Whiteface, NY: 4/9/11 (The Slides)

Ski Day 34: Signs looked good when we got to the mountain this morning...



Corn was on the grill from the beginning, and Riverc0il was rippin it...







We explored Little Whiteface...



...and Lookout Mountain...


Wilmington Trail

But our objective was the Slides and by 10:30 we started to lap the Summit chair...


The Slides

The Slides opened around 11 and they were in prime shape...


Slide One




Riverc0il on Slide 2





In the early afternoon, Riverc0il and I connected with Highpeaksdrifter at the Slides access point and headed to Slide 4...


Highpeaksdrifter dropping in to Slide 4






Bottom of Slide 4

The slides closed around 1:30, so we went into the trees...





A big day at New York's biggest mountain.

Waiting . . . (Gore was sweet today)

I am beat. Couldn't have picked a better day for my first visit to Whiteface (heck, for my first time skiing in NY). Killer day. Great to finally meet and ski with you, HPD! Slides were excellent. Full reportage:

OMG Gore was great today but I am headed to WF tomorrow...if the slides don't open by noon I'll be back at Gore for the PM
People that were there today...What are my odds?  

This is a tough call. Today they opened at 11 and it was sunny and warm.

Look even if they don't open Suds, you'd rock the corn on Skyward.

Somebody has to post up Gore today!

Gore was sweet.  Trees were good, bumps were soft, beers were cold.  Okay, now let's see more pics from the slides!!

Nice pics, and report, Harv . . . Looks like you hit it in pretty much the same conditions I hit it last year (In early march!).  I think 4 is my least favorite slide.  Starts off so great, but narrows up so much, that it feels like a slog to get out. I think I like 3 the best - starts off narrow, but then widens up and intersects with 2.  

Nice job.

riverc0il wrote

Couldn't have picked a better day for my first visit to Whiteface (heck, for my first time skiing in NY).

Looking forward to riverc0il's full, no-holds-barred opinion on Whiteface.

Those are some tasty shots. It is cloudy in NJ today. I am looking forward to today's reports.

Looks great, skiing's faithful sure did get rewarded by being able to ski the slides, Park&Pow and myself might have to drive North another 125 miles.

on sunday the slides opened at 10:20 which is a record early opening in my memory.  It did not refreeze over night so it was pretty soft almost too soft in some spots.

I first headed on my preferred route of 2 and then thru the woods and over to 3.  it was amazing how much snow was lost over night.  the rocks that we non existant on saturday were popping out all over the place on 3 today

did 3 more runs with the highlight being 1.  Its technically closed with a rope above the waterfalls but i checked with patrol and the rope was just to stop some folks in the falls over their heads and getting hurt. The ice on the waterfalls was so soft today you could carve right down the big drops where ever you wanted to - it was sweeeeet!

one note is that there were some not so nice folks that decided that they would walk up the access path in ski boots instead of side stepping like everyone else.  I commented to them that this is not acceptable.  It erodes the path and makes it narrower and harder for everyone else.  I confirmed with Patrol that this is frowned upon.  The side stepping is a safety mechanism to make sure that you have the skills to ski down the slides.  So if you come ski the slides please follow the etiquette and don't be a jerk if someone calls you on it - keep your skis on and side step up just like everyone else.  It your quads can't hack it that is your problem not ours.

riverc0il wrote

I am beat. Couldn't have picked a better day for my first visit to Whiteface (heck, for my first time skiing in NY). Killer day. Great to finally meet and ski with you, HPD! Slides were excellent.

Great to meet you too. I had a really good afternoon skiing with you and Harv. I got into the positive vibe you two were giving off about your first time in the Slides and some of the other places I pointed you to.

BTW Harv...can you post the pick of the 3 of us at the G Spot or email it to me. I want to see how it came out.

Good stuff!  You beat me to the slides Harv!  It'll have to wait till next year for me...

Went to Whiteface on Saturday and I have a few comments.  Second time there and the slides are fantistic. But...

My first trip out at just before 11 was  to 4. There were 40 to 50  people  CRAWLING to get there. OK  I can wait.
Get to the top of the 4  and the same 40-50 people were  SURVIVAL  CRAWLING DOWN, not 1 person had the skills to actually SKI DOWN.  While it is a narrow trail towards the bottom, there is enough space for a skilled skier to make it post the people WHO COULD NOT SKI  IT DOWN.  Now this is to the ahole  who screamed at me and my 5 friends  SKIING WITH LINKED TURNS PAST HER. She told me to slow down and screamed that I could not ski that fast on this trail. I CURSED HER OUT USING THE F BOMB  TO IS MAX EFFECT. I told her to get the F off the trail she had no business being there.  I realize that everyone has the RIGHT  to go there but you also need the SKILLS!!!
At the bottom of slide out I was fuming that there were that many unqualified skiers there and a female patrol overheard me.  I asked why there was no patrolman at the top to limit, at least the quanity  of people, if not the quality. she said ther usually is. To top it off the slides closed at 1:10 beacuse someone got hurt skiing an area over there   head. Will neve go on a Saturday ever again.

HPD ... as requested...



I must say that Highpeaksdrifter takes the concept of "Mountain Host" to another level.  

Thanks HPD for all your time and energy on Saturday. It was a great great ski day.

I needed the picture before I went...never met up with any HR'ers yesterday but I didn't need an escort, I was only concerned with the slides and Mackenzie...but would have loved to share the chair with HPD for a run or two. # 4 definitely needs quality control or a traffic cop at the bottom...It can take a little bit getting around people that shouldn't be there...probably knocked a run or two off the afternoon  But all in all Sunday was the best day at WF that I can remember!

