2 Days in the Adirondacks – Gore and Whiteface

We rolled in to the parking lot around 10.30am at Gore on a sunny, New England warm (18F) Thursday morning. With the lot about half full, there didn’t seem any panic to hit the lifts, So we geared up, snacked in the base lodge, and were on the gondola at 11am.

With all but one lift running, there was plenty of terrain to explore – in fact more than we could hit in 5 hours. I suspect, due to being just before the MLK long weekend, all the runs were groomed and in good condition. Even scary trails like Lies on Burnt Ridge were flat. A few bumps around the hill would have been good. And a few glades – unfortunately there wasn’t quite enough snow for the trees. So we shredded groomers all day long. Steep ones like Chatiemac, Hawkeye and Topridge, and cruisey winding trails like Twister, Uncas and Sagamore. Like giggles on bad sitcoms, there were occasional icy surprises, but basically the mountain was skiing well. Another foot and it’ll be skiing beautifully. Maybe one day we’ll be there for that. Gore is pretty darn good ski hill.

We woke up in Lake Placid the next morning with 2 inches of cold smoke on the truck, and temps lingering around 0F. Only the wind threatened a great ski day, and as we got our tickets at Whiteface, our worst fears were realized – no, not Mitt Romney standing for President again – worse, the gondola was on wind hold. So we rode the Face and the terrifying Little Whiteface double, and ripped the trail edges where the wind had loaded at least 3 inches of light fluffy good stuff. Serious cold drove us in for a very welcome coffee after 4 runs. And then, as if by magic, it stopped dumping, the winds dropped, the skies cleared, and the gondola started moving.

An excellent afternoon ensued. We basically did top to bottom laps, up the gondola, to the Summit chair, and from the top Skyward was the pick. Loaded with constantly refreshing wind blown, it just begged for high speed  wide radius turns. Victoria and Niagara offered soft, carvable alternatives lower down thanks to blazing snowguns, and then it was wash, rinse, repeat. Until 4pm when the gondola, rather inconsiderately I thought, closed down 😉

Gore 7400m, Whiteface 11,500m vert

Season totals: 15 days, 110,700m vert, 3 powder days

A New York State Road Trip

We’ve had several excellent ski days at Holiday Valley in New York. Unfortunately, this really wasn’t one of them. The previous day’s snow had turned to rain until 3am, when the freeze returned, followed by 4 inches of super light pow. By the time I arrived, there was little of the former left, but lots of frozen solid base that jiggled your brain cells at anything approaching cruising speeds. There were nice turns to be had, but a lot of less nice ones in between. It wasn’t a long day.

Further north in the Adirondacks at Gore Mountain, rain hadn’t been a problem and there were remnants from the recent storm adorning the upper mountain. The Straighbrook area, served by a fixed grip quad, offered some really excellent skiing – steep, smooth groomers and various pitches of bumps on Chatiemac and Lies that were guaranteed to get the circulation flowing on a cold, grey day. Another foot of snow and the multitude of glade runs would probably have been open. Some of these looked to hide some fabulous lines – worthy of return visit alone to play in these one day.

Only about 2/3rds of the mountain was open, but there was more than enough terrain to entertain me for a day. I interspersed long blue groomers off the gondola (providing welcome warmth) with slow chair rides to access some fine, advanced terrain. It was a great ski day on a mountain that looks to offer a lot of variety tucked away in its many nooks and crannies.

The next day, the sun came out, the temperatures dropped and the wind howled further north at Whiteface. After nearly freezing to death on a slow ride up the Summit chair, I decided that lapping the Cloudsplitter gondola and alternating routes down its 2400+ vertical feet was the way to spend the day. Before I knew it, 20 or so runs later, I’d cracked 50K vertical feet and it was time to relax.

These 20-ish runs brought some really nice turns on terrain that transitions from steep groomers and bumps alongside the Little Whiteface and Freeway chairs, to gentler windy cruisers like Essex and Northway. Similar to Gore, the mountain seemed a decent  storm or two short of opening the steeps and trees in this area of the mountain. I bet the skiing is pretty darn fine when those ropes drop.

Holiday Valley 5400m vert, Gore 9600m vert, Whiteface 15,900m vert

Season Totals: 25 days, 203,400m vert

2 powder days

A weekend at Bristol Mountain

After an enjoyable but vertically challenged Xmas and New Year at Wisp, Holiday Valley and Seven Springs, we were in need of a fast lift and runs that lasted more than 90 seconds. A cold storm had come through to the north, so at the last minute, with about 8 inches of fresh in the forecast for Friday, Bristol Mountain in Upstate New York became the weekend destination.

Bristol is hardly a gargantuan, but 1200ft vert and two fast lifts gave us enough to play on for a weekend. With runs basically cut through the trees on the front of big hill, there was roughly 7 or 8 main runs down the full face, all with pretty much the same moderate, rolling pitch. This is no huckster hill, but some soft bump fields, freshened by the new snowfalls, gave variety to the skiing, as did dodging the many straight-lining locals who flew past every few seconds.

