Whiteface Conditions (2013-2014)

Best weekend so far at Whiteface.

Great day Saturday ... really cold, but there wasn't any wind at all, so as long as you had everything covered, it wasn't too bad. Pick of the day was bottom of Draper's.

Sunday morning was awesome. It's days like today that make you forget all the bad days!

Things are really starting to shape up ... hoping that maybe they'll have Skyward for next weekend. Anyone think there's a chance of that?

def way more of chance of Skyward for next weekend happening than my ealy season NY Football Giants prediction!  

Vikes took care of business yesterday.  You're welcome Giants Nation.  

Best weekend yet.  Here's hopin' we stay on the cold side of this Friday-Saturday thing.

ScottyJack wrote

def way more of chance of Skyward for next weekend happening than my ealy season NY Football Giants prediction!  

I'll be respectful, and avoid the temptation for "thread-drift" here!!!

From Jon:

"Whiteface is looking at 45 to 50 trails open for the holiday with summit (from both Little Whiteface and Whiteface) to base skiing."

Conditions today were about what you'd expect after the weather we endured over the prior 3 - 4 days, with some notable exceptions.

I didn't ski Mt Run or Thruway (there were better options), but from the lift, they looked fast and firm. People were skiing down with little difficulty, and it looked like a good old-fashioned frozen granular surface (go see your dentist at the end of the day to check your fillings). The bottom of Draper's Drop had a similar surface.

Upper Valley & Broadway were both fine ... nothing out of the ordinary on either one. Same for Lower Valley, Boreen & Easy Street.

They did a GREAT job getting the upper part of Excelsior into shape overnight. The ice that was the primary surface yesterday from the top of the Gondola to the split with Lower Northway had been replaced by plenty of fine, powdery man-made. From there down, they were making snow in a few spots and the coverage and surfaces were very good ... better than an average Saturday afternoon in fact.

I ventured up to the Summit for the first time this season. The only option was the Follies to Paron's Run. Coverage was good all the way down, but it wasn't anything worth taking a second ride on the Summit Quad for. Peeking down Skyward, it would appear that they'll need about 2 days of snowmaking to get it open ... here's hoping they'll have it for Thursday afternoon or Friday morning! With Friday's anticipated crowds, we'll need it to spread things out a bit.

Saving the best for last ... ESSEX!!!!!!!!!!! There were HUGE piles of powdery dry man-made from the top all the way down past the cut to/from Excelsior. From there to the bottom, the guns were putting out a much wetter snow ... you had to be really careful to avoid the last 2 or 3 guns or it was instant blindness. Before they got the gondola running at around 11:00, there was almost no one on it! It was fantastic. I did 5 consecutive laps on it until the gondola opened, at which point everyone figured it out. The good news for me, was that I had to leave mid-day anyway, so I certainly got my morning's worth.

From Essex, there were two options, both of which were excellent ... Lower Northway was covered with guns, and there was plenty of snow on top of a firm, smooth base. There were four guns on Victoria, which were just putting a little icing on the cake ... The primary surface was frozen granular, but it was almost as good as it was yesterday, and once again, up until about mid-day, there was no one on it.

Looking forward to tomorrow ... I was really bummed out all day Saturday and Sunday because of the weather, but my mood has improved substantially after the past two days. With the current forecast, the weekend is really starting to look up, and hopefully, by the early part of next week, the past three days will have been forgotten.

Merry Christmas to all.

I agree with Face.  Given the weather the skiing is really quite good.  It's firm and fast for sure but as they blow things again it will become really good quick.  We did not lose significant base and it suprised me for being much better than I had anticipated.

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas Coach!

Nice one from Whiteface:

Things looking up today. Mountain reported 2 inches of fresh overnight. It was lightly snowing all day today, so I'm assuming 2 to 4 inches total with this clipper. Good for a refresh. And to improve conditions. The whole mountain was skiing way better than yesterday. Less hardpack, more carveable surfaces. Definitely moving in the right direction. Just hope that they start expanding soon. It's starting to get monotonous skiing the same terrain over and over.

Whiteface was incredible today.  Given the fact that the ice storm and outage was just the other day, it skied incredible.  Mountain Run right under the lift was my pick of the day.  The natural helped but kudos to the snowmakers and groomers...Nice Recovery!  

How close does Skyward look? Website doesn't say that they're making snow on it, but I don't know how accurate that is.

skisheep wrote

How close does Skyward look? Website doesn't say that they're making snow on it, but I don't know how accurate that is.

Not close at all. Very far, actually. They haven't made snow on Skyward since last Thursday, so it's been 8 days now. So don't expect it before 2014.

Darn, not the news I was hoping for, but thanks anyway ;)

Conditions update ...

Pretty nasty day today, weather-wise, but conditions weren't bad.

The mountain was pretty crowded today, but I never went below the Freeway Chair (I-Lift) after my first gondola ride at 8:30, so the only line I waited on was a 3-4 minute wait for the Little Whiteface chair ... not too bad for a Saturday between Christmas and New Years Day. There were no lines at all at the Mountain Run and Freeway lifts. Given the somewhat limited terrain, some of the trails were pretty crowded, but oddly enough, some weren't. Every run I took on Victoria and Lower Northway, there was basically no one there ... Upper Valley, Mountain Run and Excelsior on the other hand ...

The Summit Quad broke down yesterday and is still down. I heard they're hoping to have it back up tomorrow or Monday ... here's hoping. The good news, is that they restarted snowmaking on Skyward and Niagara. I'd bet they'll be ready by Monday, assuming the chair is running again.

It hasn't been super-fantastic, but compared with Christmas weeks past, it really has been pretty good. My glass is half-full!

Looking forward to heading out again tomorrow.

The mountain is holding up OK.  Yesterday was very warm and things started to soften up.  I got kinda excited cause I heard we were supposed to get some snow.  It rained and turned to snow early this morning. We are getting skunked in the weather department but the mountain is moving foward.  If the Summit chair keeps spinning I think people will be skiing skyward very soon.  

I usualy ride the mountain run chair to avoid the crowds at the gondola.  Well I guess everyone figured it out.  Sunday the lines at Mid lift were 20 minutes and you could get on the gondi in less than 5.  
I spent most of the day on the parkway lift and the racers chair.  No lift lines and soft snow.  Got a little bored then the summit opened up around 1.  Nice to have that thing spinning hopefully they can keep it going for a while.  

skied Friday, Sat, Sunday.  Friday and Sunday had the best conditions.  logged 70k vert.  

Guns blowingSky and Niagria, there getting closer.

Today's report ... skiing ... there are good days, and there are not so good days ... enough said.

Bear was the "Run of the Day"...

+1

SKYWARD IS OPEN!