Whiteface Mountain

How did a ski area in New York end up hosting the 1980 Winter Olympics? Well, to understand how Whiteface cemented its Olympic legacy, it’s worth looking at what makes the mountain stand out. For starters, it has the biggest vertical of any ski hill on the East Coast, with over 3,400 feet of vertical drop. That makes for long runs, Whiteface’s longest is 2.1 miles from top to bottom. Combine that with almost 300 acres of skiable terrain, an average of 140 inches of natural snow every year, and a state-of-the-art snowmaking system that covers 99% of the mountain and you’ve got a force to be reckoned with. So it should come as no surprise that Whiteface was a great host for the 1980 Winter Games.

James Niehues captured the magnitude of the mountain in this Whiteface ski map he painted in 2020, making it one of the last ski map paintings Niehues completed before retiring. Sure, it functions well as a map, with each run easily visible, but it’s also a beautiful piece of art, and anyone who loves mountain beauty will appreciate how the alpenglow paints the edges of each ridge and peak in an ethereal light. So if you appreciate Whiteface, you’ll appreciate this beautiful piece of art that functions both as a trail map and wall decoration.