Slides?

[jcac27]

Are they open? We'll be up monday.

[frashdog]

They were open for the first time this year, thursday the 25th, yesterday afternoon.

Snow pits were dug and filed through out the season by professional certified avalanche ski patrollers.
Obviously the favorable pits were dug wednesday.

Around 50 people got to "help pack down the snow"during this seasons grand opening celebratory pow celebration, waist deep i might add in some spots, thus making way for the long anticipated opening of the mighty slides.

To be aware this land is of no joke... there are rocks lurking below the surface like mines waiting to explode your skis off above several frozen waterfall/cliffs up to 15'+. Even though the highly trained mountain ski patrollers are completely able to navigate a rescue sled over back country/ungroomed conditions among the rocks, trees and cliffs; rescue for an injured person is not as simple as on a " ski trail". Snow plowing, rental skis, small children, pregnant women, if you may be suffering from a heart condition or panic and urinate uncontrollably you should not attempt the slides. To be frank these are badazz double black diamond baby, maybe triple? Those who might know, some one please tell me of a place on the east coast with lift serve (for the most part) with extreme alpine open bowl terrain that even compares to the slides.

So... they were open yesterday, they were open today, it has been snowing constantly for the last 4 days.Hmmmmm :roll:

I heard a rumor of a foot sunday night. :D

[jcac27]

Wow. Thanks alot for the update. Ive always looked up in awe on my visits. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

[Raymo40]

Crap. I missed them by one day. :x Was up to the face last week on vacation. Had a great week, sunny on mon. snow the rest of the week. Had to leave on friday cuz of the wife's work so I missed the slides. Oh well I least the trees on back open at Gore. PS. you face skiers must have thighs of iron. After 4 stright days of that vertical my legs were shot.

[skiboy895]

Skied slides 1-4 for the first time yesterday. Amazing. Just skiing on a whole new level. over 4 feet of snow at the top! Had to be careful travesing not to get stuck. I think I liked two the best. Just enough tree skiing then it opens out to the headwall on one. Been waiting a long time for it!

[highpeaksdrifter]

Skied slides 1-4 for the first time yesterday. Amazing. Just skiing on a whole new level. over 4 feet of snow at the top! Had to be careful travesing not to get stuck. I think I liked two the best. Just enough tree skiing then it opens out to the headwall on one. Been waiting a long time for it!

Good for you knocking 1-4 off your first time.

I took some pics, but they all came out too bright. I did 1, 2, 3 didn't get over to 4 this weekend. It was great to get back in there. 3 is my favorite.

[Harvey44]

HPD ... no matter how bad post em!

[highpeaksdrifter]

HPD ... no matter how bad post em!

OK Harv, these are the best 2 believe it or not. The rest are a whiteout. I have a new camera this season, but I've taken pics on sunny days with it and they didn't come out like this. Dang.

Young guns climbing for higher ground.

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx261/highpeaksdrifter/WF%201-28-10/dscn0053.jpg

Slide 1

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx261/highpeaksdrifter/WF%201-28-10/dscn0027.jpg

[highpeaksdrifter]

Here's a pic posted on Facebook from yesterday of Slide 1

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs426.ash1/23583_334484343282_606118282_3610673_4861456_n.jpg

[SKIdds]

I'll be up Saturday skiing solo, what do you think the chances are of them being open this weekend? If anyone wants to take a few runs, let me know.

[Lbtchnlgs]

Will be up tomorrow (tues) they asking for avy gear?

[Face4Me]

Will be up tomorrow (tues) they asking for avy gear?
They were open today. No avy gear required, but they were requiring groups of 2 or more. I thought about heading in, but it was really socked in on top and I decided not to. I spent much of the morning in the CloudSplitter Glades. They were UNBELIEVABLE!!! Seemed like 4 - 6 inches of new snow in there since Sunday afternoon. Some of it may have just been blown in from the trees. There were untracked lines all through there all morning long! I'll try to post some pictures in another thread.

[Snowballs]

Those photos are great. The one with the " young guns " is way cool. Like something on RSN or a Warren Miller movie! It's also realy cool when they are open and people get to experience the Slides, such a unique treasure. Just look at the responses here and you can tell people are stoked at the possiblity.....that's a good thing.

Some cameras have a snow setting.....but you prolly already knew that.

[Face4Me]

Pics from Sunday and Today ...

