Whiteface Conditions (2016 - 2017)

sounds cold

Sounds like it is a good day to run Essex to Victoria....again and again and again.

I noticed that the guns on upper parkway and upper thruway are off.

Are they being moved?

are they being loaded on the Summit Quad

Sno, find out for us.

Guns on the race trails are off, but not moved yet.  They sent a groomer up there to prep the course for Saturday.

Boreen is getting hit hard with snowmaking, but nothing on Easy Way.  Also, that last part of Boreen isn't being blown, so you'll have to ski in and out of Kids Kampus when it opens.

Earlier this morning they were running the guns the full length of the race trail.

They desperately need to open Approach, and I'm pissed that they're not prioritizing it more.  Snow looks good on Mt Run, but they're not running the chair, and you can't get to it from the gondola till that vital connection opens.  If it's not the next trail to be blown, I may submit a complaint to management about it.  Mt Run has been skiable for what 5 days, and I haven't been able to ski it once because they won't run LWF, or cover Approach to reach it from the gondola.

Wonder if they're saving it for the Christmas crowds ?

There is 6 inches of new, you are out skiing and you are pissed?

A complaint to management?

Geez dude, you could be at Mountain Creek right now doing laps on the Great Northern with the other 2 million Joey's.

#seriousfirstworldmillennialproblems

I was responding to Grillman's post asking about the snowmaking.

They got snow last night, but did not get 6 inches.  Essex and Lower Northway are windswept tilted hockey rinks, but Excelsior and Victoria are in good shape.  Lower Mountain is also skiing well.  You can really rip when there's no one here as it's midweek.

Will be back tomorrow.  If anyone from WF is reading this, please open Mountain Run.

Sno....before you complain to management maybe you should check in with Patrol.  Especially as you will now be there a lot, it makes sense for you to make some of those connections.  You'll see them around the mountain, it will help to get a little familiar.  Generally you will find nice and helpful people.  Of course that won't be the case if you go in with the wrong attitude.  Go in.  Be nice, not spoiled/entitled/demanding.  Introduce yourself.  Tell them how great the mountain is skiing.  Observe that Mt. Run looks great from below and ask about access, what's up with LWF and whether you can access Mt. Run while LWF is down.  After that you may understand things better, or you may come away needing to bitch to management.  Either way you'll be more knowledgeable/better prepared.

That said, a couple of days of Mt. Run being listed as open with no way of accessing it seems a bit wrong.

Snowmaking update as of close today.

All the guns were taken off Mountain Run, Thruway, Draper's, Calamity Lane, and the very top of Upper Parkway.  They were grooming Thruway-Draper's, and it could be open tomorrow, unless they're running race training on it.  They may groom Mountain Run also.  I'm actually hoping that they have race training tomorrow because then I can get to Mt. Run from Freeway.

Snowmaking was going all day on Boreen, and they lit up Brookside towards the end.  Not sure where the rest of the ground guns from the Mt. Run area went.  Hopefully some will go to Approach and the Summit.  Both should be low hanging fruit because those trails are at an elevation where they're already skiable to poachers on natural snow.  Only a little snowmaking will be able to open them officially.

Race chair will spin today with access to Mt Run, Thruway and Draper's!!

Very COLD!! today.

 Enjoy, assuming you are skiing today.  -9 at the base this morning, -16 mid.  Punch your man card in that shit.  Be careful out there, it truly can be dangerous.  Cover up and have fun!

And I was wrong.

Freeway lift broken.  No one at LWF or Mt. Run to get one of those going instead.

I try not to bitch and complain too much, but this is getting really fucking annoying.  If management plans on the gondola being the only functioning lift on Little Whiteface, they had better make sure that all the terrain is accessible from it.  Mt Run has been reported open since Sunday, but I'm not sure if it's been skied since then.  Thruway-Draper's is fully groomed and looks great.  Would've been a good chance to ski it before racing got into full swing, but there's no way to get to it.

