Wilmington is a town in northern Essex County, New York, United States located within the Adirondack Park. The population was 1,253 at the 2010 census. The town is named after the town of Wilmington, Vermont.
Wilmington is on the county's northern border and is southwest of Plattsburgh. It is in the Whiteface region of the Adirondack Park.
Whiteface Mountain is the fifth-highest mountain in the U.S. state of New York, and one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains, located in the town of Wilmington in Essex County. Set apart from most of the other High Peaks, the summit offers a 360-degree view of the Adirondacks and clear-day glimpses of Vermont and Canada, where Montreal can be seen on a very clear day.
Because of its relative isolation, the mountain is exposed to prevailing winds from the west and frequently capped with snow and ice, making it an area of interest to meteorologists. Weather data has been collected on the summit since 1937. The mountain's east slope is home to a major ski area which boasts the greatest vertical drop east of the Rockies, and which hosted the alpine skiing competitions of the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Alpine Skiing at the 1980 Winter Olympics consisted of six alpine skiing events. The races were held February 14–23 at Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, New York, northeast of host Lake Placid.
This was the first Olympics in which the women's giant slalom consisted of two runs, rather than one, and both GS events ran only one run per day. This was the last Olympics which also served as World Championships for alpine skiing.
The Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games, commonly known as Lake Placid 2023, was a collegiate multi-sport winter sports held between January 12 to January 22, 2023 and had Lake Placid, New York, United States, as main host city. Alongside Lake Placid, events were also hosted by neighbouring cities of Wilmington, Saranac Lake, Potsdam and North Creek also located at the New York state. The event is also known as the 31st Winter Universiade as administered by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The event marks the return following the previous Universiade in Lucerne initially postponed from January to November 2021 and then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It marked the second edition of the Games, formerly known as the Winter Universiade, to be held in Lake Placid, after the 1972 games. It was the third time that the World University Games were held in the United States after Lake Placid in 1972 and 1993 Summer Universiade in Buffalo, also in the state of New York.