Sunday morning top of Gondola ... Blue bird on top!!!
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0170a.jpg

Sunday morning top of Gondola ... Blue bird on top!!!
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0171a.jpg

The approach to Hoyt's High
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0175a.jpg

Hoyt's High
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0176a.jpg

HPD in Cloudsplitter Glades ... So Big!!!
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0178a.jpg

More of Cloudsplitter Glades
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0179a.jpg

HPD Getting Ready for Sugar Valley Glades
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0182a.jpg

Sugar Valley Glades from the top
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0183a.jpg

From the "Far side" of the creek, Sugar Valley Glades
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0185a.jpg

Back to Cloudsplitter Glades
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0188a.jpg

Empire looking up
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0190a.jpg

Empire looking down
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0191a.jpg

Lower Mac ... Bumped up nicely
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0192a.jpg

Cloudsplitter Glades ... Victors Vortex and Timothys
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0196a.jpg

Cloudsplitter Glades ... Victors Vortex and Timothys
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0200a.jpg

Cloudsplitter Glades ... Victors Vortex and Timothys
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0201a.jpg

Cloudsplitter Glades ... Ravens
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0205a.jpg

Cloudsplitter Glades ... Ravens ... Those are my 48" ski poles at the bottom of the frame!!!
http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac35/Face4Me/Whiteface%20Feb%2028%20-%20Mar%201%202010/IMG_0206a.jpg[/img]

[GoofyRider]

Awesome pics!!

[Snowballs]

x2^. You guys are so lucky to have Face as your home mtn! HPD...you're spoiled. No wonder the CT crowd gives Face crap, they're jealouse.

Wonder if Andrew will have a celebratory ski day with ya'll now. That would be a lot of fun.

Anybody feel enough sympathy for the rest of us to create a Slides Photo folder here?

[Lbtchnlgs]

Had a great time today. #3 was real fun, 2 was also good, never ended up doing 1- looked pretty well skied. What a great spring day at Whiteface.

SV glades are major double fall line, lots of room to mess around in the valley though, fun.

Also had a fun time on the boarder cross

[Jeff]

Face, those are just awesome pics, thanks! :D
Gotta get up there this season, really wanna hit the slides.

[Face4Me]

Face, those are just awesome pics, thanks! :D
Gotta get up there this season, really wanna hit the slides.
Shot this too, though fair warning ... it's a little "jumpy"!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1pfEPQX_jM

[Lbtchnlgs]

Couldn't find the camera on Tuesday. FOggy cell phone is all I had
http://s2.postimage.org/kCug9.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TskCug9)

http://s2.postimage.org/kCwLi.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TskCwLi)

http://s2.postimage.org/kCzfr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TskCzfr)

http://s2.postimage.org/kCBKA.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TskCBKA)

http://s2.postimage.org/kCEeJ.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=TskCEeJ)

[SKIdds]

How would you say they are holding up? Will be skiing Saturday and keeping my fingers crossed that they will be open.

[Lbtchnlgs]

Skied 2 and 3 all day. Good coverage on both. looking up at 1 it seemed pretty well skied. 4 was closed on Tues but website said it was open today. It's really hard, saturday is far away. and temps have been high...

Hope for the best, expect the worst. I'm rootin' for ya- I hope you get to ski them, it's a good experience.

[asland]

Great posts that really capture how cool the slides were. I was in the slides last Saturday and Sunday and got to take multiple runs in 1-4. I had a blast. They had deep soft snow, they were steep, they had waterfalls to jump off... The fun was non-stop.

I have skied at whiteface about 40 times this year. Whiteface is where I grew up skiing. I love whiteface and I have had a great time there. It is a steep mountain but this year because of lack of snow and a few freeze thaw cycles we have relied a lot on snowmaking and then lots of grooming. The mountain has been in spectacular shape all things considered and the mountain crew deserves our thanks. But although corduroy is fun to ski on it can be tame.

I got used to tame so the wild rides down the slides were even better. On Saturday, I broke out my bluehouse mavens (139 under foot). These humongous skis helped me surf the deep powder and stomp 10' drops of waterfalls. The keyhole and some other runs in between the main slides kept soft and relatively untracked well into the afternoon. On Sunday, the visibility was much better and although tracked out the snow was nice and soft and skied very well. Towards afternoon it started getting a little sketchy at some points but one could still pick their way through.

Overall, after 36 years of skiing whiteface this was one of my best weekends there.

Now, will the slides be open again this weekend?

matt

[GoofyRider]

better late than never... all the slides were open yesterdy. I didnt go in so i cant give a report, but there were plenty of people in there. Lots of tracks i could see from the lift hiking up above the entry point and getting nice tracks up there. Also saw some people under that giant boulder/cliff feature near the top above slide 3 or 4

[snowman]

We did slide 1 and 3 on Friday , and slide 4 on Saturday. There was a ton of snow, but where the sun was hitting was going fast.
Any one know the last time they were open of a week straight?

[whitefaceman]

i hate to sound like a pessimist...but what are the chances of them being open next weekend and even the weekend after?

