It wasn’t the coldest day ever at Whiteface, but it was certainly on the frigid side today. It was one of those days where you definitely needed to make sure all bare skin was covered while skiing. Despite this, my layers did a pretty good job at keeping me warm and I never really felt too cold on any of the lift rides.

The mountain wasn’t as busy as I expected for a weekend following a mid-week holiday. Lines were short to non-existent for most lifts, except the gondola, which had a regular five to 10-minute wait. Fortunately, the Little Whiteface Double was spinning and had no line, so I only rode the gondola three times: once at the start of the day, once after skiing Lookout Mountain and then one final time at the end of the day.

Whiteface opened a lot of terrain in late December, but I was blacked out during the holiday period so I didn’t get to ski it then. While I did ski at Whiteface this past Thursday, a lot of that terrain was closed due to conditions and wind holds, so today was my first time getting on some of these runs, such as The Wilmington Trail.

This season is the earliest Lookout Mountain — and its fan-favorite Wilmington Trail — has ever opened. Typically, Lookout Mountain opens in early to mid-February. Not this year. It was open for the Christmas holiday period, which is impressive. I took my first turns on it today and it was nice to be able to ski this part of the mountain so early in the season.

The Wilmington Trail is a great run. It’s long, has nice views and is bordering on being a black diamond, though it’s rated a blue. It skis fast, can get icy and you never really know what you’re going to get on it from day to day. It’s reliably better in the morning and slick in the afternoon. This morning it was on the firm side up high, with a bit more packed powder as you went down the run.

I also got to ski Mountain Run in full today. It opened in December from the top to about halfway down. The trail was nice and firm. Typically, if this trail is icy, you can almost always find snow right along the trees on skiers left and that was the case today. There was some nice powder there.

The summit, mainly just Riva’s Ridge, was an experience when I went up there. The snow guns were creating a man-made blizzard and you couldn’t see anything, plus there were just a lot of people up there in general, waiting to ski down Paron’s Run and The Follies. It was pretty cool, but it was a bit treacherous as you navigated to the trails. I skied Paron’s Run and it was covered in large whales. The snow was nice and soft, and the trail skied very well.

Elsewhere on the mountain, the snow was generally fairly firm, but there were powder stashes here and there and the edges of the trails had some snow. Skiers left on Victoria was once again really nice. The snow on Lower Northway was also really good.

I still haven’t decided exactly where I’m skiing tomorrow, but I’m considering Pico Mountain. As with every weekend ski day, that is subject to change!

Talk to you tomorrow,

Lincoln

SKIING THE WILMINGTON TRAIL AT WHITEFACE

PICO SUCKS, TELL YOUR FRIENDS

FRIDAY NIGHT UNDER THE LIGHTS