently (bathrooms, nice bar/restaurant upstairs, etc.).

I can't say what exactly has taken me so long to check it out. Maybe the fact that my last time truly night skiing was at appalachian in boone, nc or at camelback in pa. I think maybe I was scarred. Also, the mountain just doesn't look very big from the northway. We'll be back - probably tonight to ski some freshies. I can see why some forum members ski there regularly during the week. I'll be joining the "crowd" and hope the new management team can make some money and keep the mountain going.

Danzilla wrote

My favorite trail was from the top of the long double down to the triple. Great fall line and wide open. No idea what the name of it is.

Mach.

Danzilla wrote

I can't say what exactly has taken me so long to check it out. Maybe the fact that my last time truly night skiing was at appalachian in boone, nc or at camelback in pa. I think maybe I was scarred.

Ouch. Heal thyself, skier.

Danzilla wrote

I can see why some forum members ski there regularly during the week. I'll be joining the "crowd" and hope the new management team can make some money and keep the mountain going.

Several of us ski Wednesday nights (me, Kman, Hickory Martha and a few others), we're all on tele gear.  Beers in the bar after.  Join us, even if you're skiing fixed heel.  I missed last night but may very well go up tonight with the fam.

Where do you live Zilla ?

Skiing Monday/Tuesday cheap nights at West you sometimes get a rush of buses and wacky kids. Watchout for them if your youngun is with you, they can be somewhat reckless at times.

Best is to hit the triple chair when this happens as the kids all stay close to the main lodge slopes. You'll have the triple to yourself. Eitherway, they usually thin out after an hour or so they hit the lodge.

The best thing about West is the bar and restaurant, the food & beer are good and they don't gouge you. Davidson Brothers on tap.  

Adk Jeff wrote

Several of us ski Wednesday nights (me, Kman, Hickory Martha and a few others), we're all on tele gear.  Beers in the bar after.  Join us, even if you're skiing fixed heel.  I missed last night but may very well go up tonight with the fam.

Thanks Jeff. That sounds like fun. I owe you a beer from a while back! I'm on vacation next week but will try for the week after. I'll PM you. You guys might convert me to tele.

We skied again last night for 2 hours and had a blast. 3-4 inches of cutup snow on top of packed pow. It was just enough to make nice floaty turns. Realized after riding the triple 3 or 4 times that I need to bring my headlamp. Might just have to go back again today when they open that side at 3.

Snowballs I live in Saratoga. Been meaning to check out west forever. I think I am hooked. The 5 year old approves as well.

PeeTex wrote

The best thing about West is the bar and restaurant, the food & beer are good and they don't gouge you. Davidson Brothers on tap.

Possible thread hijack- Davidson Brothers is O-VER-RATED. Stick with the PBR Tallboys.

YUKON CORNELIUS wrote

PeeTex wrote

The best thing about West is the bar and restaurant, the food & beer are good and they don't gouge you. Davidson Brothers on tap.

Possible thread hijack- Davidson Brothers is O-VER-RATED. Stick with the PBR Tallboys.

I think they do a PBR special with wings. Anyway-I can't bring myself to drink PBR. I'd rather drink horse piss.

Danzilla wrote

I'm on vacation next week but will try for the week after. I'll PM you. You guys might convert me to tele.

Danzilla wrote

 Snowballs I live in Saratoga. Been meaning to check out west forever. I think I am hooked. The 5 year old approves as well.

"I'm pretty sure " Monday and Tuesday nights have reduced prices. They don't/didn't advertise it before. $17 after 4 or 5 til closing.

You're Toga and this is your first West trip ? Now you'll get more skiing in. It's nice and enables midweek night skiing for working people.

We are Gore non-holiday pass holders. Decided to try West today as our passes are not good at Gore this week and we figured correctly that the expected high winds would be less at West than Vermont. What a great day,  mountain was completely open, excellent coverage on all trails, only ice we saw was in our drinks-). West is a really fun when they have a lot of natural snow, AOA and the run  under the triple had great soft bumps top to bottom (~1000 vertical) and hardly anyone on them, there were a couple of other bump runs also, all with soft snow and no ice. We waited about 15 minutes to pick up our lift tickets $37/4 hours but had virtually no lines for the double or triple.

