X-mas at whiteface

[Glenn]

Spent a week in a cabin 10 min from the base of whiteface. Lodging was great, but who really cares, it's all about the riding right?

 

2 days to get up there, stopped overnight 2 hours short of the mountain, for a more relaxing trip, and so we could hit the mountain first thing in the morning, while the non skiers worked on unpacking cars/chick-in to the cabin etc.

 

The first two days were just under freezing but the snow was soft. Lift lines were non-existent. I think I think the most I waited for a lift was 20 seconds, including the gondola. Didn't really hit anything to intense since we (family vacation, we being all the alpiners in my family) had clear orders not to get hurt before christmas.

 

3rd day into the trip it was over cast, and we had spots of rain. Being the diehard I am, I was kinda disappointed in myself for not being out on the mountian riding anyways, but I just wanted to relax.

 

4th day, my brother hurt his knee/ankle on the first run. I think he will be out for a couple of weeks, but at first it looked like he broke his ankle. Talk about a bummer. Conditions were garbage from the rain, but that was to be expected. Way more crowds than the first 2 days, but still didn't wait more than 5 min for a chair.

 

5th day, minus the injury same thing as day 4.

 

6th day, temps were warm again, the mountain softened and my sister and I rode blacks all day. It got a little choppy by noon, but my legs were shot so it didn't matter. Definitely the best day, too bad Zaldon was hurt and couldn't enjoy it. Lift lines were tiny, the warmth scared people away... morons. Longest wait was in the 30 sec range again, we did laps on the gondola until we left.

 

Over all the mountain was pretty good. Small lift lines, huge vertical, and some decent blacks. The mountain is so big the top is usually covered in clouds so, riding the summit doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you catch it during a few hours when its clear. Maybe I'm a freak, but top to bottom runs weren't fluid enough. I get the impression people just take laps on portions of the mountain, but why have 3,000+ feet if your not going to ride all of it? There wasn't any good cruisers, I think when I get back to CB I'm going to take a bunch of runs on nile because I couldn't do any laid back cruising.

 

Having no experience with what vermont have to offers I can't make any meaningful comparisons with other more "prominent" mountains in the Northeast.

 

What I can say is, I would love to be a whiteface local. It really seemed like a locals mountain. Small liftlines, some peculiarities, and out in the middle of nowhere. I'll post some pictures if I remember to when they get developed.

[skifreak]

That sucks that Zaldon got hurt. Atleast the first two days were great for riding and the last day was somewhat great.

[VTmark]

theirs a whiteface local that lurks on hear when i send him a message. lets get his spin on this...

[LTDSNOWBOARDER]

Please post some pictures. And any other useful information. Im leaving for Whiteface Friday morning(2oclock, haha) and ridinf Fri., Sat., and Sun. so again please post any information including anything like places to eat, things to do. Thanks a lot.

[Ski]

Sorry to hear about Zaldon...but a great read, Glenn. Much better than a stranger's Ski Mag perspective. I imagine the Slides were closed?

[Glenn]

Sorry to hear about Zaldon...but a great read, Glenn. Much better than a stranger's Ski Mag perspective. I imagine the Slides were closed?

 

Yeah, slides were closed, as were all the glades except a tiny one just off a mellow green. There were a fair number of blacks still closed as well. They have a bunch of parks, but only 2 were open, and the super pipe was mostly dirt at this point. The rain really set them back I think, but at the same time, there was PLENTY that was indeed open.

 

All the employees there were pretty laid back too. They have "safety officials" who I didn't see marking anyones ticket. There was plenty of riding of poaching, high speeds, and other stuff that would make alot of mountains around here sweat, and the safety officials didn't really seem to care at all.

[Ski]

WF and Gore have to be to of the most under-rated and under-skied places...WF would DEF be a cool place to call your home mountain.

[Ski]

It's also cool how you can see other peaks in different states from the summit on clear days. We could see WF from the Sugarbush summit, which has to be at least 60 miles away.

[Glenn]

On a clear day at Blue mountain I think you can see New Jersey...

 

On just about any day you can smell NJ from shawnee

 

Whiteface does have some amazing views though. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera on the only day we had a clear view from the summit.

[Glenn]

Please post some pictures. And any other useful information. Im leaving for Whiteface Friday morning(2oclock, haha) and ridinf Fri., Sat., and Sun. so again please post any information including anything like places to eat, things to do. Thanks a lot.

 

The cabin we stayed at had a full kitchen, so the only time we really ate out was at the lodge at the mountain. Nothing special.

 

There is supposed to be a couple good places to eat in Lake Placid, sorry I don't remember any of the names. There is a visitors center in lake placid as well with lots of information about Olympics related stuff to do. Some of my family went on a snowmobile tour for a day and had a blast. If your interested I can dig up the phone number. There is a movie theatre in town, if your really bored, but it's pretty small. Other than that it's pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. If your into hiking/climbing etc you will find plent of places to do that.