Whiteface: 1/21/2017

No skier would actually wish for April temperatures in January, but nobody was complaining at Whiteface on Saturday when temperatures climbed into the upper 30s by opening bell. The mild weather softened surfaces from base to summit, delivering spring conditions that were a vast improvement over the frozen ice cube that would have greeted skiers had temperatures been 10 degrees colder. In the middle of what has been a vicious January thaw, we got the next best thing to a powder day.

Mont Tremblant: 01/14 - 01/16/2017

“Head for Canada!” has been frequently heard around the Saratoga Skier household since November, but it has nothing to do with the presidential election. It’s all about the snow – north of the St. Lawrence was the jackpot for eastern snowfall last winter (about 130% of normal), and that trend has continued into this winter as well.

Gore, Mt. VanHo, Whiteface: New Year's weekend 12/30/2016 - 1/01/2017

We had a nice stretch of skiing over the New Year holiday, leveraging our ORDA passes for maximum variety over the three days.

Like most working Americans, I was scheduled to work on Friday and be off on Monday, but with the incoming storm Thursday night I quickly swapped out Monday for Friday. Apparently I wasn't the only one to come up with that idea as we arrived Friday morning to a rapidly filling parking lot, probably the busiest day we've seen at Gore in two years.