Encouraging News From Whiteface

[highpeaksdrifter]

As of Thursday we have 64 guns roaring from the top of Little Whiteface to mid station.

-- Forecast for 2-4” of snowfall by morning.

-- Tentative season opening Nov 25...

 

[freeheelwilly]

Yeah, Yeah.

How about Paron's? They graded up there to get it open earlier. Get the guns goin' up there! I don't want to wait 2 weeks just to do laps on Excelsior with 1000 other jerks.

 

[bill9009]

Anyone have any news from Gore, Last I heard they were opening on the 18th, At least thats what they said at the Ski expo in Albany last weekend. I have a season pass so it doesnt really matter which opens first but Gore is closer to me. I am just wondering if Gore could open before Whiteface?

 

[mattchuck2]

Nah, Gore won't open before Whiteface. I had high hopes, but it's going to be another warm stretch here. They might open that same weekend (25th) if they get lucky.

Also, Excelsior used to be one of the best trails at whiteface before they put the gondola in. Now it's everyone's favorite highway. The widened, crowded version is nothing like the old winding classic I used to ski when I was a kid. Ahh well, I guess you have to take the bad with the good.

- Matt

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Nah, Gore won't open before Whiteface. I had high hopes, but it's going to be another warm stretch here. They might open that same weekend (25th) if they get lucky.

Also, Excelsior used to be one of the best trails at whiteface before they put the gondola in. Now it's everyone's favorite highway. The widened, crowded version is nothing like the old winding classic I used to ski when I was a kid. Ahh well, I guess you have to take the bad with the good.

- Matt

Gore often opens before WF, but we'll see this year. We're neighbors Mattchuck, I live in Clifton Park too.

 

[mattchuck2]

Ahhh, good old Clifton Park. The town with only one goal: To get every single fast food and semi fast food franchise in existence. Just added Red Robin, Panera, Ruby Tuesday's and the 99. By my calculations, that leaves only Sonic and White Castle.

Yeah, I always keep an eye on the Gore/Whiteface race - girlfriend's parents have a condo near Gore, my parents have a house up near whiteface. Two weeks left . . who will it be?

 

[bill9009]

We're all almost neighbors, I live near Amsterdam, work in Ballston Spa @ KAPL, I just wish one of them would open so I dont have to keep paying to go elswhere!!

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

We're all almost neighbors, I live near Amsterdam, work in Ballston Spa @ KAPL, I just wish one of them would open so I dont have to keep paying to go elswhere!!

Whiteface is blowing snow. I can't get anyone to pick up a phone at Gore, but I'll bet they are too. If I hear today I'll post it.

 

[woodi7259]

Just thought I'd give a little update on whiteface. I was up there today. We hiked up and got some turns. Skinned a little but not much because they were blowing a lot of really wet snow (aka water) and we stayed off excelsior on the way up to avoid getting soaked. There was pretty solid coverage from the summit of little whiteface down to the midlodge. We hit very few rocks. The snow was quite interesting ranging from kinda nice cornish snow to manky slush with some wet crust mixed in. They actually blew a few patch's below the midlodge too but not much. I measured the snow depth at the pitch under the quad right above the midlodge to be 55cm. We skiied one run from the top then built a little kicker on that lower section and played around on it. I have some pics I might put up later. They were spinning the little whiteface lift a few times during the day. Looks like if we had a a few more days of solid cold they could very easily open excelsior served by the little whiteface lift with uploading and downloading on the gondola. The way the snow was blown it almost looked like they were considering doing so. But I kinda doubt they'll open before they're scheduled opening but who knows.

 

[woodi7259]

Uptop

Cover wasn't the best the whole way down but this was about the worst of what had snow on it.

Near the bottom of the snow.

 

[freeheelwilly]

Wow Woodi that's cool! When you say "up top" you're talkin top of Lil' Whirteface right? They're not blowin' on the summit are they?

I have some video I shot of whitey 2 weeks ago skiin' all natural snow. If somebody tells me how to post it, or a site that would host it, I'll do so.

 

[woodi7259]

Yeah I'm talking about little whiteface. All their power was focused on getting solid cover on excelsior from the summit of little whiteface to the base of the little whiteface chair. As far as hosting the vid goes. I remeber reading something about http://www.zippyvideos.com/ on another forum for hosting videos. I think they give you 25 mb per video but i've never used it so i'm not positive. I also know google has a video service but i've never used that either. I would offer you space on my server to put it up but outside of campus it's quite slow and wouldn't be the greatest place for a video.

 

[freeheelwilly]

Latest W.F. update right from the horses mouth:

FYI..According to GM Jay Rand:



Snowmaking has continued non-stop for the past 24 hrs. We are working
diligently to cover Little Whiteface down to the base lodge. Our snowmaking
has covered virtually all 2,500 vertical feet from Little Whiteface. We've
been blanketing Excelsior, Upper Valley and Lower Valley and will continue
to do so. Currently, the line of demarcation is just above the base lodge.
Still, guns and hoses are doing their jobs down to that point.



We will continue this process until the weekend warm-up. Temps are headed
into the 50s on Saturday and Sunday. So at some point tomorrow, we will come
to a halt for a period of time before resuming at night.



Depending on temps and where the cold air is located, Whiteface may fire up
the 35 summit guns and start coating trails such as Riva Ridge, Paron's Run
and the Follies.



Next update on Monday.


When/if I get today's update I'll post.

 

[Mark D]

Uptop

Cover wasn't the best the whole way down but this was about the worst of what had snow on it.

Near the bottom of the snow.

you hiked it and you didn't tell me. im gonna tell paula on you....

 

[mattchuck2]

Thanks for the updates! Always great to hear good news! Go Whiteface Go!

- Matt

 

[Greg]

My latest info:

After 65 degrees yesterday, we are back to cold weather and making snow at whiteface. We have also received about 3 inches of natural snow since early this morning.

Still targeting Nov 25 opening.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

10 day forcast looks great for WF as far as snowmaking goes. Me thinks things are going to turn around for the better fast.

 

[freeheelwilly]

10 day forcast looks great for WF as far as snowmaking goes. Me thinks things are going to turn around for the better fast.

Yeah I agree. Keep an eye on that web cam - things are gonna look white and stay that way for quite some time (until April?).

Thanks for the update Greg

I'm about 15-20 (crow) miles N of WF and have an honest 1 1/2" of light fluff @ my house this AM. Add that to the 3" of yesterday and things are at least coated over there. Might have to go skin up to where they're makin snow this weekend. W/the colder temps the man made might not be too bad.

 

[woodi7259]

Good to see some snow again. I really don't like where there webcam is placed. Does anyone else find it annoying? I'd prefer one from the main lodge looking up the mountain so you could actually see something other than the top of little whiteface and the kids campus. Oh well. Probably won't worry about it til next fall now when I'm watching it to see where the snowline is.

 

[Kerovick]

I agree, the Positioning of that webcam is driving me mad. I'm in Md and will be leaving tuesday to head up to Tupper Lake to visit familly for thanksgiving and am planning on getting some pre-seasom skiing in (for me at least).