Whiteface Conditions (2013-2014)

Hope you brought the sunscreen.  Boy did it get warm in a hurry.  Who'd a thunk that could happen!!
I'd imagine things will deteriorate a good bit with some r*^n tomorrow, but hopefully a few inches of white stuff will fall as the cold front comes through.  The cold on Wednesday into Thursday should allow them to groom and move some snow around, setting up for another nice weekend.

Hey skidds, what does the app on your phone predict for the slides opening?    

What, the lipstick I put on the pig 👆 isn't enough wishful thinking for you?  Pretty much down to Excelsior/Boreen/Valley today.  I'm hoping the summit and everything off Approach closure is temporary, and they can rework things before Friday.  I have skied the Slides as late as April 20, but I'm not planning on getting in there this weekend.  Amazing what 5 days of unseasonably warm weather can do.  That is why I ALWAYS say how hard it is for mountains to commit to operations this time of year!

Ha!  I hadn't yet seen that 'according to my app' exchange!  According to my app...I don't have an f'ing clue, which you all figured out without the app some time ago!😜

scotty, my app says app this. i use this app a lot.

Will the summit open for the weekend?

frk wrote

scotty, my app says app this. i use this app a lot.

app this!  that's funny.  

summit will most likely not be open. lost tons of snow the other day

Friends are looking to come visit and ski this weekend.  Anyone been there this week?  The report looks like almost nothing is open.  Is this a money savings don't want run lifts type of thing or is the snow gone?

I could see that approach would be toast so is there snow on mt run and is there any chance they run the LWF thus weekend?

For spring running the Facelift and LWF make so much more sense than the Gondi

Skyward looked plenty covered yesterday morning, but I havnt seen it since.  I would assume the conditions were just bad today and that's why everything was closed.  warm, rain followed but frigid wind.

Drove past and it looks plenty white from 86

I hoping it just was too cold today and once things warm up it all will be ok

Anyone ski today?

Coach Z wrote

Drove past and it looks plenty white from 86

I hoping it just was too cold today and once things warm up it all will be ok

Anyone ski today?

I asked two WF staff, one at the base lodge ticket/info desk and the lift operator lady at the top of the Gondola, and they both said that the Summit is done for the season (the latter said they lost a lot of snow on the horizontal traverse from the summit chair unloading area leading to the summit trails). But my gut-feeling is that they are wrong. The trails themselves (Skyward, in particular) didn't seem to have a catastrophic loss of coverage, unless the half an inch dusting from last night covered up the damage.





Anyway, at least they plan to open Approach and Mountain Run trails (which, btw, also looked ok judging from midstation, but frozen up).

Approach and the mt run area are open today according to the web site

That flat spot on the top of the summit goes fast.  I recall walking to get to the snow many times in the past

I'm probably way off base here (as usual).....but there may be great terrain that could be made available, the question is how bad they want to make it available.  Riva Ridge and the Skyward headwall can lose coverage, but does that have to take the summit out of play if the coverage is good otherwise?  With the cold weather this week would it be that difficult to push enough snow onto the ridge to get the summit open this weekend?  Just axin...maybe it would be.  . If the Sky head wall is dicey there are ways to come in below it.  Granted, late April is just that....late.  However, I was there in late March a couple years ago (you remember, when it was 70) and they went to great lengths to push around snow and maintain the skiing as long as possible.

I'll be there tomorrow and Sat regardless, even going to get my daughter a season pass for next year, but if it's feasible I'd like to see them make an attempt to make the terrain available.  I'll be happy enough ripping corn lower down if that's all we get.....

I was up there again with my daughters today (Spring break). This was my kind of Spring break on Wed and Thu: sunny skies, lots of skiing, with or without Skyward. I now might be coming to terms with the reality that they are done with the Summit for the year (and snow is disappearing by the hour in this weather so if it wasn't open today, they probably won't patch Riva Ridge and/or the Skyward head wall for the weekend).

What made me wonder more (again, the same old topic) is that since the upper trails from Approach or Essex, or Excelsior were in such a good shape, the weather was nice today, and they seem to stick to running two lifts only, why not run the Facelift and the Little Whiteface chairs to avoid having to skiing down to the base??? The only rational could be is the foot passengers taking the Gondola ? There were quite a few of them today.

Well, enough of complaining, it was a great day. If I look at the parking lot these past two days counting all the 100 or so cars there, I see their point.

To me, Essex was perfection all afternoon long:





(pics taken around 2:30pm).

Seeing the coverage on Lookout Below in the distance makes me think like my brother.....such a shame to have made all that snow, just to let it melt unused because Lookout is 'done for the season'.

My guess would be you can't get to LBO because there is not enough snow still on Wilmington Trail

More annoying is having to go to the bottom because they are running the Gondi and Face instead of the LWF.  The past management in spring would run Gondi and LWF and not run the facelift.  Who in their right mind wants to ski the bottom of the mt on a warm spring day?

Per WF facebook page the summit is now open for experts only (skyward).

I was going to say there was encouraging news from the hill.  Just hit the Gondi now (waited for softening and a tune), and was told they had a crew on the summit and were trying to get it open (for tomorrow).  Guess they were successful.  Headed up there now, will report soon.

Summit open, Skyward only, nice and soft, big spring bumps.  Little tight getting through the headwall on upper, have to skirt around the "headwall" on lower.  Guy in the shop said they might have wanted to groom Skyward but were having trouble with the winch cat and the rocks/cliff on the headwall.  Will see what tomorrow brings.  Not a lot of snow through/around the headwalls, or at the bottom by the lift.  Kudos to WF.  Speculation by many on the lifts is they would like to make it to May, weekends only.