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View Full Version : History of WF and Marble Mountain.



takeahike46er
01-12-2006, 10:59 PM
Does anyone know the history of Marble Mountain and Whiteface? What was the impetus for closing the old hill and moving to Whiteface? What were the original runs that were cut on WF?

highpeaksdrifter
01-13-2006, 10:25 AM
You pose some interesting questions 46er. Maybe some WF historian in hear can answer them. I believe the proposed new expansion (Island Pod?) will be incorporating some of the old Marble Mt. trails.

I'd love to see an old map of Marble Mt. For what was I believe to be a small area it had a very high elavation for the NE.

Phineas
01-13-2006, 11:35 AM
You pose some interesting questions 46er. Maybe some WF historian in hear can answer them. I believe the proposed new expansion (Island Pod?) will be incorporating some of the old Marble Mt. trails.

I'd love to see an old map of Marble Mt. For what was I believe to be a small area it had a very high elavation for the NE.

I think I'll post some real info over in the "immature" RSN forum

I outta here!

tjf67
01-13-2006, 12:10 PM
I want to here the history.

Son of Drifter
01-13-2006, 12:49 PM
You pose some interesting questions 46er. Maybe some WF historian in hear can answer them. I believe the proposed new expansion (Island Pod?) will be incorporating some of the old Marble Mt. trails.

I'd love to see an old map of Marble Mt. For what was I believe to be a small area it had a very high elavation for the NE.

I think I'll post some real info over in the "immature" RSN forum

I outta here!

Talk about immature. You're bolting a wonderful and informative site, depriving hundreds if not thousands of people your knowledge of whiteface and skiing in general just b/c you can't post stuff like "jackstraw is a so and so" Come on buddy don't be that way. :twisted:

P.S. I'll just go over and link the RSN post to here anyway. :wink: :twisted:

takeahike46er
01-13-2006, 01:50 PM
I'd love to see an old map of Marble Mt. For what was I believe to be a small area it had a very high elavation for the NE.

You can get a sense of the trails by looking here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=44.3888&lon=-73.8537&s=50&size=l&symshow=n&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

The trail remnants are still visible from the air, especially with the most recent, highest resolution images found here: http://www1.nysgis.state.ny.us/MainMap.cfm


I believe the proposed new expansion (Island Pod?) will be incorporating some of the old Marble Mt. trails.

The Tree Island Pod will not incorporate Marble Mountain trails. The proposed Lookout Pod gets a bit closer to Marble Mountain, but in the end the old ski area falls outside of the area designated for WF development.

highpeaksdrifter
01-13-2006, 02:00 PM
I'd love to see an old map of Marble Mt. For what was I believe to be a small area it had a very high elavation for the NE.

You can get a sense of the trails by looking here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=44.3888&lon=-73.8537&s=50&size=l&symshow=n&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

The trail remnants are still visible from the air, especially with the most recent, highest resolution images found here: http://www1.nysgis.state.ny.us/MainMap.cfm


I believe the proposed new expansion (Island Pod?) will be incorporating some of the old Marble Mt. trails.

The Tree Island Pod will not incorporate Marble Mountain trails. The proposed Lookout Pod gets a bit closer to Marble Mountain, but in the end the old ski area falls outside of the area designated for WF development.

That's pretty cool stuff you have there 46er. I have a serious question, what the heck is a pod? I always thought it was a family of whales.

takeahike46er
01-13-2006, 02:13 PM
The area that encompasses a lift and the set of trails descending from that lift. For example, The Summit Pod would be the area defined by the outermost trails descending from that lift.

highpeaksdrifter
01-13-2006, 02:16 PM
The area that encompasses a lift and the set of trails descending from that lift. For example, The Summit Pod would be the area defined by the outermost trails descending from that lift.

Thanks, it all makes sense now.

Tsavolion
01-14-2006, 11:08 AM
I want to here the history.

i think you should focus on learning present day english before you delve into history

tjf67
01-16-2006, 04:16 PM
I want to here the history.

i think you should focus on learning present day english before you delve into history

Ok I will work on my english and you can work on your manners.

takeahike46er
01-23-2006, 06:46 PM
I thought I would share this:

http://docs.unh.edu/NY/lplc53ne.jpg

It is a topographic map from 1953 showing the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center, or Marble Mountain as we know it today. I was unaware that there were also ski trails cut on Lookout Mtn., as depicted on the map. Notice that there was a ski tow up there as well.

Interestingly, the Lookout Pod that is planned as a possible expansion plan occupies the very area where those ski trails and ski tow once existed.

freeheelwilly
01-24-2006, 06:54 AM
takeahike46er: Very cool. Thanks.

