Whiteface 02-21-2011

Today was my first day back on skis in over three weeks following a couple of pretty nasty injuries. While not an "epic" day by any means, it sure was nice to be back on the mountain. It's been a difficult three weeks sitting on the sidelines. I went out from the opening bell at 8:30 until about 11:30. Conditions were very good overall, especially based on everything I've heard regarding the last two days. It was a beautiful, sunny, blue sky day, though it was a bit cold.



Started with a nice warm up down Excelsior to Upper Valley to Boreen. All the way down was very nice, machine groomed corduroy. It was a good way to get the day started. Next up was Essex to Lower Northway and over to the Lookout Mountain chair. Essex was really nice. A couple of minor slick patches here and there, but nothing worth complaining about. Lower Northway was nice and soft after a couple of days of snowmaking.

Lower Northway


The Wilmington Trail was in great shape, with the exception of a major "iceberg" on the Marble Pitch. Machine groomed frozen granular from the top to bottom, with very few people on it!

The Wilmington Trail




Back on to the gondola and over to Upper Northway, which I was told had been a solid sheet of ice on Sunday. They obviously beat the heck out of it with the groomers, because it was awesome at this point. Machine groomed, frozen granular, and more than soft enough to put an edge into it. We then made our way over to the Summit Quad, hoping that maybe Skyward would be in similar shape.

Upper Northway


They had groomed Upper Skyward and Niagara, and while it wasn't bad, it was like a golf ball sized frozen granular surface ... a little too rough for my weakened leg.

Upper Skyward


From Niagara, we continued down Victoria, which had a lot of piled up machine made snow. It was starting to bump up a little, and there was a stretch in the middle which didn't have much snow on it at all. Three weeks ago, I would have loved the nice soft bumps, but today, I just had to navigate my way through it carefully.

Victoria


Took another run down the Wilmington Trail, which was still holding up quite nicely, and then another run down Upper Northway, which by this time, was starting to get a little skied off.

I called it a day at this point, figuring it would be a good idea to leave something in the tank. Hoping to head back out tomorrow, with the expectation that conditions are going to continue to improve as the week goes on. No doubt it was a rough weekend up here, but from what I saw today, the mountain is well on its way to recovering!!!

Thanks for the update, i was very curious how conditions would be this weekend..

Did the base take any kind of damage on or off trail during the warm spell?

As far as off trail is concerned, all the glades are currently closed. I didn't peek in at all to get a look, but based on what any of the ungroomed trails looked like, I would think it's going to take a good amount of snow, or some warm weather to get everything back in order.

On the trails, from what I saw, there's still plenty of base ... there were one or two spots on the Wilmington Trail that looked a little thin, but overall it seems good. They've been making snow since Saturday in various locations ... They've touched up Victoria, Excelsior, Upper and Lower Valley, Boreen, Lower Northway and today, they were making snow on Mountain Run.

With the current forecast, and assuming they continue to expand grooming and snowmaking operations where they're needed, I'm thinking that the rest of this week should be very good.

I'm planning to head back out for a few more hours tomorrow, so I'll post an update tomorrow evening.