Northernflight
Member
This is a very laidback, uncrowded area. I've driven by it numerous times so for $5 lift tickets I had to check it out. The lodge is older and small but not horrible, my only complaint is the floor is wicked slippery with ski boots, so that was fun trying to get them on. After I booted up its outside to take some runs. The lift is a retro double chair with multi colored/painted chairs which really add to Whalebacks uniqueness. Lift ride aside the trails were surprisingly steep and interesting. It was more of a cliffy steep, drop even out drop type of deal but I was presently surprised. Those expert trails were steeper and more challenging than anything Ragged had open today. And I got to ski my first moguls of the season on Jawbone. Conditions were the definition of varied. There was hardpack, machine groomed, powder, packed powder, cement like powder, and loose granular. They had only made snow on one intermediate root down so the other three options were all on mostly crusty natural snow. I finally found the reason snowboarders exist, they are outstanding groomers breaking up all the crust and packing the snow down. Coverage was decent, thin in spots and rocks were always lurking but defiantly skiable. The trails got even more interesting and fun when the lights came on. There was sections of the trails between lights were it was complete darkness and one needed to ski blind. Sporadic lighting can be pretty fun. I called it quits after 5:00 due to a long car ride and exhaustion. I'll definitely be back to the Whale to check them out again. Looked like there were a few nice glades. I was very impressed especially with there limited vert.
