There is a trail on the flanks of Little Whiteface that has received national attention. In 2002, Skiing Magazine listed Empire as one of the top 5 bump runs in the East along with four other legendary trails, which are: Outer Limits, White Heat, Stein’s Run and Starr. Skiing Magazine stated the moguls get to reach the size of VW’s because they are left to their own devices throughout the year and the bumps just get bigger and bigger as the winter progresses because the trail is too narrow to groom. In 2003, Skiing Magazine piled on more accolades for the trail ranking it as the 5th best classic run in the East with Starr, Bubblecuffer, Paradise and DJ’s Tramline. Additionally, the Ski Channel in 2009, listed Empire at #68, on their list called, Gnarly 99: Trails with Superpowers. It was on the list, in their words, it is allegedly the steepest slope in the east.
So, here you have two reputable sources describing this trail as so narrow it would cause a stenophobic individual to get nauseous, genuinely steep and peppered moguls that have grown larger than the people on the TV show, “My 600lb Life”.
As the saying goes, no empire lasts forever. This trail may have had a wicked reputation throughout the first decade of the millennium, but the truth and the decline of mogul skiing have caught up with this trail. First, the allegation that the trail is the steepest in the East is completely false. The average pitch of the trail is a pedestrian 22.12 degrees, the sustained pitch of the trail is 28.89 degrees and the steepest part of the trail is 41.37 degrees. Empire is not the steepest in any of those categories. In fact, there are 15 trails that exceed Empire’s impressive 41.37 degree maximum pitch and one of them is at Whiteface, the Slides! The trail also doesn’t have the mogul credentials to be named in the breath as Outer Limits, White Heat, Stein’s Run and Starr. In fact, Mountain Run at Whiteface is a better mogul run and is where the World Cup Mogul competitions are held. It is beyond comprehension how this trail was put on the same list as DJ’s, Paradise and Starr.
While this trail may not be everything it is hyped up to be, it is still an exciting trail to ski due to the constricted width of 36 feet, combined with a steep moguled pitch that culminates in a 41-degree headwall. The best advice on how to ski the trail comes from Indian author and Sydney Peace Prize winner, Arundhati Roy. To paraphrase what she wrote in her book, War Talk, she states “…your strategy should be not only to confront Empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it.” So how exactly do you ski Empire that aggressively to shame it and mock it? The best advice is to get on a pair of quick turning skis, pick a line right down the center of the trail and start charging. One word of caution, don’t get too crazy and start linking super fast GS type turns because you’ll get to the headwall and either take so much air you’ll think you are in a gelandesprung contest or the force will be with you, gravity in this case and you will crash out like Chad Fleischer at the 1995 Hahnenkamm. Once past the headwall the trail begins to level out and eventually merges with Lower McKenzie, which is one of the few trails at Whiteface they allow to get bumped up on a regular basis.
In summary, the steepness and difficulty of this trail have been greatly exaggerated over the years. However, it is still a classic trail that is fun to ski and a must do when at Whiteface.