Skiing Whaleback Mountain
Friday, February 21st, 2025
Runs: 14
Distance: 9.65 miles
Elevation: 10,028 feet
Max Speed: 33.0 mph
Avg. Speed: 12.1 mph
Moving Time: 50 minutes, 8 seconds
Total Time: 2 hours, 48 minutes, 15 seconds
I was loving my plan for this day, as instead of driving almost 4 hours to Vermont I drove 1.5 hours to Oak Hill, and then another hour to Whaleback Mountain (and later I'd do another 1.5). I made it to the parking lot just before 10:00am and I had to wonder if they were even open, because I saw the chair running but not a single other soul. There were cars in the parking area, but not many, but eventually I saw a human and concluded I was allowed in. I parked on the access road and went in to get my Indy. The lodge was super small, but adorable. They use the Entebeni Systems... system to get lift tickets, which has been famously slow (minus at Magic Mountain). The poor cashier had to enter info on her macbook, then type it again into the big computer, get the photo on the kiosk, and so on... It's fine, I just hope they figure out how to streamline it someday (or bring back wicket tickets!!!!). I booted up at the car and was on the chair in no time!
Runs 1-5
Run 1: Summit Chair - Whaleback - Upper Spout - Bougainvillea - Lower Spout
[0.56 mi; 2:32; 738 ft; 28.5 mph max; 13.2 mph avg]
Run 2: Summit Chair - Whaleback - Dorsal - Rib Cage - Bougainvillea - Lower Spout
[0.62 mi; 2:51; 725 ft; 24.8 mph max; 13.1 mph avg]
Run 3: Summit Chair - Whaleback - Dorsal - Fin - Upper Spout - Rib Cage - Harpoon - Scrimshaw
[0.68 mi; 3:42; 392 ft; 24.8 mph max; 11.0 mph avg]
Run 4: Summit Chair - Whaleback - Ambergris - Upper Spout - Scrimshaw
[0.64 mi; 2:42; 761 ft; 26.4 mph max; 13.3 mph avg]
Run 5: Summit Chair - Whaleback - Beluga - Flipper - Ambergris - Rib Cage - Harpoon - Scrimshaw
[0.65 mi; 3:41; 702 ft; 24.1 mph max; 10.6 mph avg]
My plan for the morning was basically to ski as many trails as humanly possible without dying or going too above my skill level. I started with the left side of the map and basically worked around clockwise. Run #1 was down Whaleback, Upper Spout, Bougainvillea, and Lower Spout, and was surpringly fun! I feel bad saying surpringly, but I've driven past this mountain so many times, and more often than not conditions looked rough. I was thrilled!
Run #2 followed Whaleback to Dorsal to Rib Cage, followed by the same way out. I was feeling CRAZY for Run #3 and added in Fin, a natural trail that had weird hard-and-soft snow that threw me off and Harpoon, which was a super short black run kind of through the trees? Basically a single track with a few side-bumps. I made it down, but it wasn't pretty. That led to Scrimshaw, the end of the wide green trail.
Run #4 included Ambergris, which was similarily ungroomed, but more fun thatn Fin, and Run #5 was the last one off of Whaleback and brought me down Beluga, which was a black tree/bump run. I also learned that most of the blacks on this mountain were just woods runs. There were big bumps that I did okay with, but then one steep drop off that I did not do great with. I shoulder checked the ground at that part, but didn't fall! Emma said that doesn't could as a true fall. I also hit Harpoon again on this run and did... better? Maybe?
I should also mention that I think I had a breakthrough during these runs in terms of carving vs skidding. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think I started maybe thinking about leading with my outside toe when initiating a turn versus just leaning my knees, and my skies turned and caught in a way that they hadn't before, but also that felt very good. I'm still digesting at the time of writing this, but Emma did I say I was looking more solid, so maybe I'm doing something right?
Runs 6-7
Run 6: Summit Chair - Flipper - Ambergris - Upper Spout - Scrimshaw
[0.68 mi; 2:31; 633 ft; 25.6 mph max; 16.2 mph avg]
Run 7: Summit Chair - Upper Whale Tail - Lower Whale Tail - Rib Cage - Harpoon - Upper Spout- Lower Spout
[0.79 mi; 3:34; 719 ft; 27.8 mph max; 13.3 mph avg]
Something to note about the Summit Chair - you canNOT put the bar down before you're fully airborne, or else it will hit the ground and stop the chair. Two other quirks I noticed: there are exactly 100 chairs, chair #100 is pink, an dchair #75 was sponsored by some vet at some point and has faded pawprints on it - fun! The next two runs were still down the left side of the map, but not off of the Whaleback run. #6 followed Flipper to Ambergris, Upper Spout, and Scrimshaw, and was a nice, easy winding run. #7 was the last on this side of the mountain and followed the ungroomed Upper and Lower Whaletales, which were actually super fun! Lots of side hits and a few bumps. I hit Harpoon yet again for hopefully a redemption run, but accidentally sent it a little too fast past my comfort zone. I made it out safely, though! This was my favorite run so far.
