Whiteface Conditions (2015 - 2016)

Saturday was good and Sunday was fantastic.  Parons and Wilderness was run(s) of the weekend, and Skyward close behind.  Cross over trails did some damage to the skis so be careful, such as cutting over to Vic.  Key runs are fine but don't assume all is well as there is evil sticking out and ready to bite.  Pebbles are fine, jagged bedrock not so much.  Hearing WF is better than most of VT.

Anyone with boots on the ground have a report on this last stretch of wonderful winter weather?  Should not be long from now before we return to "winter" and this system passes.  How much damage was done, speculation on recovery etc.

I'm heading up tomorrow night with a crew of 11 ppl.  I've got a pass so no skin off my a** if conditions are sub-par, I'm going to get out there and ski regardless.  Maybe a little manmade will turn things around quickly.

In any event, fun always to be had in LP, and since my buddies like to drink a lot, should be net positive effect for the region on tourism $$$.

60 degrees here in the flatlands today.  Super.

Skiing was really good this morning with almost no crowds.  It was more like a Tuesday based on the Gondi line after yesterday that was very crowded.

For some reason we were super short staffed so I only got from 8:30 to 9:45 this morning to free ski all weekend so I lapped Wilderness and Mt Run at about 11 mins a lap.  Really nice.  I heard the summit was good too in the morning.  

WF better add more staff for next yr or I'm done with teaching.

Great skiing on Saturday.  Friday a little sketchy, but was to be expected.  Despite a little more crowds on Saturday (not so much if you avoided Gondi) it snowed pretty steady all day. Maybe 2" throughout the day or so?  I thought the mountain was in great shape all things considered.  Essex was a lot of fun after they turned the guns off.

I skied WF on Saturday. I found a lot of frozen and refrozen granular, flat light, and annoying crowds. Essex was good, though. They must have blown on it on Friday, because it was nice and soft. Hit it about 7 or 8 times. Explored everything else that was open, but it ranged from meh to ugh.





Hard to figure out why Whiteface and Gore are having trouble retaining instructors

Sat I skied from first tracks to close to last chair.  Have to say the conditions were pretty darn good.  Guess you need to know how to ski the mountain.  

Sunday I took around 10 runs and things were decent as well.

I thought Sat was the better of the two days.  Sky skiers left to lower sky Sat was a hoot.  

tjf1967 wrote

Sat I skied from first tracks to close to last chair.  Have to say the conditions were pretty darn good.  Guess you need to know how to ski the mountain.  

Sunday I took around 10 runs and things were decent as well.

I thought Sat was the better of the two days.  Sky skiers left to lower sky Sat was a hoot.

Skied skiers left on sky to lower sky. Thought the conditions were firm hardpack intermixed with ice and occasional frozen granular.

If you describe that as "pretty darn good", you have Stockholm syndrome from this shitty ass season.

Listen, man, it's not an attack on you if I didn't like the conditions on a firm Saturday in February when we haven't had significant natural snow in weeks. I put up some pictures, gave my opinion, and that's that. You offered an alternate opinion, but then came with the "don't know how to ski the mountain" blast for no reason.

Here was my day: arrived at around 9:30 after a nice breakfast, parked at Kids area, skied over to face lift. Rode face lift to summit lift, skied Skyward, Parron's and that other side trail up top. Finding nothing that really skied great, went down to Mountain Run lift after noticing Essex looked good when we skied the bottom part after cutting over from Parron's). Skied Essex (like I said, best snow on mountain). Skied Mountain Run and Wilderness, both weren't great (more hardpack, flat light, and ice). Rode lift to top and skied Essex a few more times with various stupid variations to get back to Mountain Run lift because McKenzie was closed, no glades were open, and that connecting trail back to McKenzie was closed too.

Did that a few more times, got bored, skied Essex once more then to Upper Valley and Lower Valley. Nothing great there, so we skied the terrain park to Boreen and back to the car. Wasn't the worst day at Whiteface, but it wasn't "pretty darn good". Entire lookout pod was closed, no bumps on the entire mountain (besides small ones developing on Essex), Victoria was its usual shitshow, Skyward was meh, and I hate the amount of annoying congestion points at Whiteface when my favorite cut over trails are closed.

Just my opinion, man. If I don't like something you like, it's not because I "don't know how to ski the mountain". It's probably because I think different things are enjoyable, going back to my reason for preferring Gore over Whiteface.

