TR Whiteface 3/4-3/5/2012

[guitar73]

we skied two days at whiteface with a group of people from www.theskidiva.com. mrs. guitar posts there regularly. it was their eastern get-together and we were able to get a good discount on the lift tickets. overall we had a great time. here are some of the highlights.

 

 

day 1 - sunday

 

we had a quick breakfast at the inn b/c we thought we were running late. we got to the lodge and it turned out we were one of the first people there from our group. we ran into a couple of peeps and then headed out around 9:30AM.

 

conditions were 4" fluffy and fast snow on a layer of crunchy ice with poor light. temps were in the 20's. it kept snowing just about all day. did a warmup lap of the facelift lift, and then hit up the gondola and summit areas. it was getting pretty warm, so we dropped a layer before lunch. favorite runs of the day were upper skyward and wilderness. stopped at mid-mountain for beers before we left the slopes for the day.

 

apres back at the inn included a bangin' cheese platter with red wine. after a nice long shower, we met up with peeps at the place called the cottage; a tiny establishment located on mirror lake. good beers and food had by all.

 

 

day 2 - monday

 

the morning was a little less rushed since we already had our lift tix and meeting points/times established. had a full irish breakfast (eggs w/ bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, and baked tomato).

 

snow conditions in the morning were pretty good. bluebird day with freshly groomed packed-powder on hard pack. temps started below zero and it got into the low 20's by lunchtime. got to the hill around 8:45ish and met up with peeps around 9:20. we did another warmup on the facelift. we signed up for the 10AM group lessons, so we split off from the group for the morning and met up with them for lunch. best runs of the morning included upper skyward, cloudspin, and upper mackenzie. after lunch, however, the snow got really, really, really hard and icy. iceface decided to rear it's ugly head. best runs of the afternoon were had on the lower portion of the mtn (boreen and silver).

 

 

lodging

 

we stayed at the stagecoach inn, which is located on the south side of lake placid (near the US Olympic team training facility). the building dates to the 1820's and is set back off the main road. everything at the inn is very charming and the rooms are quite comfortable. food there is top notch. we highly recommend the stagecoach inn.

 

 

overall

 

we had a great time at whiteface; meeting new people, skiing a new mountain, and chilling out. my take on the mtn is that it is very tall, but i was suprised at how small it skis (wrt trail options); kinda felt like a small local's mountain to me. the base lodge is kind of run-down and dated. best time to ski there seems to be in the morning. if i go back to whiteface again, i think it would be sometime in the late spring so that there's minimal chance of skiing on ice.

Edited March 7, 2012 by guitar73

[mbike-ski]

nice report. interestinging take on the skiing small - i guess it could depending on the lifts you were running. if you do a t2b run (always a must do!) theres certaily nothing small about it. did you ski lookout mountain at all? i'm probably gonna head up in a week or two

 

probably the only first time report ive seen that doesn't mention the views of the daks! any pics?

Edited March 7, 2012 by mbike-ski

[RidgeRacer]

Spring is definitely best up there. Did you even touch lookout mt?

[guitar73]

we def did at least one t2b run each day; very long..lol. we did get to lookout mtn on day two: only the wilmington trail was open. hoytt's high has barely any snow on it and lookout below was just an unsafe icy mess. we were kinda mad we didn't hit wilmington in the morning b/c other peeps from our group said it skiied awesome then (the bottom windy part was just a sheet of ice by 1PM).

 

i hardly had anytime to take much in the way of pictures b/c the group was skiing pretty quickly. kinda bummed about it. visibility on day 1 was poor b/c it was snowing all day. day 2 was a different story. the views were tremendous: i could even see mt mansfield from the summit.

 

i guess why whiteface feels small to me has more about how the terrain naturally funnels everything down to one spot, the size of the facilities, and the lack of trail options rather than the amount of vertical drop. i realize that whiteface mtn is HUGE mountain. it would have been cool to try the slides, but they were closed and every day that they have been open this season, the resort requires avy gear to ski in them.

Edited March 7, 2012 by guitar73

[RidgeRacer]

You can see Mansfield clearly from WF. But yes we know. Stowe, Blue and JH are the greatest mountains in the history of the whole world.

[FK.]

You can see Mansfield clearly from WF. But yes we know. Stowe, Blue and JH are the greatest mountains in the history of the whole world.

 

Im glad I wasnt the only one thinking that as I read GSS's posts haha

[toast21602]

Im glad I wasnt the only one thinking that as I read GSS's posts haha

 

you actually read them?

[trackbiker]

I skied Iceface on 2/4 and while the conditions were good in the morning with 2" of fresh snow on a hardpack base the new snow was skied off by lunch and I understood why they call it Iceface. The Wilmington trail was great on the top 1/3 then turned to a sheet of ice on the bottom 2/3. I'd love to ski it when conditions are good but I don't think that happens often. I agree that Whiteface has a lot of vertical but skis small. I actually like Gore better and the conditions were much better there the next day.