<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/28/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR> I finally got it together timing wise to get my first day out with my buddy Greg. This has been one of those seasons that started off really shaky with poor conditions most of the time and personal commitments in conflict for Greg to get much skiing in. Wednesday, the ship finally came in. <BR> <BR>We got there around 9:30 due to having to dig out quite a bit to get started. Between the grooming and the wind, one can never be sure what conditions you might find at Whiteface even with over a foot in your driveway. We took no chances and dragged two sets of skis each from the parking lot just in case. The Volkl's wound up staying locked to the rack all day as we were shocked to find tons of powder and literally nothing groomed since the storm had started. We took the Gondi to the top of little Whiteface and decided to take the approach to Wilderness and down to mid station to drop off our packs. The approach, which is usually skating rink hard and windblown, was delightfully full of loose packed powder the full length of the ridge that it runs across. We could do steady straight ahead fall line turns with no edge scratch or scrape and without getting screaming out of control sideways down the trail. Following the left edge tight we headed down the more sheltered upper Wilderness into big piles of loose powder and no ice. The turning was effortless and solid. Even the steady steepness of upper wilderness was not tiring because of the good snow resistance to hard carving. Then something caught our eye. Someone headed down the cutover to McKenzie from Wilderness and there was no rope across. <BR> <BR>We readily succumbed to our curiosity and headed over to McKenzie. What a surprise awaited us. Snowmaking had been going strong for several days and they hadn't groomed at all. McKenzie has some of the most erratic terrain of any of the trails there with dips, rolls and erratic back and forth fall lines. Most of the time grooming tends to backfill the low spots and turn it into just another flat, boring, mctrail. This time the erratic blowing of the snow made the trail even more interesting and then a topping of over a foot of fresh natural made it especially nice. It was very much like being back at Orford a week ago with out the trees scattered throughout the middle of the trail. We left the packs off, went up the double to the top of Mt. Run and did Parkway all the way to the bottom. Powder, powder and more powder and the guns blowing on the bottom part. Next we did the gondi up again and tried Essex. Bad exposure left that puppy totally blown off on the top but nice and packed in on the lower half. We decided to leave that off the list to do again and cut back over excelsior and over to lower Cloudspin. This was alternate windblown powder over solid ice and ground up hardpack golfball stuff that made for tricky but interesting skiing. We had heard from someone on the Gondi that Skyward wasn't open due to prep work to set up the race course for Goodwill games and there was howling wind up on Peron's so we decided to not venture up to the summit. Down Broadway to mid station and headed back up the double. Saw our friend Dave half way down Mt. Run and hollered for him to wait for us. I actually ran a non-stop 3/4 run down Mt. Run pulling tight fall line turns on those little Elans without stopping. Any one who skis with me knows I have to take frequent breather breaks on the long hard runs and I can only attribute this run to the effortless turning in the powder for increasing my stamina. Well, a lot of fun factor and adrenalin might have also had something to do with it. <BR> <BR>Dave was having a hard time in the loose snow. He is a recent middle age returnee to skiing much like Greg and me and doesn't have much hip and knee flexibility. He screams cruisers at warp nine and likes to run Nastar gates. He said he was having a bad time and thought about going home. Greg and I encouraged him to try McKenzie and we would give him a few pointers in the bumps and rough stuff. I think it might have been more our glee and enthusiasm than technical pointers but Dave's countenance slowly changed and a smile grew over his face. Telenaut, if you are out there, I wasn't giggling. It was more whooping, hollering and cackling. Before we knew, it was after 1:00 before we stopped for lunch. After lunch we decided to make at least one trip up to check out Peron's. The wind on lower Cloudspin was extremely foreboding. We headed up the quad and it was running extra slow due to the wind. This was wind-chill equal to Owls Head the day we were there. There was little conversation and mostly painful immobility on the ride up. We were amazed to find skyward open and could only make hand gestures to concur we would do it due to the howling wind. The top was very interesting. The snow, wind and light made it almost impossible to differentiate between sheer ice and six foot deep drifts. One turn you are literally falling off the side of the trail and the next you cram your pole up to the handle. Eventually we found the left side to be pretty consistently deep windblown for excellent carving of effortless turns until coming out at the top of lower Cloudspin. We savored the 1800 plus vertical of turns because we knew we weren't going back up there. <BR> <BR>We went back to Mt. Run and practiced picking powder lines throughout the ever increasing scraped off areas. The chairlift ride was much shorter and no wind on that side of the mountain. We finished up with three or four more fun runs down McKenzie before hitting the base to pack up at 4:10. It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun. I sure hope we get more of these little storms over Feb and March. Greg and I would love to venture over to Vermont more often if conditions steadily improve. Also included in our wish list are the glades at Gore and NY state's own little "Magic" known as Hickory. Anybody remember the Woodstock chant, NO RAIN!? Everybody together: MORE SNOW, MORE SNOW!!
Whiteface, NY 1/26/00
- Thread starter Jimski
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