People gather around the fire to roast marshmallows at the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism’s Campfire & Cocoa in Mid’s Park event on Main Street in Lake Placid on Tuesday, Dec. 26. (News photo — Oliver Reil)

LAKE PLACID — With warm temperatures, rain and snowfall that’s intermittent at best, current visitors to the Adirondacks might not be able to fulfill some winter bucket list items. However, Lake Placid and the surrounding area still hold myriad winter options.

Whiteface Regional Visitors Bureau Director Michelle Preston said that it can be difficult to advise tourists because everyone wants to find snow-related activities. Visitors often come to the area with a focused list of ideas, but when the conditions turn out “green and brown,” as Preston joked, plans need to change.

“It makes people shift gears,” she said.

Ski towns always have gondolas, and Wilmington and Lake Placid are no exceptions. Wilmington’s Whiteface Mountain is still open for skiing. It also offers the Cloudsplitter Gondola ride, which takes passengers up to the top of Little Whiteface for panoramic Adirondack views. In Lake Placid, the ski jumps at the Olympic Jumping Complex can be scaled on Skyride via gondola and glass elevator. To experience a taste of actual Olympic jumping, visitors can take the Sky Flyer zipline, designed to simulate the real thing.

For hikers, varying conditions can make climbing the High Peaks particularly challenging. Preston often suggests the Cobble Lookout trail, an easy 2.4-mile out-and-back trail, and the Flume trail system in Wilmington as good alternatives when conditions are bad.

A couple looks out at Mirror Lake over Mid's Park on Main Street in Lake Placid on Tuesday, Dec. 26. (News photo — Oliver Reil)

“It’s a total mixed bag right now,” High Peaks Information Center Manager Danna Libbey said from the Adirondack Mountain Club’s Heart Lake property.

Current conditions of mixed temperatures and precipitation mean that lower elevations are likely to be wet, muddy and icy, while summit conditions may remain snowy and icy. This means that for any High Peaks objectives, hikers will need to carry mixed gear, such as microspikes, snowshoes and perhaps even crampons. Libbey highlighted the importance of coming prepared for the transition.

In downtown Lake Placid, public events like Campfire & Cocoa in Mid’s Park on Main Street, which includes free s’mores, cocoa, stickers and Lake Placid Olympic buttons, offer festive alternatives. Campfire attendee Ally Tang, a New York City resident on holiday in Lake Placid, said Tuesday, Dec. 27 that the conditions were “unexpected.” She was hoping to cross-country ski, but conditions haven’t stopped her from enjoying her time here.

“The weather is bad, but the township is nice,” she said.

Mirror Lake holds only a thin layer of ice, with open water in some places. This puts a damper on lake-related activities like the highly popular dog sledding.

The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism's puts on its Campfire & Cocoa in Mid's Park event on Main Street in Lake Placid on Tuesday, Dec. 26. (News photo — Oliver Reil)

“Dog sledding is always 50-50,” Jen Holderied, general manager at the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort, said.

Despite the lake ice being off-limits, she said people seem to be making the best of it.

Sandy Caligiore, public relations person at the Mirror Lake Inn, cited the public indoor and outdoor ice skating at the Olympic Center, a visit to the Lake Placid Olympic Museum or the climbing wall at Mount Van Hoevenberg as fun options.

“The nice thing about (Lake Placid) is that skiing and snowboarding are just two parts of a big menu,” Caligiore wrote in an email. “No resort east of the Rockies can say that.”

For more information, visit Lake Placid’s website at www.lakeplacid.com, the Lake Placid Legacy Site website at lakeplacidlegacysites.com or the Whiteface Mountain Regional Visitors Bureau’s website at whitefaceregion.com.