Frequent snows, persistently cold temperatures and an around-the-clock mountain operations regimen have resulted in north of 90% of Whiteface Mountain’s terrain opening weeks, if not a month or more ahead of normal — and staying open.

There’s just one trail with snowmaking capacity that has yet to see the guns turned on: Hoyt’s High. Located on Whiteface’s Lookout Mountain, the black diamond expert trail drops 1,400 vertical feet over nine-tenths of a mile.

Last summer, the trail received significant upgrades to its snowmaking, as about 40 permanent high-efficiency snowguns were installed along the trail. Previously, mobile guns had to be hauled up the nearby chairlift and lugged down the trail, a time-consuming process. Whiteface General Manager Aaron Kellett said these have halved the time it takes to make enough snow for Hoyt’s High to be skiable — from a week to three-and-a-half days.

While an abundance of natural snow has allowed numerous trails and glades without snowmaking to open, large rocks and other surface features on Hoyt’s High all but require it, and the trail remains closed.

A lower portion of Hoyt’s High ski trail is seen from the Lookout Mountain Triple chairlift at the Whiteface Mountain ski area in the town of Wilmington on Thursday. Hoyt’s High is the final trail slated for snowmaking, with mountain officials waiting for an ongoing power curtailment to be lifted before commencing. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

Despite near-perfect weather for it, there’s been no snowmaking at Whiteface this week. Kellett said on Thursday that the pause is due to that very same weather pattern, albeit indirectly. Frigid temperatures and the recent major snowstorm have led to an uptick in energy consumption across the Northeast, increasing the stress on the power grid.

As a result, Whiteface — as a high, yet unessential electricity consumer — has been issued power curtailments so that the grid can continue providing power without interruption. He said Whiteface is happy to do its part here. Regardless, there’s really no say in the matter. It’s a directive issued by the grid operator, New York Independent System Operator.

“We get notified daily with what’s going on, and we’re currently just kind of in a holding pattern with snowmaking until we make it through this energy curtailment event,” Kellett said.

He added that the curtailments come in four-hour blocks, and these daily notifications pick out four-hour windows. The mountain staff, Kellett said, isn’t told if the power reduction will actually be needed until two hours ahead of time. That’s because while the grid operator has a rough idea of the power stress ahead of time — which lets them issue the daily notices of potential action — curtailments hinge on specific use metrics that are hard to gauge in advance.

Kellett said Whiteface always plans its operations as if it will happen, even though it’s oftentimes not needed. Fortunately for the ski area, Kellett said snowmaking is really the only thing that faces the potential for disruption. The curtailment blocks are currently between 6 and 10 p.m., well after the lifts and lodges have closed for the day.

A portion of Hoyt’s High ski trail and newly installed snow guns are seen from the Lookout Mountain Triple chairlift at the Whiteface Mountain ski area in the town of Wilmington on Thursday. Hoyt’s High is the final trail slated for snowmaking, with mountain officials waiting for an ongoing power curtailment to be lifted before commencing. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

Kellett said this potential for interruption has made the mountain suspend its snowmaking push on Hoyt’s High until it receives notice that the curtailment event is over. With the volume of trails already open, a long-term forecast suggests that the cold is sticking around and Hoyt’s High being a steep trail high up on the mountain, Kellett said it’s not worth it from an operational standpoint to try to work around the power reductions.

“Hoyt’s is such a big, tough trail to make snow on that we can’t really get into the start and stop game on it,” he said. “We want to have a clear window of at least four days of good snowmaking temps, and we need to know that, obviously, we have everything that’s within our control that we’re aware of, we have those four days and we can just go for it.”

Kellett said the curtailment blocks were scheduled between 3 and 7 p.m. earlier in the week, which meant lifts had the potential to close a bit earlier than their usual times. He’s not expecting these to be moved back up, but if they are, Whiteface will post a notice on its conditions webpage that morning.

The general manager said that while there’s no way to know for sure, the less frigid temperatures forecasted for next week were a sign of hope that the curtailments may be coming to an end soon. And when it does, he said Hoyt’s High is the top priority.