Tin Woodsman
01-24-2006, 07:46 PM
I thought I would share this:

http://docs.unh.edu/NY/lplc53ne.jpg

It is a topographic map from 1953 showing the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center, or Marble Mountain as we know it today. I was unaware that there were also ski trails cut on Lookout Mtn., as depicted on the map. Notice that there was a ski tow up there as well.

Interestingly, the Lookout Pod that is planned as a possible expansion plan occupies the very area where those ski trails and ski tow once existed.

That's a nice find, but that wasn't my impression of the location of the Lookout Pod. The Tree Island Pod is slated for that narrow-ish drainage directly to the East of the "W" in Ski Tow. The Lookout Pod, from the sketchy documents I've seen seemed to be one or two drainages to the East of that - sort of due East of where the "S" is in Ski Trails up there. If the Lookout Pod were to be where you claim, that would be pretty limited vertical and highly exposed to the prevailing winds shooting through the col between Lookout Mt. and Whiteface. Just my $0.01.[/quote]

takeahike46er
01-24-2006, 08:08 PM
You're right, the Lookout Pod is the second drainage over from the Tree Island Pod (descending southeast of Lookout--but not from the top). I guess I was implying that it would be in that vicinity. I mispoke when I said it would be in the area where the ski tow is labeled. Between the two pods, they would cover areas that were once part of the original ski establishment.

Faceplant
01-25-2006, 05:01 PM
Afew years ago, I hiked up a trail behind the Wilmington reservoir and came accross the lift line for Marble Mt. It was way over towards W'ton so it wasn't close to Whiteface. I heard/read a story that when the state decided to develop a ski area, the choice was between Marcy and Whiteface and they chose Whiteface cuz it was already "developed" with the rd and the castle. Didn't hear Marble mt mentioned even tho they had a lodge (now rebuilt as weather/other). I guess the decision had to do with vertical drop and terrain. I'll check with somebody with a few more years one me.

takeahike46er
01-25-2006, 06:39 PM
Marcy wouldn't have been too good a choice for many reasons. Whiteface was probably the best choice, overall.

takeahike46er
02-09-2006, 07:45 PM
I found some more information regarding the original Whiteface Ski Area in James Burnside's Exploring the 46 Adirondack High Peaks. Originally, runs ran down a northern face of Marble Mountain. Snow at that location/elevation was inconsistent so some trails were cut up at a higher elevation on Lookout Mtn. extending to Esther and the shoulder of Whiteface. One of the reasons the area was abandoned was due to high winds that scoured the terrain, as evidenced by the number of "flag" trees.

adksara
02-21-2006, 09:00 PM
My dad has always been interested in the "lost" ski areas of NE and the ADKs... I was curious about Marble Mountain and went out searching for some more info... The site below doesn't have Marble information yet, but maybe in the future.

http://www.nelsap.org/ny/ny.html

-ADKSara

02-22-2006, 09:51 AM
I'm not familiar with the written history of Whiteface. Whiteface ski area has a nice pictoral layout throughout the main loj. The stairwell going up to the admin offices has some large photos, so does the new coffee shop. I would imagine that the new Adirondack Museum will have some history when it opens.

DelawareDave
02-26-2006, 08:51 PM
So how much of this expansion talk is reality? I haven't seen anyone talk about timeframes or whether there is a solid, approved proposal with the APA. I would love to see additional lift-serviced terrain on WF. I just am not clear how ORDA has permission to embark on this project.

What is the most likely location of a new lift servicing this area? From the top of Face Lift, there is a wooded valley looking up to the right that I believe is the proposed expansion area. Am I right?

MidnightCarving
03-04-2006, 06:22 PM
Hey guys, I've always been interested in lost ski areas, mostly for the hopes of finding some cool backcountry runs that i could hike to, so i've done considerable research into marble mountain. Heres the deal as far as i know:

Marble mountain was originally developed sometime in the late 30's, prior to that all skiing was done by a sno cat driving up the whiteface memorial highway and dropping skiers off, so marble mountain was the first real established area (along with some much smaller rope tows, i believe one was in saranac) Anyway, the state started looking into developing a bigger area in the early 50's and they did Tests on where snow accumulated most between marble, whiteface, and i believe marcy was involved as well, but was pulled out of the running early based on accesibility issues. Anyway, Whiteface won over marble and lookout based on snowfall, and the state abandoned marble once what we now know of as whiteface was opened in 1956.

I hope all my dates are right, i read the article quite a while ago

levolorman
03-04-2006, 08:44 PM
This is all very interesting. So, if Whiteface wasn't developed until the 50s, where were the ski events in the Olympics?

Wa
03-04-2006, 10:58 PM
This is all very interesting. So, if Whiteface wasn't developed until the 50s, where were the ski events in the Olympics?

There weren't any alpine ski events in the 32 olympics.