Snowicane @Whiteface

Not sure about the whole 'snowicane' thing but it was definitely a weekend for the ages up in Lake Placid.  Planned months ago and somehow we lucked out and hit one of the best weekends of the season right on the head.  Lots of weather during the last week in New England had Whiteface covered in tons (literally) of wet heavy snow.

We arrived very early Friday morn with a full day of riding planned.  The weather was interesting to say the least.  Temps were actually on the high side, mountain was socked in a cloud most of the day and intermittently it would dump huge flakes of snow.  Later in the day the sun came out and it was full blown Spring skiing.  I've had a few 'full gamut' type days this year...I kinda like them.

 not too shabby

We maxed the terrain out for sure getting runs in all over the mountain.  I think the highlight for Friday were several runs down 'Lookout Below' a very sweet steep run off Lookout Mountain that had some great natural features and some fairly deep snow.  We got over there on first or second chair after they started the lift and got it early and often before it got tracked out.  Tre bien.

the local art scene is flourishing

The plan for Saturday had been up in the air going into the trip but after Friday it was quickly decided that shelling out for a day pass was more than worth it and we all manned up, got up early and hit the mountain again for another first/last chair day.  Temps had dropped, the existing snow had dried out a bit and there was even a few fresh inches to work with.  We got right to it again, getting in all the good trees and steeps.

We lucked out and Whiteface decided to open up the Slides on Saturday which from what I understand is a fairly rare occurance probably on par with the Tramline opening at Cannon...few and far between.  It was pretty gnarly terrain for 'in-bounds'...we did what we think were slides 2 and 4 (they are numbered lookers left to right across the face) but it was pretty foggy at the time and hard telling exactly where we were.  Whiteface screens any rider heading into the area but their criteria and their actual enforcement don't really match up.  We saw quite a few people who probably shouldn't have been on that terrain.

Even with all that snow there were still some hidden nasties just below the surface that required attention and on slide 4 there were some semi-mandatory airs and some really cool features.  Very cool terrain that I wish we had available at Cannon to shred.

Towards the end of the day we also got into Sugar Valley Glades, a 1mile + drainage with perfectly spaced trees.  Most of us commented on its natural playground, Narnia feel. 

i mean come on, just look at that.

My memories from riding Whiteface as a kid definitely leaned towards it being a racer's mountain, probably because I was one then.  That has definitely changed now, there is some pretty sweet stuff to be had, enough to fill two full days thats for sure.  I highly recommend checking it out if you have the means ($74 day pass...)

There are lots of other pics and vids floating around from some of the other guys.  In the next day or two I will get a bit more organized and share them here.

Dustin and Adam making some turns http://vimeo.com/9816066