Whiteface Conditions (2013-2014)

Since the blog is powered by Google and they an apple are feuding they are purposely making things hard to work together
Wh can't you post multiple fing photos in one post.  It's just like when I had a BB and Apple would purposely post my photos up side down

Man does that look GOOD.  Way to get it Coach.

Coach Z wrote

Since the blog is powered by Google...

You can blame Google for a lot of things but not this.  This is just a bad combination of a stupid photo naming system (Apple) and archaic photo handling by the forum software (powered by Nabble).

If you want to post all those iPad/phone fotos you have to download them and name them.

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/Posting-iPhone-iPad-Photos-td4036094.html

nice! No avy gear so no slides but it was a great day to be anywhere on the mountain. Snow was great everywhere and lots of sun in the afternoon.

Coach Z wrote

Great day to ski the slides

I found a partner a nice guy from down state that could ski and had the gear.  

You know who that was....wait for it.......Jump Turn Guy!  Hope I didn't throw too many in on the runs we took together.  It was nice skiing with you.

I did get over to 4 after you left.  It had great snow.  Hit the bottom of 1.  Ice falled out, which required a 15 foot straight line down a section of ice, but there was plenty of soft snow once you got past it.  That was a little scary for me, but I vowed not to look for a way to jump turn around it!

Coach Z wrote

Not sure you are aware of this but you can (and should) book lessons ahead of time to prevent getting shut out especially this time of the year.
 

We always make reservation on holiday weekends, but I'll count this one as a late season learning experience that turned out ok....and I tried not to make ski school part of my rant.  They always do a great job, and have served my kids well over the years.  I did make a reservation for today to avoid any possibility of not getting them in and freeing myself up.  They had a good day today.  My 12 year old hit up Sugar Valley with his group, while my 10 year old hit up Cloudsplitter Glades with his.  Glad the instructors are helping develop their tree skills!

That Hitler rant is ridiculous.

Coach Z wrote

 If you want to ski them go buy some gear it's worth it

My Pieps Freeride was only $135 on Amazon Prime, had it in two days.  While Patrol wasn't checking shovel and probe today, I think the full set ran me about $230.  Money well spent.  Agreed, the Silver requirement helps to keep traffic down so they don't ski out too quickly......but it also probably kept a lot of people out of there today who could have gotten themselves in trouble.

Coach Z wrote

.  We hit 2b.  Super fun and it's now my fav slide.

Slide 1 did not look at all inviting and I avoided it.  

I think 2b is my favorite too.
I got a tip to ski Slide 1 skiers left from a source I trust so I did. I was really glad I did cause the snow was deep and lite and I had some really enjoyable turns. I cut into 2 before I got to the waterfall. I didn't want anything to do with that yesterday.

Skidds wrote

Coach Z wrote

Great day to ski the slides

I found a partner a nice guy from down state that could ski and had the gear.  

You know who that was....wait for it.......Jump Turn Guy!  Hope I didn't throw too many in on the runs we took together.  It was nice skiing with you.

I did get over to 4 after you left.  It had great snow.  Hit the bottom of 1.  Ice falled out, which required a 15 foot straight line down a section of ice, but there was plenty of soft snow once you got past it.  That was a little scary for me, but I vowed not to look for a way to jump turn around it!

When I saw Coach's post, about partnering up with a down state guy, I had a funny feeling that his "partner" was Skidds!!!

Too funny!

No avy gear for me, so no Slides, but I wasn't too upset about it. I was having plenty of fun in the snow fields on Upper Cloud ... was able to get 6 laps in there on Saturday, during the times that Summit Quad was running. Each time through, it was like getting first tracks, as the wind kept "refreshing" the snow.

Unfortunately, I had a family obligation so I had to leave early yesterday, but I still managed to get 4 runs in the snow fields again before I left. It was REALLY hard to leave so early on such an awesome day.

When I saw your post about 5 runs in the woodstove I figured it was you but by then I had  already responded to your rant and I thought it was too funny to delete

I enjoyed skiing with you and seem like a nice guy so cut patrol some slack they only close stuff when it really sucks.  The rant video is damm funny.

You way ski better than I figured after all the jump turn comments.  I had to throw a hop turn or two in that one section of breakable crust on the first run before it got cut up.   They are useful for that for sure.  

If your kids are skiing those glades it's time to get them out west with you.  Great times and memories to be had ripping up steep bowls and shoots together.

Congrats on buying a pass hope to ski with you again soon.  Let me know when you be up.  Let's have a beer next time (i will buy) and our kids can play air hockey.

I just knew when I caught the 12:30 bus back to Placid Saturday that the Summit would come back on line, and I'd end up with some regret.  Surprising the wife, grabbing a massage, hitting the sauna and steam room was an acceptable trade off.

