Trip Report March 15-17

Had a great long weekend of skiing at Whiteface. Arrived Saturday afternoon, skied Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Not a cloud in the sky until a few showed up Tuesday, with temps around 50 give or take each afternoon. Mostly family ski time Sun/Tues, while my brother and I had Monday to play.

First a comment on lodging. Spring can be a great time to visit LP, and the Canadian holiday week didn’t hurt any either. Mirror Lake Inn’s Escape to the States package cost us $390 (plus taxes/gratuities) on Saturday night. Included the room, 2 adult/2 junior lift tickets, and breakfast for 4. If I had to buy the lift tix (including some discounts) I would have spent $192. So the room cost us less than $200, and we got what would have been an $80 breakfast buffet for four in The View, which is very good, essentially for free. There were also decent deals available thru the WF and Lakeplacid.com websites for ski and stay packages at the Mirror Lake Inn (and elsewhere) but this Canadian holiday package was the best value. Sunday night we moved over to the Whiteface Lodge. A superior 1 Br suite for $175 a night. LR w/fireplace and queen pull out, full kitchen, bedroom with a king size bed. One and a half baths. Very good breakfast buffet included. Can’t beat that! This was with their March Madness special (first time they’ve offered that). Those rooms normally go for about $500 a night. We’ll be back there, assuming they have some kind of spring deals in the future. Tons to do there as well. Pool (indoor/outdoor), skating (was too warm), game room w/bowling alley in the resort. Great place and very high end. We could have done cheaper (Courtyard was available for $169/$109/$109) but the luxury digs kept the ladies happy.

Now to the important stuff………the skiing.

First an overall comment about the state of the mountain. WF does a great job keeping the mountain in good shape under difficult conditions. Mother Nature was showing thru in spots, and the amount of snow loss on the lower mountain was a challenge, but they managed to freshen the place up each night, despite the slush and mud skiing found on the lower mountain by day’s end. Coverage on the biggies is good, so the mountain should hold out for a while. From the summit there is great coverage on Parons, Skyward (a little thin on the headwall mid and left, a few bare spots on Lower) and Lower Cloudspin. From Little Whiteface there is great coverage just about everywhere. Excelsior was great. Essex, Northway, Approach were all good. Off the Mountain Run lift Wilderness, Mountain Run, Upper Parkway, Thruway, Drapers…all had great coverage. Upper Mac had great coverage, and the bumps on lower Mac were sweet, despite some bare spots and rocks here and there. Lower down, on Easy Street, Boreen, Valley, etc there was a lot of slush skiing, but they move the snow around well. The terrain park is scratchy on the sides, and the half pipe down the middle is a base gouger at the top, although the mini skier cross and the jumps higher up are fun. Kids Kampus was hurting and I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t make their planned March 22 closing date for that area. I will say this…I’ve seen better conditions the last two Aprils than they have now, so get it while you can, although top to bottom skiing thru the anticipated Easter close should be doable. I did speak to a patroller on Sunday who said he didn’t think the Slides would open this year. Too much exposed rock.

Sunday – we weren’t in a hurry to get to the mountain since I figured things might be firm first thing in the am. Got to the mountain about 10:00 and skied with all three kids on the Kampus for an hour. Very soft already. Stole away for a summit run and a Lower Mac run around 11:30. Northway on the way to the Summit Quad was still firm at that time. Skyward was nice and soft, and the bumps on Lower Mac were big and soft. Back to the kids after lunch and off to the Wilmington Trail around 1:00. Starting to get a bit skied off in the tighter spots, but soft all the way around. Lots of corn piles and bumps. Proud of my 7 year old adventurer for navigating it with no problems. Next it was the gondola to Excelsior for some great spring corn. The Face Lift to the summit quad put us up top about 3:00 while Follies and Parons were still getting good sun. Another great run. By 3:30ish things were getting firm and the corn was getting sugary in the shady spots on Excelsior. Some water skiing back to the Kampus ended the day.

My brother arrived Sunday night, and the kids were off to a full day of ski school on Monday while the dads played. Another day with no sense of urgency to get to the mountain. Registered the kids for school at 9:30 and caught the gondi at 10:00. Time to haul a$$. Approach to Mountain Run for some great soft corduroy. So nice that we hit the Mountain Run lift and I figured Thruway to Drapers to have great coverage after the races. It was untouched buttery corduroy goodness perfect for high speed GS turns. So good in fact that we took the gondi and lapped it a second time. Next it was off to the Wilmington trail for great long run on perfect corn before the piles built up. Face Lift to the Summit Quad and we lapped Skyward twice it was so good. Down to the Mountain Run lift for two turns on the soft (and huge) bumps of Lower Mac brought us to 1:00 and the need for beer, fuel and the shedding of a layer. After a short break it was back to the Face Lift to see if Lookout Below was open……and it was. Didn’t take long for LOB to acquire new favorite trail status. Very steep at the top, big bumps the whole way down, numerous jump turns and launches throughout, relatively narrow and steep the whole way down. What’s not to like? We lapped it three times before we decided that Mac and the Summit needed a little more attention. A couple of laps on Mac/Lower Mac before a final run down Skyward brought the day to a close. Once again, things firmed up quick in the shade, especially on Lower Sky. Back to pick up the kiddies as 3:40, over to the main lodge to pick up our layers and a beer, some sun on the deck…and back to the hot tub and pool. Some video to follow once I get it downloaded.

Tuesday brought an easier family ski day with the wife and kids. Arrived about 11:00. Everybody got a little of what they wanted, including me as I was able to hit both Mac and Skyward (both top to bottom) with my 10 year old mountain cruiser. Skyward was a lot of fun as it was bumping up nicely. Props to my daughter for navigating the huge bumps and steep terrain with no troubles at all.

Sunshine, warm temps, soft snow….all in all a perfect spring trip. Would have been nice if there was a little more snow so that Empire and the glades were open. We could have ducked the ropes I’m sure, but we had plenty to keep us occupied without. Props to the mountain for keeping things in great shape.

Get out there while you can. This saturday looks to be another great spring day.

Nice report Skidds.