[zski]

forecast says 50 degrees and rain on saturday so that will be the end of the slides unless we get the big storm that is now on the 15 day forecast for the weekend after

[Powderqueen]

The Slides at Whiteface aren't open very often. In 2008 I was lucky enough to ski them for the first time. They didn't open last year and they would not have opened this past week if it wasn't for that big dump we got last week.

The Slides are pretty exciting skiing. They are wild and gnarly and they require skiers to use all their skills.

It was a cold morning so we didn't go for a super early start, though we did get on the snow before 10. We packed up lunch and beer in a backpack, so our first run was down to Wilderness to drop off our sustenance at the mid mountain lodge.

At this point I got a text from Chuck who said they just opened the slides, so up we went.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L39pbqSjI/AAAAAAAAPlE/VY30h9mhtJo/s640/IMG_1464.jpg

Our first run was Slide 3, since it was still early and this #3 seems to get the most sun. We climbed up and traversed over and came upon a group of young guys, some skiers, some snowboarders clogging up the entrance of Slide 3. One of them couldn't keep his ski on his ski boot. His friends took off and left him as we watched he and his skis and poles slide down the first narrow chutes into Slide 3. Mark offered to help and noticed his 15+ year old skis were set at a DIN of 5. He said he hadn't had them checked in 10 years (when he was probably a child), and now he weighed 200lbs and 6 feet tall. Mark adjusted them and it enabled him to get down.

Once we got past this guy, Slide 3 opened up nicely


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L3yi3J3dI/AAAAAAAAPjs/WhUlcT9j72g/s640/IMG_1452.jpg


Slide 2 is kind of amorphic and has a lot of small trees and tight squeezes.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L31MyUu6I/AAAAAAAAPj8/SC_HzyxFho0/s640/IMG_1454.jpg

Mark at the bottom of Slide 2

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L331qAy9I/AAAAAAAAPkU/KDxLj52izp4/s640/IMG_1457.jpg


Slide 1 is the most wide open and has some nice soft snow


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L35D0XA3I/AAAAAAAAPkk/0x5RzhqTsM8/s512/IMG_1459.jpg


Slide 1 also has a huge waterfall, which was quite tricky to maneuver and required mandatory air.


http://lh6.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L38fqyWCI/AAAAAAAAPoc/18D8-KNzyGg/s640/IMG_1462.jpg


Slide 4 was our favorite. There's a tricky traverse over slides 1, 2 and 3. Slide 4 starts off pretty open with some soft sweet turns.

Mark dropping into slide 4


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4Cgdso6I/AAAAAAAAPlc/JQf6dl2ACHs/s640/IMG_1469.jpg



Half way down it narrows down considerably.

Mark in the narrows.


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4HVEY5CI/AAAAAAAAPl8/M6Mw3stKvjg/s512/IMG_1474.jpg


We pick our way down though tight trees and blind turns and then we come a horizon line.


Slide 4 waterfall

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4J_gL1FI/AAAAAAAAPmQ/FabaLO_sE_w/s640/IMG_1476.jpg



We did 4 runs in the slides between 10:30-2pm and were ready to crack a beer and eat some lunch at Mid Mountain.


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4MZN3UuI/AAAAAAAAPmg/blIn0O5gH6E/s640/IMG_1478.jpg



After lunch we decided to head over to Lookout Mountain to check out the new terrain.

Wilmington Trail


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4YzISWYI/AAAAAAAAPm8/ma_ccVqSdpg/s640/IMG_1481.jpg


Lookout Below had big soft bumps and was a lot of fun


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4b2yJPsI/AAAAAAAAPnM/nxFayWVjf9U/s640/IMG_1483.jpg


This sign made us very sad since it was 3pm when we got there.


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_rGrUd5r_LO4/S5L4km7wyhI/AAAAAAAAPn0/N6UXuohSfAI/s640/IMG_1488.jpg



The Sugar Valley glade looked pretty awesome and we were greatly disappointed to have missed it.

The day flew by and the lifts close at an early 3:30. The Cloudspin deck was rockin, but we by-passed the deck party for a tailgate with our own beer, snacks and lawn chairs.

Whiteface is an incredible mountain that has kept me challenged ever since I've been there. My best days there have been in the spring when the sun was shining and the temps were over 32. It can be a tough mountain mid-winter and when it snows, usually the wind blows. I think I will likely continue the Whiteface pilgrimage in the spring for years to come.

[asland]

Great times in the slides again this weekend.

