Lake Placid Is A Skier's Paradise

Upstate New York is known for its impressive apple orchards, but there's a lot more to this region than trees. When it comes to extreme outdoor sports, the Upstate region is home to some of the best skiing action in the country. In fact, this area has an Olympic history.

It might not offer the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, but Lake Placid, New York, shouldn't be discounted by ski fanatics. This former Olympic town is loaded with some serious ski action in the beautiful Upstate New York Adirondack Mountains. It's noted for hosting the Winter Olympics in the early 1980s and has the distinction of being the only location in the East that has earned that honor. Skiing here is considered even better than in many New England resorts and boasts the best vertical drop on the eastern side of the Rockies.

The center of it all in Lake Placid is Whiteface Mountain. This peak offers some of the country's best alpine skiing and snowboarding action. Making skiing a full-time business in the winter, the area around Lake Placid is known now as a serious resort center. The community even offers a free shuttle service to get guests from Lake Placid proper to the lifts of Whiteface seven days a week during the season. Plus, it doesn't skimp on resort pampering, fine dining and other outdoor possibilities, as well.

Whiteface itself is known for having ski trails that are appropriate for all levels. There's some very good beginner trails and, of course, some designed for Olympians. In recent history, the community has regraded several of its trails and added a half-million dollars in grooming equipment to the mountain. Plus there have been snowmaking equipment upgrades and the already impressive superpipe on the Bear trail was recently made even steeper. The area is also home to a number of instructional programs for beginning skiers and a host of other activities to keep visitors busy when they're off the slopes for the night.

Also in this general region, ski fans will find a number of other mountains just ripe for exploring. The views here might not be as high as the Rockies, but they are breathtaking nonetheless.

Upstate New York may be known for its apples, but the area is also home to some of the best skiing in the Northeast and the only mountain that now prides itself with an Olympic history.