C1erArt

Online at the Whiteface site.

Was up week before last and conditions were just ok. Looks like it will be below freezing at night most of the week, so they will be blowing snow. Looks like Wilderness and Thruway are closed, but they may be saving them for the weekend. We got a 3 day pass for $110, it's even cheaper now.

When I got sledded off Floyds 10 years ago with a season ending crash last week in January, Frost didn't refund anything since I had skied more than 10 days that year.

Everything was flat except a mogul race course set up on Wilderness, and some stuff right at the snow guns.

Looks like the poor winter hit Alpine Mountain pretty hard, gross revenues less than half of last year. Puts Jack Frost's increase in adult season passes in a new light: http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20160305/NEWS/160309724/0/SEARCH *bankruptcy

No, no natural snow at all. Even cross-country was closed.

Lived up to its name - ice face. The 6-10" of snow predicted for Wednesday turned out to be an inch of ice, but overall things were not too bad. Mountain Run, Wilderness, Essex, Upper Northway and Thruway were frozen granular with just enough icy spots to be sure you stayed on your edges. Likewise they had the top of the women's downhill (Upper Skyward) open to a cross over to the Niagara (men's downhill) and Victoria headwalls. Lower Skyward under the Summit Quad (chair 6) was closed (as well as the slides and lookout mountain - haven't skied either of them and don't think I ever will do the slides). Upper Skyward and Niagara were nice and fast (one of the few times I've seen Niagara without icy bumps), but Victoria was a mess of ice and blown snow piles. They were blowing a lot of snow (got down to -2 one night), but didn't see a groomer all week. The blue under the Face Lift (upper Valley) down to the mid-station lodge got pretty messy with whales, bumps, and ice. Unfortunately the way Whiteface is laid out all the Big Whiteface traffic funneled to Victoria and the blue Little Whiteface to Upper Valley. Mid-station lodge was the usual sun-tan hangout. No lift lines anywhere, except a couple of 5 minute lines at the Gondola. The mountain run chair didn't open until Saturday so we had to go all the way down when skiing Little Whiteface. My skis were pretty sharp, but I got a base grind at the Mountain for Saturday that made a lot of difference on the ice. I guess they know what it takes to get skis ready for the slopes there. We stayed at the KOA just up the road. We stayed there a few times in the 80's but the owners sold to new owners that wintered in California. The current owners took over last February and are renting out small heated cabins as well as camper spots all winter. Pretty quiet during the week, but the cabins filled up on the weekend. We were there in our truck camper (our new heated mattress pad worked great) and the kids and their cousins were in one of the cabins. Back in the day we used to stay in a ramshackle bar/lodge (Steinhoffs) that is closed now - the owner's son was on the race team and when he graduated they shut it down and left. Great ambiance. Kids did the bobsled and spent a few evenings in town. We left early today (Sunday) and my son and his wife took a few runs down Mountain Run before it got too crowded. Sounds like he had a great time: Needless to say, my top speed was about half that.

It seems that way, unless they add more options later on. We like to ski for a couple hours in the morning or afternoon. If we travel we aren't going to a Peak Resort. We went to Mt Snow a couple of years ago - it was nice but not worth going back to. Was going to join the midweek old geezer club, wonder how the retirees will handle the pass situation.

Season passes for my wife and I would go from $924 for this year to over $1200. Pretty steep to ski a 500 foot hill (pun intended)

Wonder if they are trying to move their customer base to other mountains and plan to close Frost and Boulder eventually. Can't have been too profitable this year and no reason to expect future years to be much better.

Looks like they eliminated all senior and family discounts. Pretty expensive for someone not visiting other Peak mountains, especially after season pass holders took a drubbing this year. Looks like we will be following everyone else over to Blue next year.

Heading to Whiteface this week. Hopefully there will be some snow left when we get back.