When Coach and I just missed another run in the Slides at 2:30 we both headed for Cloudspin.  Snow in there is great, and I even was able to venture across the middle.

As for Slides, I have to say 4 was my favorite yesterday, and remains at the top of my list.  Not as many people headed out that far, so it had the best snow I found.  For some reason it didn't seem as tight as previous years once it funneled down.  Yes, there are a handful of places where you have to pick your spots, but otherwise it's decent tree skiing.  So you get the steep wide open above and some nice tree skiing with some interesting rock features below.  Kinda has everything.

They are all great, though.  2B is a lot of fun.  Wide open, some cliffs and other features if you want them, easy enough to avoid if you don't.  A bit more exposed ice and rock face, so you do have to be a little careful.  3 is a lot of fun after you get through the choke, and those 3 or 4 turns before the choke are very steep.  As it widens as you get closer to where it meets up with 2B the rock is more ledge-y than it is cliffs or exposed, which makes for a couple of fun little drops in the middle of your line.

As for 1, one of my most fun runs out there may have been in 2011, when the falls were filled in and you could drop one section of exposed ice into pillowy powder, then repeat, repeat.  On one of those drops I biffed a little, rolled right over the next little drop, landed on my skis below and kept going.  It was a blast.  Not the case right now.  Drifter, I made the opposite call and skied 2B a little more than half way down, then cut through the trees to the lower left portion of 1.  Yes, there was some great snow on that left side, but once you got down to the last section of falls that go all the way across you were stuck.  Sometimes there is enough snow to squeak around hard left, but no go right now.  Only option was to point 'em straight down the hill over about 15 feet of exposed ice, which led to the nice, soft open expanse at the very bottom of 1.  Once over the ice it was a hard turn to the right into some sweeping GS turns.  I guess it was fun, but not something I'd repeat too often.  Gravity really gets you going in 15 feet straight down with the pitch on the falls, the ice (and a little rock) you had to straight line over could be a little grabby, and even tough you emptied into the wide bottom of 1 there are enough small exposed patches of ice or rock to make the high speed GS turns an adventure.  All in all a little nerve racking for this relatively risk averse guy.

A now I sit on a train and go to work.😞 What a day, though.

I think the assumption was if you had a pack you had the shovel and probe in there.  They did ask me the first time to see the beacon.

Good point about the pack Coach.  

As I said in my rant Saturday, it was all bloody Mary and Ubu's fault.  They ganged up on me after a morning that didn't quite go according to my plan!  I almost always cut Patrol a break.  Of course, I think anyone can agree there are rare occasions where they might be a tiny bit too conservative.  Sure, go ski exposed rock and ice and huck cliffs to your heart's content in the Slides, but Cloudsplitter Glades and Empire are too dangerous?  I know, I know....they can control who accesses one and not the other....

As for jump turns (among other things) I'd like to think a come across more 'dog with a bone' who has a point to prove than I do gaper, but it's a fine line I guess.😜

I'll hit you up next time we are up, which looks like the weekend of April 12/13.

Coach Z wrote

They did ask me the first time to see the beacon.

Why would they need to see it?

why was hoyts closed yesterday  

skimore wrote

Coach Z wrote

  They did ask me the first time to see the beacon.

Why would they need to see it?

Maybe they are from Missouri...

gorgonzola wrote

why was hoyts closed yesterday

From the lift it looked pretty wind buffed and firm.

following up an earlier comment by BG:

"Well I'm going to take the contrarian view in that 72 hours after a 21" dump plus a few inches overnight, I thought the conditions yesterday were as poor as possible given that setup."


I second it, for current conditions:
I skied WF with my daughters (12 and 8) on March 14 (just a day after the 20"+ storm, then again this past Friday on March 21. I was not impressed with the conditions, particularly after a relatively big snow event on March 12. Not into tree skiing, and not technologically-equipped (beacon, etc.) for the slides that people are raving about (and with young kids anyway). The mountain appeared as a massive block of ice, 50% covered with ankle-deep powder, 50% exposed, typically on all the sensitive spots, especially from the summit down ("variable conditions", but it sucked, really). The only enjoyable trails for my kids were the lower blues. I'm looking forward to Spring skiing. Overall, typical windblown mid-winter skiing in the northeast. Perhaps expected too much after the snow storm.

If you don't like trees beacon equipped or not you will not like the slides.  Same skills apply in both

There was plenty of good skiing to be had this weekend.  The wind exposed stuff is trashed until it warns up or snows but there was plenty of other good stuff to be had.  I thought the lower mt was skiing nice for your kids.

Winds were wicked up there on Saturday.  Pretty buffed out