Whiteface Conditions (2015 - 2016)

Harvey wrote

 


Jack the Ripper on Victoria

Just wait one cotton pickin second --- that is NOT Jack The Ripper

Especially at WF. How about Jack, a Ripper?

I never had the honor of meeting the real JTR.

Harvey wrote

Especially at WF. How about Jack, a Ripper?

I never had the honor of meeting the real JTR.

Just bustin

well the real JTR is just like his old man, one cool cat, and i know you've met him

I changed him to Ripper Jack to avoid any confusion with Jack TR himself

Still I say the best pic in the thread so far is Sylvie shooting the gap.

Mother Nature and the conditions are cooperating. Whiteface Mountain, in Wilmington, N.Y., is making snow, getting ready for the weekend.
 
Think Snow and Happy Holidays.
 
Photos can be found HERE. Photos courtesy, ORDA/Whiteface Lake Placid

Looks like they will have 48hrs of around the clock temps starting on friday..
followed by a ugly Xmas eve

Txt from Suds:

"Kudos to the WF crew... full on recovery... Essex has awesome bumps.  They are blowing wet but this fatboy can deal.  Nice lunch break."

They had Essex open and Excelsior to Lift G and you had to download on the Gondi.  Guns full blaze from mid lodge up, nothing going on lower mountain.  Coverage when I got there was fantastic at 11:30.  Essex for bumps and Excelsior for cruzin'  I would say Excelsior was the better if you weren't worried about wet slabs....once I got the mapping on Excelsior that became my choice.  Really wet gun at the top of Upper Valley dropped more than a few (and it was empty)  Crazy looking weather day

I know it's just a function of limited frame and the location and angle of the shots......but it's nice to see some pictures that look like winter.  All the pictures lately of the pathetic state of affairs (Gore, Huntah) are really getting depressing.

Not that I ever ski before January, but the lack of snow has me worried for what kind of conditions will be available even by MLK.  Without any December man made base we are REALLY going to need some storms.

the WROD's are more like WTOD now with the T for threads

NYSEF has pulled the plug on training for Saturday with Sunday TBD

JTG4eva! wrote

I know it's just a function of limited frame and the location and angle of the shots......but it's nice to see some pictures that look like winter.  All the pictures lately of the pathetic state of affairs (Gore, Huntah) are really getting depressing.

Not that I ever ski before January, but the lack of snow has me worried for what kind of conditions will be available even by MLK.  Without any December man made base we are REALLY going to need some storms.

Agreed - pretty much have come to grips with fact I'm cancelling my post Xmas trip - can't remember last time I wasn't in LP around that time.  Usually have a few days in already which hasn't occurred either.

Shopping for flights to Seattle for new years - wish I had money tree.  Sh*t.

Just got a notice of an industry training course I can sell my CFO on that will be held in Shoreline, WA in Feb.  Less than a couple hours from both Stevens and Baker.  My company (HQ in Canada) is having an event in late April (hockey event, eh?) in Banff.   Might look into a work trip then.  I could go for some Delerium Dive.  If things don't change this might be a good year for work sponsored "western" skiing!

JTG4eva! wrote

Just got a notice of an industry training course I can sell my CFO on that will be held in Shoreline, WA in Feb.  Less than a couple hours from both Stevens and Baker.  My company (HQ in Canada) is having an event in late April (hockey event, eh?) in Banff.   Might look into a work trip then.  I could go for some Delerium Dive.  If things don't change this might be a good year for work sponsored "western" skiing!

^ I'm hoping for some work sponsored trips as well....made it very clear to my team that I'm the go to guy for all trips to cold\snowy (miserable in their eyes) locations!

Much better than I expected today at WF

Really nice up high.  Ok in the middle. Meh at the bottom.  Blowing at Max to expand terrian for Xmas.

Fantastic recovery from the thaw thanks to some help from Ma Natch and a lot of hard work by the snowmaking crew.

Pulling in and seeing the Face in all her White glory is always a treat, but in a year where she's been brown and grey a lot more than white, today was just great:



Guns were going hard.  Like Coach said, best snow was above the mid-mountain lodge.  Below, the guns were blowing heavy wet base, undoubtedly meant to withstand the coming Christmas thaw.  Best line was Essex for black diamond bumps and nice, edgeable man-a-made to Northway, but Excelsior skied nicely as well.  Nice and soft down Upper Valley too.  Vic was closed, but guns were blasting it.  Would have been a nice poach I'm sure.  

Daniel logging some air time on Essex:


Beth (my wife) chatted with Aaron for a few minutes in the J.Lohr while the kids and I got in one last run with some friends.  Aaron showed her a pic on his cell phone from Friday, you wouldn't believe it was the same mountain with brown mud all over the base area.  48 hours later that thaw is just a memory.

Man it gets dark quick this time of year:

Keep those pictures fresh in your mind because all the natural snow is gone.  I had today tabbed as a little work lot of ski day but when I woke up i rolled back over.  Fast forward...I got to WF just before 2 and needed the lady in the parking lot to convince me to ski.  Whiteface is in great shape considering.  I went back and forth between Essex and Victoria until they kicked me out.  Wet? Yes   Worth it...definitely  My best day of the year so far.  Sorry to say WF is kicking Gore's butt right now.  And despite the rain it didn't seem like they were losing a lot of snow.

I know it's sort of a crapshoot at this point, but judging by what you saw re base depths today, do you think they're going to have to spend whatever snowmaking window they have late this weekend into next week re-surfacing or are they going to be able to try expand onto some new terrain for the back half of the holiday week? Heading up 12/29-1/1(Liftopia's already purchased and it's going to be lousy everywhere so might as well go and enjoy it) and hoping to get some turns on Mountain Run in at some point.

I'm sure quite a bit of it will depend on if they can get any snow from one of the systems floating around on the models next week, but any insight you may have would be super appreciated.

skisheep wrote

12/29-1/1

I'm sure quite a bit of it will depend on if they can get any snow from one of the systems floating around on the models next week, but any insight you may have would be super appreciated.

I'm also watching this closely - canned my plans for coming up day after xmas - hoping to make a last minute call early next week for new years weekend...as of right now weather is looking OK (return to semi normal temps although still warm) hopefully it goes toward the snow side of the forecast.....

I skied it last Wednesday and the trails that were open had more snow yesterday than last week, plus they opened Victoria again with really nice snow...really no barespots to speak of.  A few spots on Upper Valley had some loose rocks and chocolate snow but coverage was good and the rain didn't do much damage as I was there until close. I'd say with the weather forecasted for tomorrow they are going to have to shore up what is currently open before they move on.  All depends on how much snow they can make in marginal snowmaking conditions.  We need to ask Santa for a weather pattern change

I wish I could tell you conditions are great

What I can say is everyone at WF is doing thier damnest to make sure the guests are having a good time.  I taught a lady from Mexico yesterday for her first day ever on skis or snow for that matter and she had a blast and left smiling.  

One of the funniest things I've heard teaching was when she asked if it was ok to eat some of the very dirty snow.  I advised her to wait a couple of days for fresh snow to fall.  Let's hope that is tonight.