I got to the second sentence and decided you are a turd with a bad attitude.  Have fun

OK so I read a little more.  Anyone that parks over in kids campus shows how clueless they are.   Have a good day.

Haha, why? I park 20 feet from the lodge, walk right in to change, don't have to deal with the base area hassle, then I take one lift and get over to every other lift.

Nice attitude, though. You're a cool guy.

mattchuck2 wrote

I park 20 feet from the lodge.....

While this may be a wee bit of exaggeration , there have been occasions that we've arrived on the late side on a busy weekend and found it more convenient to park over at "Kid's Kampus" than to do the drop off and park in one of the upper lots, especially on days when we wouldn't be finishing the afternoon in the Cloudspin Lounge.  It is fairly convenient, and until recently we've always had someone in the extended family who would be over there, so it wasn't a bad spot to set up.  Not like it's that big of a convenience or a problem one way or another.  

What I don't get is why people park halfway up the road (or further) between the main lodge and Bear Den.  You are better off parking at Bear Den IMHO.  When I'm over there I don't even bother with the slow lift, just walk to the top of the Magic Carpet and then skate over.

Yeah, I don't get people that park all the way up that road, either,

I wonder where the cool guy, local parking spot is. You know, for people who "know the mountain".

I'd imagine the answer has much to do with, as I was always taught, arriving at the hill by 7:30 or so for an 8:30 opening.  This would put you comfortably in the River Lot, among the other usual advantages of an early start. Of course, life happens and wives and kids sometimes interfere with peace in the skiing universe!  When such things happen Bear Den is a viable option....

If I was going to show up on a Saturday at 9:30 and didn't have a locker on main side I would definately park at Bears Den aka kids Kampus

To me Sunday was better skiing with much lower crowds.  That fresh snow got groomed in nicely.

I don't mind teaching.  I had a really rewarding lesson where the this guys girl friend who loves to ski bought him a private with me and he had a break thru where he was having fun skiing for the first time.  The probem was I ended up teaching all day with no free skiing and that is not what I sign up for any more.  I work too hard in my real job for teaching to become a weekend job I don't enjoy.  5 lessons in one weekend is way too much.  One a day is perfect for me.  Unfortunately more staff keep quitting so fewer staff teach more lessons and they misguidely added a 3rd line up this year without hope of having enough staff to support that.

I actually prefer the first row of the lake placid lot.  I love the walk down the path in the morning and back up at night.  It's a nice relaxing stretch to start the day and then the climb up gets me that little extra burn on the legs.  On skin days I tend to park on the road next to the paid lot or the sixth spot in the first row of the river lot.  Spots 6-8 have wider banks so I can tuck my Tacoma back in there and not worry about getting clipped.  

I never go up to Bear's Den cause I generally like to have a few pops après in Mahogany Ridge.    (for those not in the know - Mahogany Ridge is the local term of endearment for the Cloudspin grill/bar or whatever it is now called since its no longer the lounge....)

Parked in the river lot at 12:15 today and headed right to Mac...probably better earlier...skied Essex. hard but edgeable(nice bumps)..Wilderness, only the top part off Mt run...then to the summit,  Lapped Sky for the rest of the day(puking the man made stuff with Ma Natch helping bigtime), alternating between lower and Victoria...I liked lower better because the guns at the bottom of Skyward were wet if you took the fork right.  It was naturally snowing moderately the whole time I was there and was getting "sort of freshies" at the end.  4-5"at the summit? and still snowing when I left

It was 34 and not precipitating at the bottom

snowing for days up here!

Headed to LP for a few days next week. Any chance lookout opens or have they decided to focus energy on the rest of the mountain?

Two things we won't see this season.

The Lake Placid toboggan chute, which won't be opening at all this winter......and, I fear, Lookout Mountain.  

I'm hoping that the inability to make snow early this year means there is still snowmaking budget money to be spent, and that they'll use it to blow after the traditional end of President's week stopping point.  I just can see them investing in putting that snow on Lookout at this point.  Hope I'm wrong, but reports don't indicate they've been blowing it.

I guess a third thing to add that we won't see......The Slides.  Hope I'm wrong.

Yeah - what happened with the toboggan chute? I just checked the north elba town website and it says it will not open in 2016. Serious bummer. My kids love that thing (and me too).