Saturday was pretty primo conditions-wise. The new snow on Friday and ferocious additions of gun pow made for soft, carvy skiing and even the odd stash of two-turn pow by the trees. The sun was out, slowly warming us against the somewhat ferociously cold morning wind. Sunday was a little firmer, but much less busy, meaning the steeper congested parts of runs didn’t get scraped down to the underlying gun pow glaciers. We left reluctantly at 2pm because the skiing was still good.

Overall, I really liked Bristol. It’s cruisey and comfortable skiing, like  a visit to your favorite aunt who always fed you great homemade cakes and slipped you beer under the table. Like all aunts though, there are oddities. The main one being that the Comet express quad from the base lodge pretty much had a 5-ish+ minute (singles line) wait all day long. Not terrible, and very well organized loading, but good to avoid sometimes. Luckily this was easy, as the other express quad, Galaxy, was more or less ski-on all weekend apart from the first hour Sunday. Why – I have no idea? And anywhere that serves healthy sized bowls of white bean chicken chili and fresh dipping bread is a winner in my book.

8600m, 8100m

Season Totals: 14 days, 109,200m vert

Xmas Skiing in, er, Maryland

I must confess that until recently I had no idea you could ski in Maryland. A quick study of a map though reveals that Maryland isn’t just the Chesapeake Bay hugging state I had imagined. For all sorts of Mason-Dixon line reasons, the state protrudes as far west as western Pennsylvania. And in that western extreme, what seems like 100m over the PA state line, lies Wisp.

The Sunday before Xmas was probably not the best time for a first visit. After a sustained cold and snowy period when gun and natural pow was plentiful, a 36 hour, warm, wet front hit the area. Luckily the moisture stayed mostly north, sparing Wisp of the worst of the deluge. By 11am the rain had stopped and a brisk wind quickly blow-dried us in the 50F+ temperatures.

The upside of all this was we essentially had our own private ski hill for the day. With most runs open and well covered considering the drenching they’d had, we explored at will. Slopes trail off all sides of the ski hill that rises above the beautiful Deep Creek Lake, making it easy to link runs and move around the mountain. We found a surprising amount of variety – short steeps, snaking groomers – that bodes well for when conditions are a little less swamp-like. Slow lifts don’t bode well for busy days, but at only 90 minutes from home, I suspect we’ll sneak a few days in at Wisp this season. It looks a fun little ski hill. For Maryland, anyway.

5 days later we headed north to the more familiar climes of Holiday Valley, NY. The cold and snow had returned, creating some pretty decent conditions all over the resort. Groomers skied really well, especially early, and crowds never reached levels that caused any lift-line angst. As on our previous visits, the runs off the Chute chair provided the best skiing on mostly deserted slopes. With good conditions, there’s plenty of fun to be had at Holiday Valley.

I just hope this winter lasts a lot longer than the Steelers season did, and even greets the arrival of the Pirates season. That’d be nice.

Wisp: 3900m

Holiday Valley: 6100m

Season Totals: 10 days, 75,400m vert

Presidents Weekend at Holiday Valley, NY

Presidents Weekend is never the best weekend to ski anywhere. Too many people on slopes and hard to find places to stay. Luckily our buddy DeadSled had already plans to hit Holiday Valley in New York State, and had a spare room in his cabin. We were there as fast as our truck could carry us – a tad over 3 hours from Pittsburgh.

An early Saturday start gave us a jump on the crowds. Firm but decent ‘roid was all ours, and we followed Sled on a quick mountain tour. Like teenage sex, each run was a brief but enjoyable event. And it was easy to get up and do another one.

Weekend crowds finally crawled out of bed, and it was busy from then on. Not horrendously, but when you wait 5 minutes for a lift, have a 5 minute lift ride and are back at the lift two minutes later, it’s not a recipe for a big vert day. We bailed at 2,30 after 40 (!) runs and went drinking.

Sunday was a whole different matter. 4 inches of incredibly light Lake Erie poop (lake effect snow) blanketed the mountain. We were on 3rd chair, and the reward was an hour of super-fun groomer pow and bumps. It was mighty cold too, hovering around 12F all day with a wind chill that made me appreciate how my namesakes fish products might feel.

The skiing stayed pretty darn good all day, as the attractions of the charming nearby Ellicottville‘s good range of drinking establishment seemed to take its toll on the souls who braved the conditions. The Wall, a steep solid 5 turn pitch was worthy of multiple runs, and the runs off the Eagle and Chute chairs held some soft snow all day. It took 44 runs before we felt we’d got value for money off our lift tickets (~$1.15 per run!) and rolled back to the Steel City. If every day at Holiday Valley was as good as Sunday, even with the limited 750ft vert, I could ski there all the time. If only …

Saturday 6100, Sunday 7200m vert

Season Totals: 50 days, 21 powder days, 462,100m vert