I used to ski there in the 70's before the Olympics came. The only snow guns they had, shot 1" balls of ice out to lay a base down.
When Little Cloud would open after a snow, it would be 24" of powder & no base. More then one time did my ski's get locked under a buried fallen log and I was shot out of my boots. The rest of the time pure Ice.
It was a great place to party, The bar in the basement of the St. Moritz would stay open till the last person left or we all drank all of the stock, most of the times it was the latter. LMAO
My uncle was the GM of Whiteface during the 60’s and I recall him saying that it was a very difficult mountain to work with. No matter the configuration/composition of the snow blown onto the mountain, the wind would take more than half of it into the trees. I busted my leg and left more than a little blood at the top of Mountain Run due to a combination of ice, bravado and skill level. On a timely side note, he was being pressured about the Winter Games by the US Olympic Committee way before the ‘80 games and was totally disgusted with them. Said he wouldn’t cross the street to see the Olympics.
Sorry I missed those “old school” days, though I don’t regret missing out on straight skis and rear entry boots :-)