They widened Rivershot at the entrance to elevator glade, making the drop in very narrow, and they didn't blow any snow over there, concentrating on the last drop of Rivershot. So the glade has been all rocks. I think the race team use of East mountain hasn't been too bad since they have been off this other mountain races quite a bit. Any effort to widen Rivershot helps - I hate having to stop and peer over the edge to see if it is blocked. But I've been avoiding weekends except Sunday late afternoons

Just got back, everything is open and conditions are hard but not icey. Started blowing snow as we left. Challenge glade is pretty glazed over.

Haven't seen anyone on it, but there were some tracks on the lower section. Elevator glade is non-existent.

Floyd's is nice and flat for the race Sunday, and Rivershot and Challenge have a lot of new snow but are a little bumpy. Hopefully will be nice cord in the morning. Top section of Exhibition bumps have a lot of snow but are a little flat, bottom section are a little bigger but pretty icey.

Chilly today, out for a couple of hours this afternoon. They have been putting down a lot of snow, Challenge Glade is filled in, even the inside area closer to East Mountain lift. All the snow in the photo from that lift is from the fans.

At Frost Sunday afternoon I skied onto the lifts pretty much every time with no wait. Also did 6-7 runs per hour, but of course those runs are 1/2 the length of Blue. For me the major attraction of Frost is the great snow conditions. Even late Sunday afternoon Challenge was in great shape and T-bolt was good sking except for the middle of the first headwall.

Was out in the morning after a couple hours on Friday. Very solid and fast on Friday with Floyd's a little bumpy. Heading out this afternoon, taking the morning off watching FIS women's super g on nbc sports extra. Missed the big snow fall, but yesterday was great. They blew snow from the fans Friday night and left the headwalls on East mountain and Challenge with some powder. Headed right over to East before they closed Floyd's for racers, but they had the younger racers on Telstar and Solitude doing slalom, the older team was off somewhere so Floyd's was open all day. Skied a couple dozen runs listening to Springsteen until the rentals started coming over around 10. They put a lot of snow into Challenge glade, and was able to ski all the way down to the race shack - first time I skied the lower gray birch area in quite a while. Did scrape my bases a little on a camouflaged rock. Then a few runs on an empty Challenge, then Thunderbolt, Exhibition, and called it a day. Exhibition bumps looked good, being top to bottom with new snow, but decided not to push my luck. Skipped the lodge this time and booted up in the lot.

Out for a couple of hours in the afternoon, conditions cold but pretty good. Sitting out today, hopefully get out tomorrow morning. Slopes very hard but not icey (was out Sunday afternoon, took two runs and decided to call it a day). They blew snow into Challenge glade and were perhaps a little too enthusiastic, a lot of snow covered branches came down. Hopefully, the snowboarders will grind them up. They built a patch of moguls on exhibition and also blew a lot of snow on the final drop of river shot. Looking forward to tomorrow.

I heard that the racers felt they weren't competitive training on Challenge. I know when my son was racing at Frost he would freak out a little on steeper slopes at other mountains - particularly Ski Denton.

But on a brighter note, I like how they groomed downhill left of the towers at the bottom of Thunderbolt (and Exhibition also). Makes it easier to stay out of slower skiers way. They also groomed to the right of tower 6 above Rivershot and made it fairly wide. Gives a little variety on that run.

Don't thInk Davenport has been involved for a few years. Looks like the older race team lost their hangout in the cafe on the building south side. The whole area is waitress serve only (wait to be seated) and has lockable glass doors. Also lost the storage bins on the side near that door. More floor space going to sales, going to be pretty crowded on weekends.

Montana's done, dams on the Missouri are generating electrons for Northwestern Energy now instead of PPL, Just finishing up a project in rural northwestern Alabama. Quite a difference, good venison jerky there though. When Floyds is bumped up it is like Denali, but pretty nice when smooth. When they close Floyds, River Shot becomes unrunable due to the size and quality of the crowds. Too narrow, and I hate it when people do edge to edge turns.

Started a little late, had a web meeting, got on the snow about 10:30 just as they finished putting up the orange room on Floyds. Blue and black parka, black pants, gray helmet, gray Elan skis and bright Leki poles. Probably most notable for singing to myself on the slopes. Try to do something about Solitude - I'm getting too old to launch myself but not old enough to slow down.