Whiteface March 30, '15

        Did I hear someone say "Whiteface equals Iceface"? Come to think of it, I've heard that phrase from several people in my territory—The Catskills. I didn't want to tell anyone this, but this was actually my first time actually skiing The Face. I have hiked in that region, and I have even gone downhill mountain biking there, but never skied it. People told me if I was going to drive 4 hours, I may as well go to Vermont rather than trying to ski on the giant eggshell—Iceface.

        Everyone talks about conditions. I don't like talking about conditions because it's usually splitting hairs. Everything around here is packed powder either in the form of groomers or bumps unless something special happens. It was difficult to find a time that fit both my schedule at college, my brothers schedule at school, and my dads work schedule. Monday was the only day we could pull it off. Rain was predicted for Monday. When we arrived in Lake Placid Sunday afternoon, it was 34 and sunny. When the Sunday skiers came back to town, I could see their goggle tans, and everyone was raving about the conditions. The slides were open too.  I became slightly depressed, because I figured I'd be skiing in the rain the following day.

        I woke up to an inch of snow on Monday. We were out the door as early as possible to maximize our day. There were flurries in the air which turned over to sleet on the way to the mountain. This is bad news because that usually means rain. As we arrived at the mountain, it turned back over to snow. We had the mountain to ourselves. No one was there. They probably all thought it would be raining. We got on the gondola and took the blue on the right.  It was just regular packed powder. Bored, I took another right on to a steeper black diamond, and found myself in 4 inches of fresh powder! Now I was having fun. This was not that lake effect stuff that disappears when you snease either. This was high quality champagne powder.  I quickly found myself at the bottom of the summit quad. I hopped on and found 6 inches at the top! You can guess how good my day was. It snowed most of the day. I guess this is what rain is at Whiteface. My brother and I spent most of the morning on the summit because it was so good. We were making fresh tracks down Skyward. That in and of it self says a lot. Skiers right had the best snow. There were fun features in the snow that allowed for a lot of air time bouncing from bump to bump. The trees on the right were nice to. They were thinned out enough that you could ski in and out of them, and there was several feet of new snow in places back there. We skied Skyward several times in a row. It was definitely the most fun skiing I've done—probably in my life.

       

        We took a short break for lunch, and headed back up. Someone on the gondola said they were closing the summit chair due to poor visibility, and strong winds. I've skied days at Plattekill that were way more intense weather wise that what I experienced that day, but whatever. Come to find out, by the time we got there it had stopped for the day. That was disappointing, because now I had to ski to the bottom for every run. We made the best of it, and looked for the best snow off the gondola area. The Cloud Splitter Glades were loaded with fresh snow, and plenty of fresh tracks. We skied the trees a lot. U empire and Mackenzie were soft and fresh too. As we dropped off the top area, most of our runs concluded with the park. I'm not much of a park rat, but I love catching air, and the jumps were prime. It's a blast hitting lines with 10-15 possibilities on the way down unlike parks in the Catskills where you're lucky to get three good ones. My style includes a little bit of everything, and that's what I got that day. Powder, groomers, trees, bumps, and the park—it was all good. With all that said, it was certainly not an "Iceface" experience. It was quite the opposite.

        I came assuming I would be skiing marginal conditions, and that I had missed the good ones, but I was wrong. I also came half hoping to ski the slides, but it didn't matter that they were closed, because there was so many other good places to ski. It was like stepping back into February. 21 degrees and snowing. I can say with confidence, it was my best day of skiing ever. I'm sure whiteface has icy days, but it looks to me like they get a lot of snow too. Being as young as I am, I hope to have many more like this.

       

Glad you had a great time, welcome to the forum.

Petronio

@petronio, thank you, it was a great time!

Not this year...  Another awesome report....

Skiray, what's "not this year"

Welcome

Happy to hear you enjoyed my home mt.  It's frequently winter even in spring up top.  I'm really looking forward to true spring skiing,

We usually don't use our full names as our screen names so I dub you Ethan the Great.  You should change to that.

Coach Z, thank you! I hope to return soon. Did you ski yesterday?  And yes, I will change my name to "Ethan the Great" maybe Ethan Snow. That's my Instagram username.

Ethan my man, welcome and thanks for the sweet report.

I dig your enthusiasm, it's oozing out everything you do.

Ethan Grant wrote

Skiray, what's "not this year"

I think he meant it is not "Iceface" this year.

Petronio

Sounds like a pretty good day.  You did not get over to Hoyts high or Wilmington trail?  Another mountain to explore next time you come up.  This time of the year there is no better mountain in the east.  Come back and bring your friends you hear.  

Unfortunately, that lift to the Wilmington trail was closed. I can't wait to go back.

Unfortunately, that lift was closed all day. I can't wait to go back. It does look like another good peak.