SHREDDING GROOMERS AT WHITEFACE

My original plan for today was not to ski at Whiteface. Instead, I’d hoped to go to Killington or maybe even just back to Sugarbush, where I skied yesterday. However, as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I hurt the big toe on my left foot on Friday in the trees at Jay Peak. I had some lingering pain this morning, so I decided to keep it simple and head to Whiteface, my home mountain.

The view from the top of Little Whiteface.

Today was gorgeous. The sun was out, the sky was very blue and there were some clouds hanging around, which added to the beauty. It wasn’t as cold as it’s been recently and I actually felt warm at times while skiing. Winds were strong enough up high that the Summit Quad was on wind hold while I was there, but elsewhere I didn’t find it to be all that windy, at least compared to the last week.

Riding the Lookout Triple.

The top of the Wilmington Trail.

The view from the top of Lookout Below.

Aside from the Summit Quad, all the other lifts that normally spin were open. While some of the main intermediate trails felt a little crowded at times, lift lines were generally short or non-existent. Even the gondola was probably only a five-minute wait today, which isn’t bad at all.

Due to my toe, I didn't want to ski anything bumpy so I stuck to groomers all day. Whiteface did open up Wilderness yesterday for the season and I briefly considered skiing it, despite it being bumpy, but when I went to it, they had roped it off. That was probably for the best.

Looking down Victoria.

Looking out at the mountains at the bottom of Approach.

The snow around the mountain ranged from sticky to packed powder. I’d say most runs higher up the mountain were fairly firm, while down low it seemed like packed powder was more dominant. The only sticky snow I came across was on Victoria, where they were making snow, and it was nasty. It almost brought me down! Aside from that spot, Victoria was pretty firm, as was Mountain Run, but there was some snow on the sides of these runs. Wilmington Trail was firm up high but better as you went down.

Whiteface is making snow on Upper and Lower Skyward, Niagara, Victoria and Cover’s Cut (officially Burton’s Cut). I’m thinking Skyward may be open by the end of this week, at least with whales. We shall see.

Talk to you tomorrow,

Lincoln