So with all the lake effect snow that supposedly piled up in the Western Dacks in the last couple days (19 inches out in herkimer county) is there any backcountry skiing (either on light touring gear or telemark/AT) that's worth doing out there?

Tons of stuff is available on the Tug Hill Plateau. Much of it recieves snow mobile traffic so you can even skinny ski it in skate mode. The area around Sandy Creek is worth checking. Usually skiable from Thanksgiving until Easter. Big tracts of state forrest.

Err... huge tracts of land???