Wildcat Mountain and Attitash Mountain Resort 12/20/2012

Date(s) Skied: 12.20.2012

Resort or Ski Area: Wildcat Mountain until 1:30PM then Attitash Mountain Resort

Conditions: Wildcat PP Hard Pack (22 at Summit 33 at Base), Attitash LSGR MM Snow (28 at Summit 34 at Base)

Trip Report:

The day started at Wildcat Mountain. Arrived around 10:00AM and there were maybe two dozen cars in the main lot. Parked in the front row. Early season ticket prices are $49 and include skiing at both Wildcat and at Attitash a short 20 minute drive back down Route 16 to Route 302 North.

Wildcat had 1 lift open and luckily its their Wildcat High Speed Quad that takes you to the summit in under 10 minutes. From there the choices are slim. You can go right and head down the only groomed terrain from the summit which starts off as Upper Catapult and leads you to Middle Wildcat and then down into Lower Wildcat. Off of this route are few ungroomed choices. The entire summit is open but generally ungroomed and generally solid conditions all around..

They claim 24 inches of snow from the recent storms. That might be a little high but conditions were solid on the open terrain. I pushed a pole down at an unskied area at the summit and it was around 12-16 inches deep. Using the Quad I was able to get in Five trips top to bottom by 1:00PM when I grabbed a bowl of soup. Lodge is clean but definitely dated. What makes this place great is the vertical which is over 2000+ feet and its evident as the runs down are long and well thought out. Trails are not as wide as many other resorts and this place is really a skiers mountain.

The only area it got sluggish was on the lower mountain where Alley Cat and Cheetah and Leo's Leap were all a little on the Wet Side but generally for what was open conditions were solid.

Now the fun part:idea::idea::idea: these lift tickets are good at Attitash too. So with my boot issues, I decided to pack the car and head down Route 16 South to Route 302 to Attitash where I actually got to park in the front lot where you actually don't have to cross route 302. I pulled out the Fischer Red Heats and the older but tight Tecnica boots for Attitash.

Having never skiied Attitash I wasn't sure what to expect but its direct to the lift with daily tickets and the lift right in front of the base lodge is the Flying Yankee Quad. I thought I was headed to the summit but ironically this lift only goes to mid mountain . Plenty of choices are open from here so I turned left and headed down Moat, a Blue Trail I have heard great things about. Moat delivered. It skiied amazingly well especially on the left side where there was several inches of untracked powder and lots of corduroy to enjoy. Solid fall line intermediate trail with no flat spots, its certainly not the steepest trail but a fun one.

Attitash was interesting because while they only listed 10 trails open they were actual trails none of the B-S where trail names seem to change at every change in elevation. There were maybe 10-20 other skiers there and I never saw anyone else other than the lift attendants.

Summit Triple takes you to the top in around 15 minutes in comparison with the 5-6 minute trip on the High Speed Quad to the Mid Mountain.

From the Summit there's Humphrey's Ledge to Tight Rope to Thad's Choice was the best route down summit to base.

I like Attitash more than I thought I would. Just a bizarre lift system and while early season, I've never had a private mountain like this before.

Last lifts up were at 3:30PM and as soon as I got of the list they started to flip up the chairs. By the time I got down to the base lodge it was virtually deserted.

Tomorrow is Sunday River where conditions continue to improve each and every day.

Edd and I were at Wildcat today as well. All and all pretty fantastic conditions in my book. I certainly wouldn't have called it a Powder day, but we did manage to find some fresh snow on the "reserved" trails. They really could have had double the terrain open they did. People had been skiing most of the mountain. I bet Lower Lynx and Catenary have plenty of snow to open. It almost appeared like they were trying to save some of the trails for the holiday week. Upper Polecat skied great. I'd imagine that will open tomorrow as we came across a Grooming machine while we poached it. whoops.

I think the 24 inch figure was probably fairly accurate of a storm total since Monday. You don't get the coverage they had on say Top Cat without a significant amount of snow. I also ducked into a tree shot I'm aware of up top and found the base in the woods pretty good. I'm not saying Thompson's is ready to go, but another 12" and most everything on the hill should be skiable except for stuff like Hairball.

Hey Solitude, weird question. Last Monday at Bretton Woods my girlfriend and I had a conversation with a guy at the summit lodge. Today I bumped into that same dude at Wildcat and he said he was going to Sunday River tomorrow. That's not you is it?

Some Wildcat pics:



Easily the best day so far for me. The open terrain was largely ungroomed and a blast to ski. Definitely gonna be sore tomorrow.

Edd, sorry I didn't see your message until now. I left Wildcat in the afternoon and caught a few runs at Attitash. Today I skiied Sunday River. Epic Mountain with generally great snow until at least 1PM then it started to really soften up to a point where there were some slushy spots. I love Sunday River. Its expansive and a great layout. By 2:00PM I was done and off the mountain at Sunday River Brewing before I faced driving back through the Notch by Wildcat. Weather was nuts coming back across the mountains. Chinese takeout and Total Recall tonight. Where'd you end up today?

Tomorrow is the Tuckerman's Brewery tour. If the rain stops and things firm up Sunday River is in great shape. There's so much terrain open and if you get a chance highly recommend heading over to Aurora Peak. I didn't make it over to Jordan Bowl but based on Aurora Peak, when conditions improve this is the place.....

So that was you I was talking to? Just thought it's weird that I spoke to you twice in person without realizing you're a new poster on AZ. Glad you enjoyed SR. I didn't get to ski today.

Attitash gets a lot of flack for the weird and inefficient lift system on the Atttiash side - but that aside I really like the mountain. Nothing earth shattering but it has a lot of pitch and the trails ski well.

Wildcat is a hidden gem.