On Sunday, Poe, Brayden Olden, Brenna Towne and Sasha Baker — all 20- and 21-year old students at SUNY Plattsburgh — set out at 2 a.m. to get first tracks of the season at the mountain.

“My friends and I are always watching the weather,” Poe said.

Last week, they saw the National Weather Service had a snowflake icon on the Whiteface summit prediction for Sunday. They decided to go check it out.

“It was so freaking worth it,” Poe said.

Wes Poe, Brayden Olden, Brenna Towne and Sasha Baker got their first turns of the season in at Whiteface on Sunday. (Provided photo — Sasha Baker)

There wasn’t enough powder to ski the toll road — the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway — but they were still likely the first people to get their turns in on the mountain, which holds the ski center.

“You never know,” Poe said. “But Sept. 8, man.”

For years now, backcountry skiers have traveled to the toll road to ski before there’s enough snow to ski other favorite spots and well before the ski lifts further down the mountain open.

“The eastern skier is something else. We embrace that,” Poe said. “Out west … you can get it out there in the Rockies in August and September. It’s not uncommon. But here, it’s nuts.”

Part of the draw is the novelty — doing the stuff that most people don’t want to do, or don’t think about doing. The other part is a love of the sport.

A group of SUNY Plattsburgh students got their first turns of the season in at Whiteface on Sunday, when a thin layer of snow covered the deck on the summit. (Provided photo — Sasha Baker)

“Skiing’s just awesome,” Poe said. “When it’s summertime and you’re dripping sweat outside, all I’m thinking about is when those first flakes are going to fall.”

Their skis don’t spend a lot of time in the closet.

On June 4, just around three months ago, Poe, Olden and Andrew Ramsey hiked their gear up to Mount Marcy to ski a long patch of snow hanging on in the blazing sun. They got some weird looks on their way in.

“We know it gets filled in in the winter and it takes a while to melt in some of these deeper pockets,” Pue said.

He said it felt incredible to chase those conditions this early in New York.

“People are still playing golf, trying to get out the last beach days, and here we are, nutcases heading up there,” he said.

The heat doesn’t please him. While on the summit, with the clouds choking out the sun, the wind whipping about and the air frigid, he said he turned to Towne and said “This is awesome.” This group has sought first turns for the past three years.

Poe said they were inspired by the legendary “Ron Kon.”

“I want to shout out Ron Konowitz. That guy is freaking nuts. I love him,” he said.

Konowitz actually had his gear ready to go on Sunday, but decided there wasn’t enough snow for him to do the toll road. He said he admires what the Plattsburgh crew did. There wasn’t a lot of snow but he commended them for being creative.

For decades, Konowitz has been skiing the Whiteface toll road earlier in the season than most would expect.

“I’ve always loved winter and I’ve always loved skiing,” Konowitz said.

He said these early treks are his “temporary winter fix” which can only be found at high elevations. He started in the 1970s but he’s sure people were doing it before that.

“I’m sure there were die-hard skiers who were getting early tracks. I don’t remember ever hearing about that. But then again, we didn’t have internet,” he said.

For years, Konowitz’s annual sojourn was under the radar. He had a reputation among his friends and local skiers for going up early. But one year, after he got a Facebook account, he posted about it and within a couple of hours 350,000 people had seen it. The next day he went back to ski and was shocked to see a slew of cars with people traveling from all over to see the crazy Adirondack road skier.

The earliest Konowitz has ever skied there was on a Labor Day weekend.

“Back in the ’90s and ’80s we used to get a lot more snow,” he said.

Over the years, the first turns day has been shifting further toward the fall. Sunday was an outlier.

Last year, when Konowitz went to ski the toll road on Oct. 22, he said Poe and Olden beat him by an hour.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get first tracks again,” Konowitz said.

Of course, there’s a friendly competitiveness to it. These ski enthusiasts want those bragging rights to the first tracks. But the goal is really about the adventure of getting out and seeking winter as early as possible.

“They’re young and they’re enthusiastic and they’re excellent skiers,” Konowitz said of the Plattsburgh students.

He said they’re “park rats” — in a good way.

The push to ski early is a positive activity, he said.

“It takes discipline and motivation and a love of the sport,” he said.

Seeking first or early turns is not for everybody, though, Konowitz said. Skiing the toll road with light cover means the pavement is a “no-fall zone.”

Poe said this group skis as often as they can in the traditional season, too.

“I’m just waiting for more now,” Poe said.

Fall starts on Sept. 22.