Elijah Lincoln-Robbins launches off the rails on the Bear ski trail at the Whiteface Mountain ski resort in Wilmington on Sunday, April 20. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

WILMINGTON — Easter Sunday, April 20, was the season finale at Whiteface Mountain ski resort. For the skiers and riders who stuck it out until the very end, it most certainly was not a bitter one.

Much of the day featured a bluebird sky, light winds and pleasant temperatures. Cold nights over the past few days helped to preserve the snow that remained, and much of what was open — especially near the top of the ski resort — had a solid base.

While there were some natural obstacles — stones, twigs, the occasional stream running across the trail — many longtime skiers and snowboarders said it was some of the best spring skiing they had in recent memory.

Closing day’s perfection summed up a 139-day season that many Whiteface faithful said was the best in recent memory.

Conley Reiter, an avid skier, said it was the best season he could remember in recent memory. He attributed much of that to cooperative weather and good work by the grooming crews to keep the trails intact toward the end of the season. This requires diligent snow management and often, pushing it from areas that are no longer in use onto trails to preserve a continuous run.

Debbie Gardiner, Michelle Casson and Marianne Boudreau smile atop Little Whiteface at Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington on Sunday, April 20. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

“They’ve been doing a great job, and the fact that they’ve been able to keep top-to-bottom skiing with solid white ribbons this far into spring is awesome,” he said. “You don’t have to take your skis off at any point. You don’t have to walk over dirt. You don’t have to ride a lift down to get back to the base — they’ve been doing a great job.”

Oliver Stoddard, who was lapping Whiteface’s terrain parks, said it wasn’t a bad way to spend the holiday weekend.

“Really we can’t complain,” he said. “We’re out here skiing Easter weekend and to be out here at this point, that’s just good stuff.”

Debbie Gardiner had just taken a ride on the Little Whiteface double on the lift’s last day of operations with friends Michelle Casson and Marianne Boudreau. She said so much of the mountain’s terrain staying open for so much of the season helped to make it a standout.

“One of the best seasons we’ve had in years,” she said. “Great snowmaking, great grooming, they had every trail open.”

Conley Reiter smiles at the top of the Whiteface Mountain ski resort on Sunday, April 20. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

Whiteface General Manager Aaron Kellett had similar thoughts and said Mother Nature’s consistency was key.

“I think this is the greatest season that I’ve seen since I’ve been in management,” he said. “This is my 13th winter as general manager at Whiteface and I can’t think of a year where we didn’t have extreme long snaps of cold or a couple really bad mid-winter warmups where it pours rain and melts the mountain down. We had one of the best, consistently cool winters that I can remember.”

While the weather went a long way, at the end of the day, Kellett said the season’s success came down to the mountain employees stepping up and leveraging the favorable conditions.

“Mother Nature helped us a ton but I really think our crews took advantage of it, too,” he said. “Our snowmaking and grooming crews took advantage of that consistency, and we did a lot of things that we had never done before. People seemed to be extremely happy. Our staff was happy, and it was just a fantastic winter.”

On Easter, the snow texture and composition was a spring skier’s dream: corn snow. That type of snow gets its name from its corn-kernel appearance, which forms under very specific, and often elusive, weather conditions that feature multiple freeze-thaw cycles. Mild days and cold nights are both needed to grow the snow grains to kernel size.

Oliver Stoddard launches off a jump on the Bear ski trail at the Whiteface Mountain ski resort on Sunday, April 20. (News photo — Chris Gaige)

The larger kernels, as they melt and soften throughout the day, tend to provide a surface that is easier and more stable to turn edges on than the typical hard-packed surface present throughout much of the winter. Its commonly referred to as “hero snow” throughout the snowsports community, as many skiers and snowboarders are able to nail turns and put down lines that, under normal winter conditions, only expert skiers would be able to sport.

Many took advantage of these conditions on April 20, lapping the Upper and Lower Skyward trails from the summit, as well as the adjacent Niagara and Victoria trails, whose combined pitch drops about 1,800 vertical feet over the course of a mile to the Summit Quad chairlift’s loading station.