Whiteface closing day: Cinqo de Mayo 05/05/2018

I hinted in my April 21 report that Whiteface was hoping for a shot at Cinqo de Mayo skiing. When the official announcement came a few days before the weekend, there was no doubt we'd be heading up for their latest ever closing date.

Whiteface: 04/21/2018

Some skiers spend the winter chasing powder days, or more accurately, powder hours. Others live for the soft snow, blue sky and longer days of spring. If you're a spring guy, last weekend brought some of the best skiing of the season, with Whiteface serving up some of the best terrain in the east.

Whiteface: 04/02/2018

Coincidentally there have been several posts in the ski blogosphere recently with the theme of "it's the skiers I'm with that make the day great." Whiteface on the day after Easter was exactly that kind of day for our family. We had a great crew of 10 - our usual Saratoga Skier team of 4, another 2 kids whose dad is injured for the season, and our friends the Albas.

Whiteface: 03/24/2018

We've spent a lot of time skiing in Vermont lately but our visit to Whiteface last weekend was a good reminder of how great the skiing can be in New York. When conditions are as good as they were on Saturday, Whiteface rivals any mountain for King of the East. And when the Slides are open, if you ask me there's no contest.

Whiteface: 12/24/2017

We hadn't been back up to Whiteface since their opening day more than a month ago. What better way to celebrate Christmas Eve than a visit to the east's highest ski summit?

Whiteface opening day: 11/18/2017

Like most eastern skiers, we don't count on skiing before Thanksgiving, so with two "bonus" weekends now in the books it seems like we're off to a great to the season. After hitting Okemo's opening day last weekend, we ratcheted our ski game up a notch for Whiteface's opening day this weekend.

Whiteface, closing weekend: Friday 04/14/2017

It's amazing how quickly a strong April sun can bring the ski season to an end. After starting out the month with mid-winter conditions and full trail counts, Gore and Whiteface were working hard to piece together skiable routes just two weeks later. With some creative route finding and a willingness to slide across some occasional snirt, we closed out our season at Whiteface on a high note.

Whiteface: 03/26/2017

Our gamble with a dicey weather forecast paid off Sunday morning as we were greeted with sun and blue skies. By the time we booted up and boarded the gondi, warm air aloft (the summit was a good 10 degrees warmer than the base) and the strong March sun had already worked their magic.

Whiteface: 02/04/2017

I wasn’t exactly wishing I was back east, but the reports I heard while I was at Whistler sounded like conditions at Gore and Whiteface were about the best they’ve been in two years. Luckily, those conditions only got better during the week that followed.

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.

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.

Whiteface: 12/14/2016

We had the opportunity to enjoy great mid-winter conditions for ORDA's annual Media Day event showcasing Whiteface Mountain on Wednesday. Cloudy skies with on-and-off snow made for difficult picture taking, but I'll happily trade photo ops for ski conditions.

Gore and Whiteface, opening weekend: 11/26 & 11/27/2016

Thanksgiving weekend is the traditional start of the ski season, and after visiting family and stuffing ourselves with turkey on Thursday and Friday, we headed north to our dual home mountains, skiing Gore on Saturday and Whiteface on Sunday.

Adirondack ski areas by the numbers: 2015-16 season

Most eastern skiers would probably prefer to forget about the winter of 2015-16, also known as The Winter That Wasn't. Besieged by mild temperatures, lack of snowfall and one rain event after another, ski areas throughout the northeast pushed the limits of their snowmaking plants and crews to salvage what they could of the season. But you can fight mother nature only so much, and skiers suffered through limited terrain, event cancellations and a shortened season. Skier visits in the northeast were down a whopping 28% from the previous winter. Whiteface and Gore followed that trend, with significant decreases in both skier visits (down 21% and 44%, respectively) and revenue (down 21% and 37%, respectively). Here are the numbers:

2015-16 ski season wrap-up and highlights

Ask just about any avid east coast skier and they’ll likely tell you the best thing about the winter of 2015-16 is that it’s over. I’m not going to disagree with that, but instead of complaining about the limited terrain, the lack of snowfall, discouragingly warm temperatures and repeated rain events that characterized the season, I want to send out a big THANK YOU to the snowmakers and groomers at Gore and Whiteface. Without their hard work, we wouldn’t have had a ski season at all. So…. THANKS!!

Whiteface and Gore: 03/25 and 03/26/2016

Looking to get a few more days on our passes before the season's over, the kids and I headed up to Whiteface on Friday and Gore on Saturday.

Gray skies and a socked-in summit up at Whiteface made Friday a lousy day for taking pictures, but we enjoyed mild temperatures and hero snow anyway. Getting one more chance to ski favorites like Mountain Run and Skyward in the final few days of the season somehow brings at least a measure of redemption to a disappointing season.

Whiteface Mtn: 02/27/2016

At this point in the season a skier’s got to pick his days. You’re going to want new snow or warm temps and spring conditions. Saturday at Whiteface was neither. We had a great day anyway.

Whiteface Mtn: 01/23/2016

Looking out over the Adirondacks from the top of Whiteface’s summit lift, you never would have known that a blizzard was raging 250 miles south. While it would have been nice if winter storm Jonas sent some of its snow our way, we sure weren’t complaining. With blue skies, cold air and some of the best snow conditions this winter, we had one of our best ski day so far this season.

Whiteface Mtn: 12/31/2015 and 01/01/2016

Crowded, frozen granular, overcast. On the surface, pretty crappy conditions. Somehow we managed to have a great time.

Gore and Whiteface: 12/19 & 12/20/2015

When I said in an earlier post that our passes are working double-duty this year, I really meant it. This weekend we skied Saturday at Gore and Sunday up at Whiteface.

After a week-long thaw, I would have been just as happy to stay home and tune a few pairs of skis, but we awoke Saturday morning to a coating of white on the lawn and the kids twisted my arm to head up to the mountain for at least a few runs.

Gore on Saturday