New Yorker Claims First Ski of Season on Icy Road—Does It Count?
There’s no greater satisfaction than being the first of your friends to post a ski clip with ‘FDOH’ (First Day on Hill) splashed across it. Who cares if your first turns are a little lackluster or questionable?
Whether it’s your location or just a weird weather year, when winter is taking its sweet time, sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.
In the case of at least one person every year, who can’t wait to post that clip, this means skiing down the road at Whiteface Mountain in Upstate New York. Last year, the inaugural Whiteface road turns took place in early September. Temperatures were around 30 degrees at the top of the road and closer to 21 degrees with wind chill on the mountain’s summit.
It’s a good bit later this year, but a couple of frothy skiers have unlocked the Whiteface road with some terrifying turns down the sheet of ice covering the asphalt. Temperatures have been hovering between the high 20s and low 30s since Monday night, and the area saw around an inch of ‘wintry’ mix on Monday, November 3, 2025.
Apparently, this was plenty for a skier, known as @delskisbumps and @skiordieny, to click into his 4FRNT Nevars and race tuck down the road.
Tap or click to check out the clip below, and if it gets you hyped to ski your local ice sheet, road, or whatever’s available to you, you can also enter to win a pair of 4FRNT Nevars and a copy of the 2026 Powder Photo Annual.
The 2026 POWDER Photo Annual is here! Look for a print copy on a newsstand near you, or click here to have a copy shipped directly to your front door.
As badly as I want to judge this person, I too have skied down my parent’s cobblestone driveway early in the season, when I just can’t wait for the mountain to open and there’s a couple inches to protect my poor ski bases.
I’m not really sure if this actually counts as ‘Day 1’ on skis, but this skier is definitely getting more turns than I ever got in the driveway, and probably did a lot more work to get there, so we’ll let it slide.
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