I had not been to West in 20 years, but I do not think anything has changed. I know the mountain has been under financial stress but they could use a couple of improvements.  Not that i would use it but i was surprised they didn't have a more extensive park, just a small one near the bottom. Also they probably need a way to fix the cafeteria so you do not need to wait 15 minutes to get a drink.

xWeatherMan wrote

We are Gore non-holiday pass holders. Decided to try West today as our passes are not good at Gore this week and we figured correctly that the expected high winds would be less at West than Vermont. What a great day,  mountain was completely open, excellent coverage on all trails, only ice we saw was in our drinks-). West is a really fun when they have a lot of natural snow, AOA and the run  under the triple had great soft bumps top to bottom (~1000 vertical) and hardly anyone on them, there were a couple of other bump runs also, all with soft snow and no ice. We waited about 15 minutes to pick up our lift tickets $37/4 hours but had virtually no lines for the double or triple.

I had not been to West in 20 years, but I do not think anything has changed. I know the mountain has been under financial stress but they could use a couple of improvements.  Not that i would use it but i was surprised they didn't have a more extensive park, just a small one near the bottom. Also they probably need a way to fix the cafeteria so you do not need to wait 15 minutes to get a drink.

West is a work in progress. The new management made some significant changes in the main lodge, just remodeling the bathrooms and painting was a major change. Unfortunately until the dead heads in Glens Falls can give them direct access to the Hudson river they are destined to be on a slow burn.

No doubt buying water for snowmaking is a big expense. Stringing a pipeline down to the river would also be a big expense. Kind of a rock and a hard place but once it was done......

Snowballs wrote

You're Toga and this is your first West trip ? Now you'll get more skiing in. It's nice and enables midweek night skiing for working people.

Snowballs this is our second full winter in Saratoga. For a variety of reasons I never made it to West last year. After this year I am thinking I will get a midweek pass next year - especially if they offer them at the $149 price point again. It is so nice to be able to hit it for a few hours after work one or two nights a week.

I skied west last night from about 6-8pm. Conditions there are fantastic. Wall to wall coverage and really nice firm snow that had softened throughout the day to nice carvable creamy corn. It was sneeting when I arrived. It switched to full blown dumping wet flakes around 7pm. Not sure if it stayed all snow overnight, but if it did it should make for nice conditions there today.

They are only open during the week through next week then they go to weekends till closing sometime in April. Get it if you can.

West Mountain opened for the season yesterday, their earliest opening in recent memory.  Approximately $500 thousand has been spent on snowmaking upgrades and other projects for the 2014-15 season.  And the Post-Star is reporting that there will be a Waffle Shack this year!

West Mountain celebrates early opening

I really like the new management's attitude towards snowmaking:
“We’ve been going full tilt making snow. We will fire the guns back up — it looks like we’ll have a 36-hour window — Monday night until Wednesday,” Montgomery said. “A lot of times in the past, they’d wait to make snow until they had weeks of cold weather in the forecast. We’re basically trying to stop and start the system, which is a lot of work, but we make snow any time we have a window and take our chances.”

that's awesome, I would be pretty excited to have West close by.

Currently eating a bowl of chili and half a roast beef sandwich, sun shining into the lodge.

Scheduled worked out perfectly to take a last minute trip to West today. Left office in Saratoga at 11:27, stopped home to grab gear and was finishing my first run at 12:32.

$24 for 2hrs- approx 10 runs w 10 minute pee/warm up break.  Maybe 5 others skiing the hill.  For $24 you get the 2hrs and half sandwich&soup.

Conditions are really good here.

Can't beat that.

Hey Chris, is it basically just Frolic down from the top?  Are they making snow on other trails?

Adk Jeff wrote

Hey Chris, is it basically just Frolic down from the top?  Are they making snow on other trails?

Frolic, ally, coy, chute and turtleback.

Blowing a lot of snow on Mach and banister as well, shouldn't be long before the triple opens.