Runs 8-12
Run 8: Summit Chair - Upper Ivory Run - Fluke - Davey Jones' Locker - Lower Ivory Run
[0.80 mi; 5:33; 722 ft; 18.0 mph max; 8.7 mph avg]
Run 9: Summit Chair - Jonah's Revenge - Leviathan - Lower Ivory Run
[0.66 mi; 4:03; 709 ft; 23.6 mph max; 9.7 mph avg]
Run 10: Summit Chair - Upper Ivory Run - Fluke - Leviathan - Lower Ivory Run
[0.78 mi; 4:25; 719 ft; 23.7 mph max; 10.6 mph avg]
Run 11: Summit Chair - Jonah's Revenge - Blubber - Lower Ivory Run
[0.64 mi; 4:31; 715 ft; 19.9 mph max; 8.6 mph avg]
Run 12: Summit Chair - Upper Ivory Run - Fluke - Blubber - Lower Ivory Run
[0.78 mi; 4:35; 722 ft; 21.0 mph max; 10.2 mph avg]
Now it was time to tackle the right side of the map! Sadly, the Upper Ivory Run was closed, so I continued to the next one - Fluke. Fluke started in a pretty coniferous forest and it was BUMPY. This gave me some pause, but I was officially committed. The upper stretch was narrow with basically a single track, which was stressful but was good for practicing speed control. The narrow stretch led to a headwall that I tackled slowly, scraping over a few exposed rocks (I apologized to my skis many times). The lower stretch was still bumpy, but much flatter and fun! From there, I turned onto Davey Jones' Locker, which had some similar flatter bumps, and then led to Lower Ivory Run, which was nice and groomed. Once I was back on the chair I noticed something, I didn't have a bad time? Was I starting to enjoy bumps?
I planned to repeat Fluke and find Leviathan for the next run, but a large, fearless lesson group went that way ahead of me, so I turned onto Jonah's Revenge instead. Jonah's was a little more difficult that Fluke. It required a short skate over to a fence with a single opening to start the run. It was bumpy right away, and two more distinct steep sections. Challenging, but I learned if I act more nonchalant (i.e., gaslight myself into being less stressed) and sing a little tune to myself, I skied much better! I scraped yet another rock and did another shoulder-check not-fall, but survived! I then continued onto Leviathan (I think? The map and the trail signs on the mountain either disagreed or I was reading them wrong - either way, I'm using the online map for this write-up), which led to Lower Ivory for an easy finish.
I was back to Fluke for Run #10! I thought I was alone again, but at the headwall I came up on two duos - one was waiting at the top, I was just behind them, and another was about 2/3 down and having a TIME. Once they got going, the duo ahead of me asked if I wanted to go first, and I politely declined since I was going to be SLOW. They said same, but went on their way. Turns out we ski at the same level - fun! From the bumpy flat I continued onto Leviathan and Lower Ivory.
Unfortunately, I was actually having a really great time on these runs.
Run #11 was down Jonah's again, which was still more challenging than Fluke (I'm not sure why I thought it would be any different). I think I skied it better, and I definitely linked some turns! This time, I followed a cat track over to Blubber, which was a nice, short, groomed intermediate off of the T-Bar.
My last "practicing" run was back down Fluke and over to Blubber - I flirted with skating over to the Lower Face, which was steeper and bumped up, but that involved crossing the top of the T-Bar and I was just not feeling it. From the chair I noticed that I could see (what I think was) Killington! I skied Fluke the best I had and kept working on the carving sensation I was experiencing on Blubber. I decided I'd pivot to my "three more skip the last" after this run.
Runs 13-14
Run 13: Summit Chair - Upper Whale Tail - Rib Cage - Harpoon - Scrimshaw
[0.82 mi; 3:11; 719 ft; 26.2 mph max; 15.4 mph avg]
Run 14: Summit Chair - Whaleback - Upper Spout - Bougainvillea - Lower Spout
[0.56 mi; 2:07; 719 ft; 33.0 mph max; 15.8 mph avg]
I decided I'd hit my favorite run of the day and then do a fast run to wrap things up (and skip the last, unnamed one, of course). Run #13 was back down Whale Tail and then I hit Harpoon for good measure (this one I had not gotten better on, and that is simply okay). My final run hit the goal of being my fastest run, bookending my day with Whaleback - Upper Spout - Bougainvillea - and Lower Spout.
I was so pleasantly surprised by my visit to Whaleback! There was a great variety of trails, I got better, and I had a lot of fun! I feel bad for skipping it so many times! This was also my first solo ski day in a while - I've grown acustomed to skiing with friends, but it was also nice to have a day where it was just me working on what I need to work on. Once I changed and used the bathroom, I had a drive that was about an hour and a half over to Richmond, VT, where I was meeting Emma and two friends from college for a late lunch, and then over to Cochran's Ski Area for $5 night skiing!
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