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Wildcat Mountain 2016-2017 season thread

DEVO

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Anyone know what the uphill situation is at Wildcat right now (or will be by next Tuesday)? I have an appointment nearby next Tuesday and thought I might skin up/ski down in the early am before heading to the appointment.
 

prsboogie

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From Attitash today:



COLD FRONT COMING IN HOT
A LITTLE NATURAL SNOW & NEW SHOT OF COLD
The snow is on the ground and the holidays are around the corner! It took a little while but it officially feels like winter here in the north country. Our mountain operations team is working hard at providing a grand slam opening. So naturally the question is... When will Attitash open?

The answer is Friday, December 16, 2016!

Why wait you might ask? By waiting our snowmakers & groomers can be out on the snow as much as possible. They can place snow making equipment where necessary and stay focused on getting the snow down where it needs to pile up. All without the worry of skier traffic. Patience pays off and we believe that opening up day one with a wide variety of terrain is the best way to go.
 

deadheadskier

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Translated: we have made the decision to save labor costs by pushing our customers over to Wildcat one more weekend.

Not that I'd be skiing Attitash this weekend, but if I owned one of those expensive homes over at Bear Creek I'd be pretty annoyed.

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dlague

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From Attitash today:



COLD FRONT COMING IN HOT
A LITTLE NATURAL SNOW & NEW SHOT OF COLD
The snow is on the ground and the holidays are around the corner! It took a little while but it officially feels like winter here in the north country. Our mountain operations team is working hard at providing a grand slam opening. So naturally the question is... When will Attitash open?

The answer is Friday, December 16, 2016!

Why wait you might ask? By waiting our snowmakers & groomers can be out on the snow as much as possible. They can place snow making equipment where necessary and stay focused on getting the snow down where it needs to pile up. All without the worry of skier traffic. Patience pays off and we believe that opening up day one with a wide variety of terrain is the best way to go.
Excuses, excuses!

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Jully

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Translated: we have made the decision to save labor costs by pushing our customers over to Wildcat one more weekend.

Not that I'd be skiing Attitash this weekend, but if I owned one of those expensive homes over at Bear Creek I'd be pretty annoyed.

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I do sometimes wonder if the strictly attitash clientele actually dislike being associated with Wildcat. The Attitash season is quite short for its location and wildcat has seen substantial snowmaking improvements while Attitash hasn't to my knowledge.
 

deadheadskier

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I think Attitash's snowmaking is more than adequate. Really the only improvement the place needs is a HSQ to the summit and a refresh of Ptarmigans

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Jully

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I think Attitash's snowmaking is more than adequate. Really the only improvement the place needs is a HSQ to the summit and a refresh of Ptarmigans

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Oh yeah their snowmaking is certainly adequate. But I wonder if other improvements would have been made. I doubt it, but do others feel that way.
 

Edd

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Peaks is functioning like it's one ski area. That seems to be their business model, Attitash owners be damned.
 

snoseek

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Light crowds and fun snow today. skied well past 20 runs as I need to get my legs in shape. That quad is amazing. I'm really stoked to be skiing the cat this winter!
 

deadheadskier

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Oh yeah their snowmaking is certainly adequate. But I wonder if other improvements would have been made. I doubt it, but do others feel that way.
I doubt the capital invested in Cat would have gone to Attitash. I'm guessing others probably don't think so either because people have been begging for a new summit lift for years and have been told no way.

Peaks doesn't seem to think they'd get an ROI on a HSQ with a significant amount of new skiers and also say it would worsen snow conditions. These both maybe true, but I have to imagine they lose some folks to BW and other areas because of that lift. I know Id ski there more frequently if they had a better lift and committed to less grooming on their steep trails. And as far as snow conditions they did have a permit at one point in time to add more trails off the top and increase the vertical a bit.

Even with their low snow totals, Tash does have some great trails. It could be a lot better with some investment and a better commitment to leaving more stuff to bump up.

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deadheadskier

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Today was definitely the best day of the short season so far for me. Catapult was groomed out and skiing well. Upper Polecat and Upper Lynx were great too. But the best open runs of the day were Top Cat and Lift Lion. What a difference from Sunday with the little bit of snow throughout the week. Only complaint would be Middle Lynx is getting pretty beat from all the traffic. That will improve with other lower mountain routes opening up and a bit of natural.

Lift Lion

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Top Cat

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But by far the best snow on the hill was Upper Wildcat. It skied great all the way down to where it meets Middle Catapult. It will likely be open once they get some man made down low

02a4b9b8ad1b5a81637dd388fd43c994.jpg


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Cheetah run-out was a bit dicey, but I managed to not hit any rocks

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I also checked out Catenary. It was good for the first couple hundred yards, but thinned out fast. I wouldn't recommend anyone try it until they get another 6-8"

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Guns came back on around 1. They were working on the traverse from Lynx to Catapult, so I assume they will also be working down low that side of the hill. The pond actually looked pretty full, so we should see some great production all over the hill.

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Last edited:

snoseek

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Damn you poached the hell out of that hill lol! I was tempted but chickened out. Yeah lift lion was my choice also. Things are filling in and really just a foot of snow will open up a lot of terrain.
 

snoseek

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I always always bury my pass deep when inspecting!
 

Brad J

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Me? Poaching? I prefer to call it inspecting. A public service. Checks and balances against ski patrol. Keep em honest! ;)

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Great "inspection " , I do not own a pair of ski's that I would take on the lower Mt. The pictures make that old chair that serviced the top third of the mountain a real big difference !!
 
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