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Whiteface Mountain Ski Center opens Friday, giving Alpine skiers an opportunity to hit the slopes for the first time this winter.

"The weather has been pretty good for snowmaking," Whiteface General Manager Jay Rand said Tuesday.

Snow guns having been making snow around the clock since Nov. 17, and combined with natural snow, Whiteface should have 11 trails and two lifts open.

But skiers hoping to get a chance to hit the new trails on Lookout Mountain will have to wait at least several weeks.

"We would hope to have the Wilmington Trail open sometime during the Christmas holiday period," Rand said. "It's a big challenge. It's a big trail, and we still have a lot of our other territory to get open first."

Lookout Mountain has two trails with snowmaking capabilities: the intermediate, two-mile-long Wilmington Trail and the expert Lookout Below trail.

"I think there's a lot of excitement about it," Rand said. "It's certainly going to open up extensive territory. (Wilmington) is a beautiful trail. It goes down through the wilderness and has nice views of the town of Wilmington, out toward Lake Champlain."

Lookout's third trail, Hoyt's High, is for experts and will be open this season only when there is enough natural snow. It is named after Saranac Lake resident Jim Hoyt, a 50-year Whiteface Ski Patrol veteran.

"Last year for our 50-year anniversary, it seemed appropriate that something was done on behalf of him, and so the trail was named after him," Rand said.

Early in the season, Whiteface will focus on making snow on Little Whiteface Mountain and the lower elevation trails, many of which are served by the Cloudsplitter gondola and Facelift chair. The first trails to open will mainly be beginner and intermediate ones, such as Excelsior, which meanders down from the top of Little Whiteface.

The only expert terrain expected to open Friday will be Essex, which connects to Northway at the bottom.

This time of the year, conditions can change quickly, with the temperatures often hovering around freezing. On Tuesday, rain fell in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake but stayed away from Whiteface.

"When I left Placid this morning, it was raining," Rand said, "and it's snowing down here. We're getting some nice, heavy snow."The Whiteface children's programs will be operating out of the new Kids Kampus lodge, with the children being shuttled to the main lodge for their skiing and riding activities.

Whiteface boasts the East's greatest vertical drop of 3,430 feet, and was recently named to the Top Five Resorts in the East in SKI Magazine's Reader Resort Survey 2008.

Whiteface/Lake Placid also earned the distinction of being the number-one ski destination in the nation for Off-Hill Activities for the 16th straight year.

Gore Mountain, in North Creek, is also opening for the season on Friday. Gore was recently ranked seventh in the Top 10 Best of the East Reader's Choice Awards by Skiing magazine.

For more information and current conditions at the mountains, visit www.goremountain.com or www.whitefacelakeplacid.com.

Contact Mike Lynch at 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.