Harvey44 wrote

HPD ... as requested...

Thanks HPD for all your time and energy on Saturday. It was a great great ski day.

That pic came out good...thanks Harv. I had a blast skiing with you guys...hope to do it again next season.

desovitch wrote

Went to Whiteface on Saturday and I have a few comments.  Second time there and the slides are fantistic. But...

My first trip out at just before 11 was  to 4. There were 40 to 50  people  CRAWLING to get there. OK  I can wait.
Get to the top of the 4  and the same 40-50 people were  SURVIVAL  CRAWLING DOWN, not 1 person had the skills to actually SKI DOWN.  While it is a narrow trail towards the bottom, there is enough space for a skilled skier to make it post the people WHO COULD NOT SKI  IT DOWN.  Now this is to the ahole  who screamed at me and my 5 friends  SKIING WITH LINKED TURNS PAST HER. She told me to slow down and screamed that I could not ski that fast on this trail. I CURSED HER OUT USING THE F BOMB  TO IS MAX EFFECT. I told her to get the F off the trail she had no business being there.  I realize that everyone has the RIGHT  to go there but you also need the SKILLS!!!
At the bottom of slide out I was fuming that there were that many unqualified skiers there and a female patrol overheard me.  I asked why there was no patrolman at the top to limit, at least the quanity  of people, if not the quality. she said ther usually is. To top it off the slides closed at 1:10 beacuse someone got hurt skiing an area over there   head. Will neve go on a Saturday ever again.

Wow, sorry to hear you and Sudsnbumps had a problem with 4 being too crowded. Friday it was just my friend and me on 4 and Sat. when I skied it with Harv and Rivercoil I think there were only a couple of others on it. I didn't do 4 Sunday.

It's been my experience that most people who don't know their way around or don't really have the skill set to ski down them as opposed to get down them, usually turn down 1 or 2 then call it a day. I'm really surprised 4 was crowded with unqualified skiers because even the traverse out to it can be a little intimidating for them.

Also the woman who yelled at you was probably just scared cause she knew she was in way over her head. Maybe if you had stopped and asked her if there was anything you could do to help her it would have made you both feel better about the run. IMO sometimes you have to put yourself in the other persons boots before you start dropping F bombs.

sudsnbumps wrote

but would have loved to share the chair with HPD for a run or two.

Anytime...just give me a heads up here to let me know you're coming.

Well, I think this was the best slides weekend I've had to date (my third). Two bluebird days with great friends! Wasn't sure if my injury was going to allow me to enjoy it to the fullest, but my legs really held tough. I surprised myself with 6 slide runs.

The first slide we did on Saturday was slide 4, and we also encountered some major congestion. It is narrow, so it is difficult to pass a group. There was a family in front of me, with kids of all ages having all kinds of problems. Mom too. I eventually got around them, but then they were on my heels each time I had to stop to pick my next turns. There was also a snowboarder behind me who wanted to pass. I think you just have to take your time and wait for everyone to get through. There just isn't enough room in there towards the bottom. This was a bit unnerving and kept me away from 4 the rest of the weekend.

Patrol was not limiting the number or assessing the ability of entrants to the slides on Saturday, but I think after a number of incidents and accidents they finally put someone on guard on Sunday. I really think this is a good idea. I was almost taken out by a guy at in slide 2 as he double ejected from his circa 1990 197cm Salomon Equipes. C'mon...you may have been a great skier in 1990, but if you haven't skied since then, or upgraded your equipment, you probably don't belong in the slides....and if you really do have the ability, then get your bindings checked...and probably your ski shop will tell you those bindings are no good anymore anyway, so you still have no business there with that gear!

It seems that every year we see people there who shouldn't be. And you'd think patrol would be tired of hauling these gapers out of there on sleds and would be making sure everyone had appropriate gear. Last year we came upon a drunk 20 yr old trying to follow his friends down slide 3. At the entrance, his 10 year old skis pre-released as he slide through the narrow entrance...the ones his parents got him when he was 12 and about 50 lbs ago. I think this is something patrol could have easily caught at the gate.

Sunday afternoon the slides were much more enjoyable because there weren't as many people.

My favorite was 3, but 1 and 2 were nice as well but required a little more picking around rocks and such.

We had a great group of people. We skied with 4-8 people all weekend. My friend who is a brand new skier (started at Hickory's Telefest), had her 7th and 8th day on skis (telemark skis no less) at Whiteface and really had a great weekend.

AC barely made it through Saturday morning. He may have a hairline fracture in his ankle from going big in BC...wasn't cuttin it in slide 4 and he called it a season. For the first time all season I outskied Rochester Mark and EDeO! For the last couple of runs, the boys wanted to go back in the slides. Carolyn and I wanted to enjoy some of the wide open spaces and took a runs on Skyward and then rode Lookout and had a stellar run on Lookout Below. Wow, that run has such perfect bumps, soft and explosive. For me, that was The Run of The Day. When it's so soft like that, the steeper the better.

DJ and Carolyn live up there and are passholders at Whiteface. They said that this was the best skiing at Whiteface all season. It is usually a harsh mountain. The great skiing is fleeting, as the weather whips the snow off and changes the surface conditions quickly in the winter. They say that there is always better snow in the backcountry, and it is worth it to earn turns during the winter. But this weekend was different. The mountain was soft and friendly. Everyone you saw getting off the lift had a big smile on their face. No one was cold. The warmth was abundant and infectious. If that was the last weekend of skiing for me, it was a great way to end the season. But I am not putting the skis away just yet. Hoping to get in one more weekend before the lifts stop spinning.