Why do the slides close at 2:00? On Saturday, I got tot the top about 1:55 and the slides were already closed. The four ski patrollers that were standing near the gate said they needed the time to sweep it. I know I'm just getting greedy now but it really bumbed me out. I men really - if it takes me 15 minutes tops to get to the bottom of the slides why does it take 2 hours to sweep the mostly wide open slides? This seems like a dumb rule to me.

matt

[Harvey44]

I always thought that the slides were primarily a spring thing - meaning warm temps and corn snow - and the midday hours were to insure soft, skiable conditions.

Have there been many SAR (rescues) in the slides?

[Powderqueen]

Great times in the slides again this weekend.

Why do the slides close at 2:00? On Saturday, I got tot the top about 1:55 and the slides were already closed. The four ski patrollers that were standing near the gate said they needed the time to sweep it. I know I'm just getting greedy now but it really bumbed me out. I men really - if it takes me 15 minutes tops to get to the bottom of the slides why does it take 2 hours to sweep the mostly wide open slides? This seems like a dumb rule to me.

matt

The shadows hit the slides at 2pm, so they set up and conditions become much more dangerous. They prefer to sweep them before this occurs.

[asland]

The shadows hit the slides at 2pm, so they set up and conditions become much more dangerous. They prefer to sweep them before this occurs.

sounds good on paper but not a reality on the slope. The sun was still high in the air at 2pm. Very few shadows. Sun not setting to around 6pm these days so the sun is very high still at that point.

Also, even if it was true it would take a while for conditions in the slide to harden up.

matt

[zski]

just a week ago the stuff in the shade got cruchy within 10 mins of the sun going away on them

we need to accept that msa knows what they are doing and will close the slides at the appropriate times. The slides need to be respected - they can be very dangerous in the wrong conditions and you have to respect that msa will have to take a sled in there to get someone that is hurt out

[SKIdds]

Its a huge area to sweep, so that is probably a bigger factor than it freezing up, although things can get crunchy in a hurry. I skied Hoyts at 3:30 on Saturday, in the shadows, and it was very crunchy, really set up quick. Not much fun at all.

All in all, I respect what they do with the Slides, closing time and all. They seem to know what they are doing. Remind me of that next time they close them for the season the day I get there!!

One thing they should do.......set the traverse into the Slides higher. To much great terrain up above the current traverse!

[asland]

let's get totally crazy here and say that the slides are equal to the entire summit area of the mountain (skyward, Cloudspin, Polly's, and Folly's) . It's not even close to that big but let's just pretend. They close the summit lift at 3:30 or 3:45. leaving 15 -30 minutes to sweep. Compare to 2 hours in the slides. It just does not add up.

I respect ski patrol but realize that they are way too overcautious in this area. They are making decisions based on this overcautious approach. They are becoming less cautious though. As they get used to the slides being part of the mountain they are keeping the slides open in conditions that are good but in the past would have shut the slides down. All I ask is that as they get more and more used to the slides they re-look at the closing time and expand it.

matt

[SKIdds]

It may not be that simple. When they sweep the summit, they are sweeping 4 marked trails. There is nothing marked in the Slides. Yes, there is 1, 2, 3, 4 etc., but they arent runs per se. You can go anywhere you want below the traverse. From an acreage standpoint, sweeping the Slides has to be a much bigger task than sweeping the marked trails from the summit. Plus, should they find someone is in there, stuck in the Slides and in need of assistance, extricating them will be much more time consuming than throwing them on a sled and taking them down a marked trail. I can see why they close them when they do. Heck, it can take 45 minutes or more, from the time you start the traverse in at the summit, to the time you come off Slide Out into Skyward, for some people to ski Slide 4, and they aren't looking for injured and stranded skiers along the way.

[Snowballs]

yep and a sled rescue will take waaaay longer in the slides than on the trails. Not a good place to be after dark w/ a victim in the sled.

[SNOWHERE]

If your'e going in with groups of two or more,there should be no single parties to find in a sweep.

[Harvey44]

It was really fun rereading this thread. There are some great images and lots of good info in this thread.

Subscriber's to this thread may be interested in the piece posted this morning on Harvey Road.

Highpeaksdrifter has posted some of his insight on skiing The Slides (http://www.nyskiblog.com/2010/08/skiing-whiteface-slides.html).

Really good stuff IMO.

[Harvey44]

HPD and I spoke to Bruce McCulley, the GM at Whiteface, on a variety of topics in the last few days.

Some of what was most interesting to me had to do with accessing The Slides. (Something I still have not done!)

He felt that when you have lift access to terrain like the Slides, you've got to be cautious.

In other words, the level of expertise of slide skiers in true backcountry is bound to be higher than that of the average resort skier.

And of course he wouldn't have responsibility for skiers outside of his boundary. (<-my comment not Bruce's).

Our piece is here:

Q&A with Bruce McCulley (http://www.nyskiblog.com/2010/11/q-with-bruce-mcculley-whiteface-gm.html).