I'm a big fan of Whiteface, but they f---ed up big time by not blowing Approach.  They need to get on there ASAP.

bro, it dangerously cold out there.  be happy you can keep from getting frostbite riding in the warm comfortably gondee!  

Good point.  Interesting how the gondola is up and running, while the more "weatherproof" double chairs are broken.  Been lapping the gondola all morning.  Makes the temps somewhat bearable.

sometimes things work out in the best interest of the participants....  

And it did...

Race Chair was fixed and opened around 12.  That gained access to Upper Thruway, Draper's, Mountain Run, and Calamity Lane.  Draper's was closed for race training until 1:45.

Mountain Run was edgeable, but had this weird breakable crust that felt like it wanted to eat your skis.  This was caused by when they blew man made snow on top of the natural that was already there.  It got somewhat better as more people skied it.  This was particularly awful on the lower part, and the one time I attempted it, I sidestepped up and bailed out to Thruway.

Thruway was in similar condition, but less crusty because they blew more snow on it.  When Draper's was closed for racing, you had to take Calamity Lane and ski down Tower 10 hill to get back to the chair.  I took 3 laps on Mt. Run-Thruway.  Nice change of pace over groomers, even though it wasn't in optimal condition.  Mountain Run, especially the part after Thruway branches off absolutely needs to be groomed ASAP, but Thruway can probably stay ungroomed for a couple days and be fun that way.

As soon as the racers packed up the gates, patrol immediately opened Draper's to the public.  Wasn't expecting this as Hunter and Mountain Creek rarely if ever open their race trails after the training or race is finished.  That run was my pick of the day.  If you avoided the 2 ruts where the race courses were, it was skiing as if it were first thing in the morning.  Trail is very wide open, but still has a really nice character, and also has great views of the valley.  Had it all to myself every time I skied it.  I took 5-6 laps, because I wasn't sure how often I'd be able to ski it once racing is in full swing.

They also opened Boreen and Bobcat (formerly Silver) under the guns, as well as that cutoff at the end of Excelsior that lets you avoid the Facelift unloading area bottleneck.

Snow Tribe was at work on Boreen, Danny's and Ladies' Bridge, as well as Brookside.  Report at the end of the day showed blowing on Easy Way, but I didn't see any guns there, although they could've turned them on after I got to the lodge.  They were obviously prioritizing the lower mountain, partly for the safety of the snowmakers to not have them go up to high elevation in the extreme temps last night.  Talked to a patroller and he said that Paron's/Follie's and Approach are getting hit in the window early next week.

Unfortunately this was my last day at Whiteface for a while, as I will be going back downstate for winter break.  I have to say that this was probably the best early season run I can remember.  I don't recall a single day at WF ever skiing boilerplate, which is usually commonplace early season, even at Hunter with their immense snowmaking capacity allowing them to resurface constantly.  Despite their snowmaking capacity being reduced due to low river levels, they still covered a lot of terrain in the first 4 weeks, and had great conditions every day I was there.  Look forward to being back January 11th, just before MLK Weekend.

You're one comprehensive conditions reporter Sno. Very insightful. Well done.

Looks like Face will have excellent conditions reports here this season.

Just opened a bunch of trails on the report today, including Approach and Lower Mac.

NWS forecast for top of LWF shows r*in tonight that changes to snow.  At that elevation, everything for the next week looks good for snowmaking.

They prioritized the lower mtn during this past window, and now that can focus on upper terrain when temps aren't as favorable down low.  The r*in event will also raise the river level, which means they can really go all out with snowmaking next week.

Got three to four last night in Placid.  Guessing the mountain made out ok.   The powder Saturday was much more than I expected.  It was from all week and it never set up so when we got the 4 on Saturday on top of the 10 that fell during the week it was a powder day.   Everything could have been skied and pretty much was but there were a lot of ropes up.  Keeps things fresh.  

Does anyone know if the shuttle bus between Lake Placid and Whiteface is up and running for the season (and if so, where to get the schedule/info)?  The links on the Whiteface website and various other sites seem to be dead or outdated.