SKIING WHALES AT WHITEFACE

Some days you go skiing and you end up whale watching. It’s not planned, it just happens that way. One minute you’re cruising down a groomer, the next you’re deep in a sea of snow standing near a large whale. The good news is that the whales are usually friendly…usually.

For those who may not know, a whale is simply a large pile of man-made snow. When I say large, I mean very large. They may very well be 20 ft. tall at their highest point. Whales can provide some interesting skiing. The snow can be good, but it can also be icy and even sticky.

Today was a day of skiing whales at Whiteface. I got to the mountain at noon and met up with none other than the World Famous Pro Skier Darren White. After our first run together, one of the lift attendants at the gondola let us know that Approach to Mountain Run and Draper’s Drop had opened. Approach starts right off the top of Little Whiteface and provides access to a bunch of great black diamond terrain, including Mountain Run. Naturally, after hearing these runs were open, we headed there and we lapped those trails quite a few times.

The trail layout that opened today was as follows: Approach to Mountain Run. Mountain Run was open half-way down and then you went on to Upper Thruway. From there you skied on to Draper’s Drop and then at the end you emptied out on to Lower Valley. Once you were in this terrain there was no way out. There were large whales everywhere from Mountain Run down to Draper’s Drop and they were making snow on these trails, too.

The snow quality was excellent in some areas on these runs, especially on Mountain Run, along the trees. The whales themselves were a mixed bag. Some were icy, some were very sticky and some you could ski right through. It was hard to “trust” the snow in a whole run from the top of Mountain Run to the bottom of Draper’s Drop, but overall, it was enjoyable. Plus, who doesn’t enjoy whale watching?

I never went up to the summit today, but I did ski Lower Northway, Excelsior and Victoria. Lower Northway was closed for racing most of the day. We skied it on our last run off the gondola. Victoria was very firm. Excelsior skied the best of the three. The terrain down low on the mountain was fine, but it was a bit crowded on some runs today at times, as the mountain was surprisingly busy.

Talk to you tomorrow,

- Lincoln