Whiteface Conditions (2017 - 2018)

Maybe take it up with the govinator.
Skiing is awesome, Whiteface is fun. A bit more fun with Hoyts but hey who here isn't living the dream?

That would be unfortunate.  However, as someone who’s had to deliver his fair share of WF mea culpas, I’m not sure how upset I’m going to get about third hand info through Sno.....

It sounds like this guy is bullshitting you. They blew snow on Hoyts last year, and it didn't seem like there was a lot of brush up there.  7' brush does not grow in 1 year. Also, I don't think they can mow Hoyts with a conventional mower. I'm pretty sure it requires a crew of guys with weed eaters with brush cutters on the end. Same for Skyward.

Does it look like there's 7' brush to you?

Knowing that they were never planning on opening LBO, and Hoyts (assuming that's the case) I think it was a complete waste of time to open Wilmington. It's a long intermeduate run that is still going to force people to the base area. I also think the Lookout chair will be way under utilized. Now they're paying lifts and running a lift for one trail that won't get much traffic anyway. That snow would have been better utilized on Cloudspin, or Lower Sky, or building base on any trails for that matter.

Lets hope this snowmaker is just a crackpot. I've met some very strange people in Wilmington and that area. The people in the North Creek area are a lot more personable.

Agree if no LO Below or Hoyt’s then don’t bother Wilmington trail.    Love to see cloudspin or lower sky to your point.  

IMO Kellett takes the full blame for allowing this.  It would literally take one or two days with a crew of guys with brush cutters to get it done and it could've been done any time during the early season by snowmakers on days it was too warm to make snow.  The brush looks really high but I can't tell for sure having not ridden the chair yet.

I actually want them to open Wilmington regardless of the other two and this may sound weird but I like to be able to ride every lift and have every section of the mountain open, even if it's at the expense of better terrain elsewhere.  And it will lessen the shitshownessness of Excelsior and Parons somewhat.

I also see this as a major f*** you to advanced skiers as Hoyt's and Lookout Below are the best (and often only) bump runs on the mountain.  Advanced skiers used to be WF's core market but now it's rich intermediates just like at Stratton.  Very disappointing.

Skyward was really nice today.  Gondi line was slow becuase it was windy and it was stopping and starting.  

I hope Sno heard a BS story.  If it’s true it’s an unforgivable error of bad judgement to prioritize building a bar that is facing the wrong direction over the real product.  The skiing is the product the rest is just packaging.

I think he’s right, I heard ORDA snowmaking is done this week. The rest of the season is up to mother Natch.

ORDA snowmaking always goes to Presidents Weekend.  I was told they'd go to Lower Sky after Wilmington.  I like having Lower Sky open because the thing that makes me stop skiing Skyward on a given day usually has nothing to do with Skyward itself.  It's always Victoria that's a mess with gapers from Excelsior going onto Connector to try and find an easier trail and then power wedging it and scraping all the snow off.  Nice to be able to ski Skyward without that, but they should be getting Hoyt's open if the brush isn't actually 7 feet tall since they're already on Lookout.  Lookout Below I can live without because they can't groom it it's done till spring if it gets above freezing even once.  I'd like to see the entrance to Connector off Excelsior closed on weekends so the only way onto Victoria is to come off of a summit trail and keep the masses on Excelsior where they belong.

I've been skiing On presidents week multiple times and the ORDA resorts are usually still blowing snow as long as the weather is good. If WF shuts down for good this week, that will be all the more reason why they are incompetent.

There's done and then there's done.  Two years ago they made snow in March.  'Member?

Hello PeeTex!

Looks like Wilmington opened today.

LOOKOUT IS OPEN SNO

Wilmington Historical Society to Present “Whiteface Ski History” Slide Show

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- The Wilmington Historical Society will present “Whiteface Ski History” at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum, located in the Olympic Center, on Thursday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. The free presentation will include an overview of Wilmington’s Whiteface Mountain ski area history from the 1940’s to the 1980 Olympics.

The slide show will explore the ski area’s original site at Marble Mountain, in 1948, and how Whiteface Ski Center became a much larger ski facility when it moved to its current site in 1958.

Presenters, Karen Peters, President of the Wilmington Historical Society, and former trustee, Guy Stephenson will discuss how early development planners, local skiers, and celebrities grew the region’s ski industry into an economic driver.  Focus will be on ski history starting in the 1940’s and how the culmination of so many individual’s efforts in the decades following resulted in a successful Winter Olympics alpine venue.  The presentation will show how Whiteface Mountain has emerged as a world-class host and remains a valuable asset of New York State.

The program is free and open to the public.  Refreshments will be provided by the Country Bear in Wilmington and beverages will be available.  Those that attend will have an opportunity that evening to view the Lake Placid Olympic Museum’s new exhibit, Name Game: A History of Whiteface.

The Lake Placid Olympic Museum is located at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y.  For more information, please call the Wilmington Historical Society at 518-420-8370 or the museum at 518-302-5326 about the event.

They started making snow on Lower Sky which means they moved the operation completely off Lookout so Hoyt's and Lookout Below are a lost cause.  I'm now declaring this season a total disaster and no amount of natural snow or even Slides days is going to change that.  They don't care about advanced skiers anymore.  This also shows by the fact that the summit is very thin with rocks sticking out and won't make it past the first weekend of April.  Same thing with top of Mountain Run.  I guess we'll be skiing lots of spring laps on Excelsior.

And my guess is that they shut down W Trail within two weeks of Presidents Weekend so all that snow will go to waste.  Just going to melt away for weeks when it could have been skied.

Whiteface has lost what made them special and is now a steeper version of Stratton.  Very sad.  

I agree. Aaron Kellet is running the place into the ground. I Hope ORDA fires him and gets someone competent in there. I won't be doing any more 4 hour drives to WF when there's plenty of other awesome mountains in 4 hours from me.

I would respectfully suggest that you may be jumping to a conclusion about Aaron Kellett.  It's really hard from the outside to know what is going on in any organization, and what forces are at work, especially when the organization is part of government.  Look at the improvements made at Whiteface, Gore and Belle this year. Did Aaron, Bone and Tommy drive those decisions?

I love the new lodges at Gore, but I'd trade it all for more pumping capacity. Then again, I am obsessed with skiing. My wife and daughter dig the lodges.

I think Kellett takes some of the blame for this but most of it is someone higher up pulling the strings.  If he went against that I guarantee they'd show him the door and replace him with someone who cared even less about the skiing.

Harvey wrote

It's really hard from the outside to know what is going on in any organization, and what forces are at work, especially when the organization is part of government.

Sure, but why should that stop you from being a complete ass?

Face4Me wrote

Sure, but why should that stop you from being a complete ass?

Believe me it doesn't stop me!