“When you look at where we’re at right now, we have only one trail that we haven’t made snow on this year,” he said. “We want to be able to get to that.”

The Hoyt’s High ski trail is seen stretching down the Lookout Mountain peak at the Whiteface Mountain ski area in the town of Wilmington on Thursday. Hoyt’s High is the final trail slated for snowmaking, with mountain officials waiting for an ongoing power curtailment to be lifted before commencing. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

As snowmaking eventually occurs there, Kellett said that they’ll simultaneously be able to make it on other lower-elevation trails that are currently open. That’s because the snowmakers can directly tap the air and water lines leading up to Hoyt’s High. Its pump house has the capacity to supply more air and water on those lines at once than is needed for Hoyt’s High alone.

Once that’s finished, Kellett said the snowmaking isn’t yet over. They then boost the base so that trails can stay open beyond when temperatures inevitably start warming back up.

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Monday magic

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The season’s glory was epitomized at the start of this week when a nor’easter dropped over a foot of snow. Kellett said what made it stand out was its quality.

“The snowstorm this week was something pretty magical that doesn’t happen very often at Whiteface,” he said. “We couldn’t ask for anything better.”

The extremely cold temperatures and favorable snowflake growth conditions in the atmosphere made the snow that fell extremely dry and fluffy. This allowed skiers and snowboarders to waltz through it compared to dense, heavier-weighted snow often associated with snowstorms with temperatures below, but much closer to the freezing point.

Beyond that, it didn’t go anywhere, uncharacteristic for as tall a mountain as Whiteface.

“We didn’t have any wind with it,” Kellett said. “Normally with a nor’easter, we get hit with wind really hard, but it was dead calm, it was nice and cold and it was super dry, fluffy powder.”

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Whale watching

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Skiers and snowboarders making their way down the Wilderness, Mackenzie and Brookside trails this week are no strangers to massive whales, a nickname for the large, hardended piles of snow that build up under snow guns. They’ve been left in place, allowing for some up-and-over or side-twisting maneuvering for those so inclined.

Kellett said that eventually, and likely within the next week or two, groomers will flatten them out and spread the snow around the trail. But with the cold conditions this past week, the general idea — at least on advanced-rated trails — was to leave them be for a time.

“They’re kind of fun and the snow around them is fine,” he said. “The longer we can leave those piles there, the better the snow quality is going to be when we push them out.”

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Upcoming races

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Whiteface will host a set of North American Cup (NorAm) ski races starting Monday to Feb. 12. It’s the first time the mountain has hosted a downhill NorAm event since 2012.

“I think it’s important for us to have one every once in a while, just so we don’t lose track of being able to host a high-level speed event at Whiteface,” Kellett said. “We haven’t had one in a long time. The opportunity came up for us, and we decided to give it another shot.”

The downhill course will start at the top of the Approach trail, drop down to the upper portion of Mountain Run, skirt over to the Parkway, then down from there to Upper and Lower Thruway. Kellett said there’s a relatively new cut over to Draper’s Drop, which the course will take. It will then continue past the Andrew Weibrecht finish arena onto the Fox trail, running all the way to the base area.

It’s a longer course — inherent to a downhill event — than most of Whiteface’s races, which tend to be confined to the Thruway and Draper’s Drop trails. Kellett anticipated there will be a lane cordoned off on the Fox trail, a wide main run connecting Lower Valley to the base area, for the public to continue using while the race plays out.

He said the upper portion of Mountain Run will be closed for the race, with the parallel Wilderness trail being kept open for the public during this time, adding that mountain staff plans to groom a portion of that trail. Normally, Mountain Run is groomed daily, while Wilderness retains its bumps. Kellett said people will still be able to traverse over to the mid and lower portions of Mountain Run, from Wilderness, via the 2200 Road and 1900 Road trails.

The full NorAm schedule, which includes training and the actual race for each discipline, is below.

¯ Feb. 2-5: Downhill

¯ Feb. 6-7: Super Giant Slalom

¯ Feb. 8: Reserve day in case of earlier delays

¯ Feb. 9-10: Giant Slalom

¯ Feb. 11-12: Slalom

For the latest mountain conditions, visit whiteface.com/mountain/conditions.