Whitetail conditions.
January 17, 2002
For anyone who hasn't been to Whitetail yet this season and is wondering how the conditions are this is for you. I was there yesterday Sun 13th. The slopes are in pretty good condition. The snow yesterday was pretty slushy and heavy though and was pretty tough on Angel Drop on the way down to the terrain park as it was kicked into some reasonably large moguls. There was more than a handful of brown patches but none really affected the middle of the trails. It was pretty quiet yesterday too, lift lines were non existent for the most part. The new terrain park location is pretty good and the jumps were in good shape if a little to soft on landing. The only downside to its new location is the fact that its relatively flat after the initial run in. So you pretty much have to string a series of jumps together all the way to the end no stopping.
Down sides were mainly in the form of bare spots appearing in the snow where there was a lot of traffic. One notable one is at the exit of the terrain park. The are you exit from is now a little gate and by 3pm yesterday that was looking pretty brown, I'm pretty sure I eard some stone scraping my board. Overall though a beautiful day. Great sun, amazing view and some damn fine riding. Worth a look.
Thanks!
I was curious about the conditions there given the recent thaw.
John Sherwood
THanks for the info! The park sounds interesting, are there any rails or motherhuckers? ALso, is anyone going up to WHite Tail this weekend with an extra spot in there car? If so, email me at billyd@gwu.edu. I could give you gas money, your kids lessons, or even tune your skis for you. Please help me out I just got back from Whistler and i'm jones'n!
i would be really cautious about whitetail this weekend. in talking to the mt manager at roundtop yesterday he told me that wt has asked roundtop for extra bamboo because they have so many bare spots.
The park doesnt have rails, it has three tables and a kicker. The first table is deceptive. You really have to gun it on the run in no matter how fast you think your going it will probably be just enough to get you flying. That said when I was there it was slushy and maybe a little stickier than if it was true hardpack. After the first jump you can carve hard left to the kicker which can actually give some alright air. After that you can either aim for the second table to the right or pass it by to get speed for the third and final table.
I always tried to take in all three to make it worthwhile but its hard to get the speed up from the kicker to the second table and from the second table you really have to push the edges to get some good acceleration for the third table.
I was thinking of going this weekend but unless it gets really cold its probably not going to be worth it.
Sorry I made an error in the last post. The kicker is to the right of the first table and you have to carve left to the second table. Hey it's 8:30 in the morning I'm just about waking up, give me a break.
What is the bamboo used for?
they use the babmboo to mark thin areas. i also heard that liberty took the snow from their park to use to fill in bare spots. anybody know about this???
thats life in the mid atlantic. whitetail is especially bad since it is south facing and they only have three guys on their snowmaking crew. i just got back from roundtop and they are still in good shape and expecting some good snowmaking nights. for a weekend trip id say go to 7 springs but if you snowboard, MASS is having a contest there so the pipe and park might not be available.
I think a trip to Snowshoe is required. I just wish it wasn't a 5 hour drive away, it doesnt exactly lend itself to a day trip.
I don't know whats worse, waiting for the snow to arrive or seeing it arrive and watch it disintegrate before your eyes. This winter really sucks.