Whiteface Conditions (2017 - 2018)

Clearly someone decided that Whiteface had to be "high end" and intermediate friendly.  Whether that was Kellett, Pratt, Cuomo, or someone else, I have no idea.  I wouldn't mind either of these things if it didn't affect their existing product, but clearly it has and not in a good way and I'm pissed.

snoloco wrote

Clearly someone decided that Whiteface had to be "high end" and intermediate friendly.  Whether that was Kellett, Pratt, Cuomo, or someone else,... and I'm pissed.

You crack me up, bro.

I wouldn't describe WF as High end. The lodge feels a bit outdated to me, and now it's taking a very long time to make snow on key trails, and they are even completely ignoring what some would call important trails. There seems to be a lack of lifts running as well such as the LWF double.  I doubt the higher ups, are deciding weather or not to blow snow on Hoyts and Lookout Below. or weather or not to run the double.  Maybe they set a snowmaking budget, and that could have an impact.

If Whiteface can be high end and intermediate friendly without sacrificing the quality expert product that brought me there from 4 hours away, all the more to them.

I didn't say they were high end.  I said they were trying to be high end, but it's happening at the expense of what used to make them so great.

Harvey wrote

I would respectfully suggest that you may be jumping to a conclusion about Aaron Kellett.

Really, you respectfully suggest to this punk kid who knows shit and hasn't been around the block yet. He doesn't deserve any respect. He hopes that the WF Mt. Manager, who works his ass off, under very difficult circumstances this year, to put out the best product possible gets fired. That just really pisses me off.

Ethan I hope your mommy and daddy take away your snow gun so you can't play Mt. Manager in your yard anymore. Then you're fired from your pretend job or whatever the f**k you do, you're not worth paying attention to.

snoloco wrote

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.  

Boohoo....Mommy Whiteface isn't doing exactly what I want them to do even though I complain like a little bitch on here all the time. I need you to give me more money to go somewhere else. The guys on this forum tell me they admire my passion for skiing all the time so Whiteface should do what I want. BOOHOOHOO

My parents can't take any of my snowmaking equipment away from me because they didn't pay for any of it.

I think maybe I was quick to judge, and I appreciate Harvey for respectfully suggesting that I jumped to a conclusion about Kellett.

I love Whiteface. However, I have noticed that the quality product they got me hooked on a few years ago, they did not deliver nearly as well last year, and this year is looking similar.

You sure know a lot about me for just joining the forum today.  I hope your not another "Glade Runner" clone.

Hello Face For Me,

Don't bite the hand that feed's you.  Harv is way out of your league, you'd be barking up the wrong tree. Come on down to the "Crick" and we'll take you on a dendrologists' tour.

Just sayin'.

All The Best, Ski You on the Hill.

64ER

WFlongtimer is Glade Runner.

Yeah, Prolly

Ethan Snow wrote

My parents can't take any of my snowmaking equipment away from me because they didn't pay for any of it.

I think maybe I was quick to judge, and I appreciate Harvey for respectfully suggesting that I jumped to a conclusion about Kellett.

I love Whiteface. However, I have noticed that the quality product they got me hooked on a few years ago, they did not deliver nearly as well last year, and this year is looking similar.

You sure know a lot about me for just joining the forum today.

Welcome to the fourm WFLongTimer.

I see, you talk a bunch of BS then when you're called on it you want to try and turn things around and act like you want to take the high road. No thanks.

I've just been lurking, but what you wrote set me off and I had to have my say.

Am I allowed to be pissed? Because you certainly seem to be pissed too.

Also it's easy to type a few sentences and hit reply without really thinking about it. I could just delete the post, but that would be petty.  But, I will if you think it's for the better of all.

64ER wrote

Hello Face For Me,

Don't bite the hand that feed's you.  Harv is way out of your league, you'd be barking up the wrong tree. Come on down to the "Crick" and we'll take you on a dendrologists' tour.

Just sayin'.

All The Best, Ski You on the Hill.

64ER

FIFY ...

Face4Me wrote

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 (Snoloco) from being a complete ass?

snoloco wrote

WFlongtimer is Glade Runner.

Are you sure about that being Glade?
Sounds more like Noah John to me

At first I thought it was Glade, but this guy seems to know more about Whiteface than Glade, so you're probably right.  Glade would've just said "told you it was a shithole".

Lots of misunderstand here, I created some of it.

I was trying to lighten the mood when I took the fall for Face4me's comment. I knew he wasn't talking about me.  Thanks for the support 64er, I truly appreciate it, but it was not needed in this case.

Speculation about the new guy's identity is also inaccurate.

I understand why WFLT gave me shit for my mild response.  I don't know Aaron as well as he, but I know that Aaron loves Whiteface and cares deeply about the skiing experience for all levels of skiers.  Aaron is hard working, but at the same time, he's a good human who always seems to have time those he meets. He's a humble man and a pleasure to be around. He's also an astonishing ripper. I'll never forget seeing him huck the waterfall on Slide 1 without a blink.

I used to whine about things that bothered me at Gore. One day I walked into Mike Pratt's office and asked him why the hell he was doing this or that. Instead of telling me to STFU, he sat down with me and spent more than an hour explaining why certain things were the way they were. It opened my eyes.  From that day on, I decided that I wouldn't automatically assume that things that didn't meet my approval were the result of incompetence or malice.  Sure Mike and Bone and Aaron make mistakes. So do I, so do you. But to call for someone to be fired without really knowing the facts isn't right.

And yes I say this respectfully and sincerely.

Way to keep your cool, Harv. I don't blame WFLT for being offended. It sounds like he's got something to say and I'm interested in hearing it. We should all remember that we're talking about real people here and the NYS ski community is a small world really. It's not Reddit

I don’t know who NJ is but based on his long time defense of all things AK my best guess is he is one of his buds growing up.  Probably a fellow park rat like AK was himself 15 years ago.  

I don’t really think Aaron is calling the shots on the capex affecting decisions this year.  Its coming from Albany imo.  Clearly decisions have been made that anyone with AKs experience would not have made unless the money was not made available until too late.  And once the Gov gives it you have to spend it or lose it.  

Staffing also is an issue but the economy is strong and Orda frankly is a offers crappy pay with zero potential for benefits for like 98% of the staff.  Labor grades and pay are linked to what other state jobs pay like plow drivers on the Thruway.  None of that is AKs fault and is well above his pay grade to fix.

Given all that and the recent weather the skiing conditions are great and way better than Gore is skiing right now

I wasn't the one that advocated for firing Kellett.

Z said it well that the lodge construction mess and labor is issues is all on Albany.

The thing that is definitely on Kellett and anyone else in management is failure to clean up Hoyt's which they know darn well is many people's favorite trail (including mine).  No way they can say that they just COULDN'T finish it when they had since late summer basically up until Christmas to do it.  I would disagree with Harvey that he really cares about advanced skiers anymore since there are rocks poking through on two of the most important spring trails while they resurfaced Excelsior at least a dozen times.  If he personally cares about the experience for all ability levels then he's being told by Albany that advanced skiers be damned he has to make Whiteface more intermediate friendly at any and all costs.

I haven't been to Gore since the recent snow but I'm sure it's skiing much better than it was a week ago.  They have many glades back open and will open up the ski bowl including 46er this weekend.

It's Mr. Kellet or Aaron. You can have your opinion but don't be a dick. Who do you think you are? Have you ever paid for a pass?