Whiteface Mtn, NY: 4/9/08

[Harvey44]

After blowing out of work at 2:30 yesterday and driving to our place in North River, I was excited and anxious to get a shot at the slides. It was not to be.

We asked whoever we could find...what is up with the slides? Nobody knew, or would say. After a few runs on the summit quad and little face, skipat at the top gave us the bad news....slides are closed for the season.

JamesDeluxe, his buddy Steve, Patrick and I made the best of it. I'm new to WF and I didn't look at the map much so I'm not sure of the names of alot of what we did. But here is what I do know:

Slightly overcast but somehow sunny... things were corning up nicely by 10am when we loaded onto the facelift. Hit Upper Skyward, Cloudspin and some stuff on LW. One tree run was open, and the cover was dicey in the there. Lost lots of snow since yesterday, according to the reports. For me, highlights were the bumps on Upper and Lower Mac, and the obstacle course on Empire. And that steep little side thing, down by the base of the summit chair. (EDIT: Blazers Bluff) By the end of the day we were, at times, water skiing in runoff.

I was with some fast alpine skiers and was whipped by beer thirty.

It's a cool mountain. One thing it actually has in common with Gore - a hardcore, fanatical fan base. Next year, I'll be ready to jump when the slides open. I really want to get my shot.

http://www.postimage.org/aV1hLpQ0.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1hLpQ0)

http://www.postimage.org/Pq1JTssr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq1JTssr)

http://www.postimage.org/aV1hLzOA.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1hLzOA)

http://www.postimage.org/aV1hLENS.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1hLENS)

http://www.postimage.org/aV1hLOMr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1hLOMr)

[SKIdds]

My brother and I made the trip as well. Rolled the dice on the Slides and came up craps. Oh, well, it was a great spring skiing day nonetheless.

On about 11:30 we talked to a patroller who told us that one of the falls on Slide 1 broke out and there was water gushing down the slide. Catch 22 I suppose. You need the warm weather to soften the Slides up, but too much warmth and things fall apart. As Harvey reported, there are several signs on the mountain saying the Slides are closed for the season. No Slides was a disappointment, but we knew it was a possibility and we just had lots of time for other things.

There was good coverage on the mountain. A few bare spots here and there, but overall very good for April. Coverage in the glades is decent so long as you are nimble enough to avoid the occasional obstacle that appears in front of you. The problem in the glades is that with the softness of the snow you need to maintain a little bit of speed to make the most of the snow, and that is tough to do in the glades right now.

The soft spring bumps on MacKenzie were a blast. A high speed cornfest on Upper Skyward really got the blood pumping. Lower Skyward was bumped up nicely, as was upper Cloudspin. Blazers Bluff, though short, was really fun. Empire was roped all day....and should not have been. A little birdie told me the coverage on Empire was as good as you'll usually find mid season. Bad choice to have it closed in my...ah, the birdies....opinion. Great spring conditions bring out the die hards, and people were ripping all over the mountain. Overall a very good day.

By 2:00 in the afternoon things were very heavy, and skiing from the mid mountain lodge down was a chore, one which we only performed once all day when we knocked off around 3:00. There were also raging streams of water coming across the trail by the base of the mid mountain lifts. So things are deteriorating rapidly with temps in the 60's. Enjoy it while you can.

[Harvey44]

SK - sounds like we had the same take on the day. Blazer's Bluff - that was the little dropoff, I was thinking about. Love that thing. Empire was so cool. Love those tight windy trails. (Gore has a few too.) One of the guys I was with said they had actually widened it in that last few years.

Wish I knew you were there, so we could have connect. My trip was somewhat last minute, inspired by reports of the slides I read on first tracks. I wanted to test myself on the slides so much. As they say in baseball - there's always next year.

Hopefully someone will post a TR from this weekend.

Harv