Wildcat - 1/23/09

[St. Bear]

I went to Wildcat today for $9 lift ticket special. 20 degrees at the base, 10 at the summit, 10 mph winds, although gusting a hell of a lot more. It was busy, but not overly packed. At peak hours, I skied from the Tomcat Triple and literally skied on the lift so I had zero complaints about the crowd.

The day started slightly after 9am heading down Catapult. The corduroy was freshly pressed, and the mountain skied smooth and fast. Highlight of the morning was definitely Upper Wildcat, which I think is newly opened and skied beautifully. Unfortunately by the end of the day it got icy. I tried alternating between groomed and ungroomed trail. When Wildcat says on their website that they have a "broad and sometimes liberal perspective on what is given the green light to open" they are not kidding. Some of the ungroomed trails were loads of fun, namely Catenary and Panther, but some of them I wouldn't go near without a lot more cover.

I dipped into the Catacomb Glades for a run. There obviously wasn't any fresh powder and not much reason to go back for a second run through. However, on the other side of the mountain was were all the fun was. There is a glade run open between Cheetah and Lower Wildcat that is marked on the map as "proposed tree skiing" but has yet to be named. It's not a steep as Catacomb or Mountain Jag Glades and a lot bigger. I couldn't believe that almost a week since the last snowfall there were still fresh tracks to be made at the edges of this glade section.

All in all a great day skiing. I can safely say that I got my $9 worth.

 

[salsgang]

Nice! Thanks for the info on the new glade run. Will have to check it out.

 

[frozencorn]

Upper Wildcat was open last weekend for a bit and it was ridiculous awesome...some rock cover, but nothing by Wildcat's standards...then it was closed for snowmaking, which I found odd. Odder then that I didn't hear any guns.

Surprised on Catenary, as that was in wild shape just five days ago. I did see a guy hit a rock on Panther though and flip head-forward. He was OK, but man, it was a spill.

 

[Damato]

If the hill wasn't crowded like you said, the lodge (read: bar), must have been a zoo! The picture of the parking lot looked like it was wall-to-wall vehicles.

Upper Wildcat should be sweet up top with the additional snow making on top of last week's storm. And good to know on the cover in that glade area. I'll be sure to scope when there next w/e.

 

[salsgang]

If the hill wasn't crowded like you said, the lodge (read: bar), must have been a zoo! The picture of the parking lot looked like it was wall-to-wall vehicles.

Upper Wildcat should be sweet up top with the additional snow making on top of last week's storm. And good to know on the cover in that glade area. I'll be sure to scope when there next w/e.

I think since there is no on-mountain lodging having a full parking lot doesn't necessarily mean a crowded hill. That super fast lift has pretty big capacity per hour I would think.