Conditions Report
This report is from Friday, January 23, 2026.
My roommate Ben and I woke up to our 6:00 a.m. alarms to see a current windchill value of -20 degrees Fahrenheit at the mountain. After a few minutes of contemplation, we reluctantly got out of our warm beds to get ready for the two-hour drive to Whiteface Mountain, New York, our home mountain of choice as students at St. Lawrence University. Luckily for us, we made the right decision.
After letting our car warm up and getting on the road, we decided to check the snow report out of curiosity. We weren’t expecting much with only scattered snow showers forecast overnight, but we quickly saw reports of 6+ inches after getting another 4 inches the day prior. Our excitement grew as we passed snowbanks along the road, discussing our plans to find powder as we made our way deeper into the Adirondack Park.
After a classic Stewart’s stop for some breakfast, caffeine, and gas, we found ourselves a bit later than expected. However, we were pleased to see that even with our delayed start, lines at the Cloudsplitter Gondola and Face Lift were practically non-existent. After a short ride to mid-mountain, we took the Lookout Mountain triple up to my all-time favorite, The Wilmington Trail.
With a near 3,000-foot vertical descent and over two miles in length, the Wilmington Trail is hard to beat on days when the slopes stay quiet. Endless views greet you as you make fast, carving turns down the mountain, but there are also some fun drops and playful side-hits that can be explored. We particularly enjoyed these on our runs, as they were largely untouched, leaving us with soft landings and deep turns on a day that was expected to be firm and fast.
The remainder of our morning was spent in search of soft snow, which was easy to come across in the woods. With nearly every trail open, including most of the glades, Whiteface is off to a strong first half of its season. While our skis may have taken a hit or two on some buried rocks, the woods were largely blanketed in a healthy snowpack.
Following a quick break to warm up, Ben and I spent much of our afternoon watching our peers from the St. Lawrence Alpine Ski team compete in the SLU Carnival, an annual race we hold at Whiteface. We remained at the base of Draper’s Drop, where the slalom events are held, to watch the athletes finish their races for the day, then skated over to the park for our final laps.
Many New York skiers also love Whiteface for their terrain park builds. While not as extreme as I remember in past years, the parks at Whiteface have great flow and an awesome variety of features. After a few very sketchy rails and close calls on the jumps, we decided not to push our luck and opted for our “two-skip” of the day, a phrase we like to use to avoid the term “last run,” an omen that’s sure to result in bad luck.
After packing up and getting back to the car, we once again opted for a post-ski stop at Stewart’s in Lake Placid for a budget-friendly meal on our ride home. The ride home consisted of dinner on the road, half-asleep naps, and talks of how we’re ready to do it all over again next weekend, after a few days of being normal college students, of course.
Even with the mid-winter conditions I described, Whiteface Mountain and the rest of New England are in for a healthy snowstorm early this week that will significantly bolster snowpacks. While the largest totals are expected to be a bit south, in the Catskills and Berkshires perhaps, Whiteface is still set to receive double-digit snowfall totals according to forecasters. To cap off the storm, temperatures will remain frigid for the foreseeable future, preserving the substantial snowpack that we East Coast skiers are currently enjoying. This storm is very likely to push Whiteface Mountain to 100% open, aside from The Slides, an all-natural set of chutes and waterfalls that showcase some of the most extreme in-bounds skiing on the East. Avalanche mitigation and stability testing will need to be performed by ski patrol before these coveted runs open to the public.
