I was not expecting today to be as good as it was. There were snow showers and squalls hanging around the North Country all day and Whiteface must’ve been hammered earlier, because there was a lot of snow on the hill this afternoon. The snow was dry powder, the kind that squeaks as you ski over areas where it’s been packed down. Needless to say, it was yet another great afternoon at the Face. There’s been a lot of those this week.

I arrived at the mountain a bit later in the afternoon than usual. I’m still dealing with a lingering toe issue, so less time on the mountain probably isn’t the worst thing. I met up with Wild Bill, who informed me the gondola had gone on wind hold. Wild Bill loves the gondola, so this was absolutely devastating for him, but what he didn’t know, was that we were about to find some incredible snow high up on the mountain, off the summit.

While the gondola was on wind hold, the other four lifts open for the day, including the Face lift and Summit Quad, were still spinning. I’m not sure how many runs were open at the start of the day, but there were some rope drops and, by the end of the day, the number had grown to 37. Our first run together was off the Face lift. We skied Upper Valley to Lower Valley and Fox. It was the first day that Lower Valley and Fox were open. There were still some whales on Lower Valley, and like the rest of the mountain, there was plenty of fresh snow on both trails, so it all skied great.

After our lap on the Face Lift, we headed up to the summit. This is where things got interesting, as Cloudspin was open for the first time this season. Cloudspin was used for the men’s downhill during the 1980 Winter Games. It's one of the few runs at Whiteface that they don’t make snow on and it has a wild feel to it as a result.

We entered the run from the side entrance on Paron’s Run. The entrance was a little rocky, but after that you could choose a lane down. I chose to stick to the left side of the run, as I’ve always found the wind to really fill in the snow there. I don’t know how much snow there was, but it was deep and you floated right through it. Admittedly, there’s not much of a base under this snow, so there were some rocks and other hazards to watch out for, but it was worth it. It’s not every day you get to ski through this kind of snow in the East and, when it happens, you know it’s something special. For what it’s worth, I did muster up three core shots on one ski. Tools not jewels!

After Cloudspin, we immediately headed down Niagara. This is a run they do make snow on, but today it was all natural. I found the rocks to be less of an issue on this, as you could see them coming and they weren’t as buried under the snow. The snow on Niagara was also deep and fantastic. From here, we headed down Victoria and then back to the Summit Quad for some more runs.

At some point, the gondola re-opened and I was able to get a run in from it. We chose to hit Upper Northway and it was interesting. The wind had really done a number on some parts of the run, so it was a mix of ice and deep powder. After that, I called it quits, as my toe was starting to really bother me, and dropped my skis off at the shop to get them fixed. I actually haven’t had these skis tuned in a very long time, so today’s core shots were a good excuse to finally get them in the shop.

Never Quit Skiing,

Lincoln

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