GREAT DAY OF SPRING SKIING AT WHITEFACE
I haven’t felt great all week, and I’ve missed a couple of ski days due to that, so I was on the fence about skiing today when I woke up. In the end, I figured I should probably head up to Whiteface in case this is their last weekend of the season. It was a great spring skiing day. There was sunshine, it was warm (but not terribly warm), the pond skim happened and, just in general, there was a fun atmosphere around the mountain. If today was my last day there this season, it was a good way to end it.
Fox seen from the gondola.
The view from Little Whiteface.
Upper Mackenzie.
For April 11, there was a decent crowd there today, but it wasn’t busy at the lifts or on the snow. They had 51 runs open, which were accessed by five lifts. I spent most of my time riding the gondola and lapping the Little Whiteface Double, but I did go up to the summit a couple of times.
Mountain Run.
Lower Wilderness.
Wild Bill is the lowest person on the right.
Pond skim.
I started the day skiing alone, but as I was riding the Little Whiteface Double one time I witnessed East Coast legend Wild Bill tearing down Mountain Run on his trusty steed Armada. After meeting up a run or two later, we checked out the pond skim and then got in a few runs. It’s worth noting that Wild Bill rode the gondola for the 750th time this winter today, and he also crossed 2.4 million feet of vertical. He accomplished that much vertical on around 60 days of skiing. They don’t call him the ‘King of Vertical’ for nothin’.
Lower Thruway.
Upper Skyward.
Niagara.
With plenty of sunshine, and temperatures probably in the upper 30s and 40s, the snow was nice and soft everywhere. As the day progressed, it started to get a little sloppy from around mid-mountain down to the base, with some trails like Boreen getting really sloppy. The one run that had a little firmer of a secondary surface when I skied it was Upper Skyward. The top layer was soft, but underneath it was a little more wintry than elsewhere on the mountain. It wasn’t icy. Just a little firmer.
All of the bare spots around the mountain are alive, well, and growing by the day. That said, coverage is still great on a lot of terrain, especially up high. Unfortunately, there’s also random bits of rock hanging out on some trails that can kind of just sneak up on you. That happened to Wild Bill on Boreen. I can confirm that Armada did suffer an injury, and surgery will be needed, but he should make a full recovery.
Victoria.
Bare spot on Mountain Run.
I don’t know if today was my last day at Whiteface this season or not. Whiteface is open tomorrow, but I'll be skiing in Vermont, and they’re TBD on operations after that. While coverage looks good up high on the mountain, the forecast this week looks pretty rough with warm temperatures and rain. If they open again after tomorrow, it’ll probably just be on weekends so daily skiing there is likely over for me regardless.
With that said, the ski season isn’t over just yet for me. I do have the option to ski during the week, and on the weekends, at both Jay Peak and Sugarbush for as long as they’re open. I also have three Killington days left on my Ikon Pass, and I’d also love to make it to Black Mountain in New Hampshire before the season ends.
Never Quit Skiing,
Lincoln