Any pics of Whitface Autoroad?

Hi All,
Being a downstater I haven't done much in the ADK's in winter. I'm considering losing my virginity by skiing the Whiteface Auto Road or possibly Wright or Marcy. I'd love to see some photos if anyone has any. Work is slow for another couple of weeks and they're taking about snow on Monday. So hopefully I'll head out in a few days.
Thanks!

On other forums on this site - "Trips and Events" and "Trip Reports" have some recent pix from the ADK Gathering. If I recall pix from MichaelJ, LittleBear and another show the Auto Road.

FYI, this is typically a ski up and ski down trip, not hike up ski down as would Marcy and Wright.

Auto Road

Near the summit. Taken a few weeks ago.

Start here and go forward...

Wow - Alpine, you had so much more snow than we did! At one hairpin we had to take our skis off on the descent (ascent was fine), and the wind had blown off the snow about 1/2 mile below the castle, requiring hiking from that point.

The most dramatic is looking at your shot of Lake Placid - the stone wall that we could visibly see is completely buried in your picture!

Nice pics guys.

MichaelJ, I'm curious about the battery life in your PowerShot. I've got the s300, and in cold weather it lasts about 10 pictures. Even when kept in a pocket.
The original battery is almost 2 years old.
So I figured that the battery needed to be replaced, so I ordered 2 new one's from here.
http://www.sterlingtek.com/digital-camera-batteries-canon-digital-camera-batteries.html

Still life is very short in cold weather.
I wonder if these replacements just suck, or the camera just doesn't perform well in very cold temps.
Have you had any luck with replacement batteries?
How much use did your battery get before it needed to be replaced?

You guys are the absolute best! Thanks for the pictures. Now I know what skis to use, what the grade is, even what soup to order afterwards!
Thanks,
Billy

NYBrad - I got through the entire Gathering on two batteries. On the first day, when it was between -10F and -25F out, I had the camera in an outer pocket of my fleece. This is usually enough, but in the extreme cold the battery flaked out on me about halfway up Nye. I swapped it with the warm spare battery from my pants pocket, and moved the camera to an inner fleece pocket (as well as added a shell over my fleece). That battery then survived the rest of the Nye trip, Whiteface, the various restaurant photos, and since getting home two slide shows plugged into the TV.

So I get very good battery life, even in the cold. Heck, in the warmth it's fantastic ... I took over 130 pictures on a 4-day trip through the Mahoosucs all on one battery.

As for brands, I have the original that came with it and two spares (both Fuji). I can't say if performance has varied at all between the different batteries, but I've never, on any trip anywhere, needed the third battery.

14000Feet - glad to be of help! I think my Fischer Outbound Crowns handled the terrain extremely well. But the best soup is the lobster corn chowder back in New Hampshire at the Common Man.

Pics, and Info doc

Whiteface Road Pics:
http://community.webshots.com/album/58218001PLwEQh

Whiteface Road description with map available from
http://www.cartespleinair.org
Under Ski-Cartes, then at the bottom of the page.
Although the web page is in French, the document is in English

Enjoy !

Charles

Some more:
Start here and arrow forward to other shots
First few on this page

These pictures are almost painful, I have to get out of here. This weekend. I'll post a trip report. Thanks again to everyone...

And when I said 'these pictures are almost painful' it might have been a bit Freudian after looking at 'leduc's' personal photo. My French is non-existent, but I have a fairly good idea of how 'leduc' translates.

Let's hear it for cactus power.
Billy

MichaelJ said:

Start here and go forward...

Click to expand...

Awesome pics!

I was standing on Skylight about the time you took those (see me waving?)...

I haven't seen a lot of Whiteface shots during the winter, the ice on the north side was impressive.

I haven't seen a lot of Whiteface shots during the winter, the ice on the north side was impressive.

Click to expand...

Agreed - the formations were incredible, almost as if the wind was blowing the ice around into cornice-like shapes as easily as if it were snow.

It was a perfect day: a clear blue sky with minimal wind and not too cold. I'll relive that trip anytime!

Unless the storm here limits travel I'll head up tomorrow night and do the road on Thursday. If anyone wants to join in drop me an email.
Thanks again for all the replies and pictures. The lobster corn chowder sounds awesome but I might have to pass on that this time around.

few more photos

Just a couple others. The first one to show that even a 10 and 12 year old can ski it

http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/white1.jpg

These two show interesting rime ice on the signs:

http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/white3.jpg

http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/white2.jpg

Whiteface Pics

Whiteface Observatory in december

Hi All,
I just got back. I'll post a trip report and some photos on the trip report page. I think I missed my weather window by a day. Yesterday (Thursday) was brutal (at least by my standards). My respect level for winter 46'rs has climbed immeasurably!

One question. Anyone know a link to find weather conditions on Whiteface? My guess yesterday was -5 and wind up to 70.

Ooops, one more question. How do you keep goggles from freezing up? There must be a trick (like the snorkling thing where you spit into your mask).

Billy

14000feet said:

Ooops, one more question. How do you keep goggles from freezing up?

Click to expand...

I've found a works-100% way of doing it. Keep them in your pocket. They will NEVER fog.

but I guess I can wear these

Actually the frozen goggles prevented me from summitting. The wind blown snow above the 2nd hairpin killed my eyes. It was like being sand blasted. There was no room in my pockets anyway between the camera, some juice boxes and handwarmers (to keep the gatorade from freezing), and some useless trail gorp (useless because my mouth went numb and I was chewing my lips as much as the gorp.. ugh).

Like I said, new found respect for winter climbers.

Billy

ok, 1 picture

Whiteface from the highway

Taken last week (2/14/04)

I want to post my photos on the web but Road Runner only gives me 5 MB.

Any suggestions?

Thanks


The link below will take you to a directory with 13 jpg files. Click on each one to view. Not the best way but it will give you another prespective of how Whiteface looks on not such a clear day.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/akramitis/Whiteface/

Akramitis, awesome photos. Some really interesting wind/ice/snow patterns... definitely reinforces the reality that we're not 'in charge' when up there...