tree skiing at Wildcat and Attitash

[LiquidFeet]

I just read the following on Wildcat's website. Anyone know anything about whether this means anything beyond cleaning up natural debris? Management says it is "improving" tree skiing at both mountains.

"Wildcat Mountain has also continued for a second year to work closely with the U.S. Forest Service to improve and maintain the approved glade and tree skiing areas during the off-season. Peak Resorts is committed to the tree skiing at Wildcat Mountain and Attitash Mountain Resort and is improving areas responsibly and consistent with the U.S. Forest Service."

 

[drjeff]

I just read the following on Wildcat's website. Anyone know anything about whether this means anything beyond cleaning up natural debris? Management says it is "improving" tree skiing at both mountains.

"Wildcat Mountain has also continued for a second year to work closely with the U.S. Forest Service to improve and maintain the approved glade and tree skiing areas during the off-season. Peak Resorts is committed to the tree skiing at Wildcat Mountain and Attitash Mountain Resort and is improving areas responsibly and consistent with the U.S. Forest Service."

If Peak Resorts is using the same strategy at Attitash and Wildcat that they have at Mount Snow about improving and maintaining tree skiing areas, then you can expect that they've been pretty aggressive about removing downed debris and trimming back lower branches in the defined areas. The forestry experts from the US Forest service seems to be on board with responsible trimming and maintaining of the trees on their already "in use" land more and more over the last decade or so and are happy to partner with land lease holders in responsible way - Now the infamous "Big Jay" modified clearcut a few years ago, the Forest Servive wasn't too happy with that

 

[Smellytele]

Wildcat a few years back did some heavy damage when they original cut some glades. They ended up having to close some to allow for regrowth. This is why now they are stated they are working with the US forest service.

 

[Puck it]

See map below. The Mounatain Jag glade was never approved for cutting by the Forest Service. The old owner cut it.

 

[kickstand]

See map below. The Mounatain Jag glade was never approved for cutting by the Forest Service. The old owner cut it.

That may have been one of the glades recently closed for regrowth. I remember going down that one, only to be funneled into some narrow chute that dropped me off on Catenary. Turned out the glade was closed about half way down.

 

[riverc0il]

I skied Bear Peak for the first time via lifts last year and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of off map tree skiing they have there. I got some turns in with their marketing guy and a patroler... never would have thought that they had such good lines at Attitash of all places. They mentioned it was on going work which is cool. Nothing that can compete with Cannon but certainly worthy of a visit from tree skiers/riders when they aren't busy to see what they have to offer. Not too familiar with what Wildcat has for off map trees within the boundary lines... they don't have a lot to work with on the upper mountain which is a lot of soft wood and much of the lower mountain is already on the map. Cool that they are working the trees!

 

[deadheadskier]

That may have been one of the glades recently closed for regrowth. I remember going down that one, only to be funneled into some narrow chute that dropped me off on Catenary. Turned out the glade was closed about half way down.

I ran into the same thing either last year or the year prior. So that was what that was. I couldn't understand for the life of me why it was roped off when I encountered the same thing. The conditions were fine below the rope. I may have paid better attention to the rope had I known what it was there for.

 

[MadMadWorld]

I ran into the same thing either last year or the year prior. So that was what that was. I couldn't understand for the life of me why it was roped off when I encountered the same thing. The conditions were fine below the rope. I may have paid better attention to the rope had I known what it was there for.

The glade was approved by the forest service it was just done the wrong. Part of MJG is still left open (skiers left of the lift)

 

[kickstand]

I skied Bear Peak for the first time via lifts last year and was pleasantly surprised with the amount of off map tree skiing they have there. I got some turns in with their marketing guy and a patroler... never would have thought that they had such good lines at Attitash of all places

Haven't done a ton of exploring on Bear for off-the-map stuff, but I know there's some decent stuff between the summit lift and Wandering Skis, if you work you way in far enough. To the left of the lift, I think most of the stuff is on the map, but I could be mistaken....

 

[riverc0il]

Pretty sure those trees you are talking about are on the map. More than twice as much off map as I recall...

 

[deadheadskier]

Personally, I'd like the Fed to loosen up a bit regarding ski trail development in the White Mountain National Forrest; especially at Wildcat. The WMNF is over 750K acres. Wildcat's 250 acres of terrain is .03% of the total land area.

I'd love to see another couple of trails cut off the summit of Wildcat and as far as I'm concerned, the entire place could be gladed border to border given the tiny fraction of the forest their terrain represents. I'm thinking 1 trail between Upper Polecat and Upper Lynx and another between Upper Catapult and Upper Wildcat would go a long ways towards improving the snow quality on the existing terrain. I know there's a few tree shots in those locations that might get compromised, but if there's one issue with Wildcat is that it just doesn't have enough terrain off the summit to accommodate the capacity of the Quad.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Personally, I'd like to see the entire Pemigewasett loop turned into the Northeast's most epic ski area... including terrain on Lincoln, Flume, Bond, Lafayette, South Twin, and Garfield.

Fun to imagine, anyway.

 

[Cheese]

Personally, I'd like to see the entire Pemigewasett loop turned into the Northeast's most epic ski area... including terrain on Lincoln, Flume, Bond, Lafayette, South Twin, and Garfield.

I've got a chainsaw if you've got a high speed quad ...

 

[kickstand]

Pretty sure those trees you are talking about are on the map. More than twice as much off map as I recall...

Nope. Broken Arrow is the only one on that side on the map. Over to the left of the quad, there is a ton of stuff on the map, but most of it is pretty short. One of them (can't remember the name, but it's under the Abenaki quad) barely has enough trees to be a glade. They do need to trim the underbrush on that one, though. It was getting a little out of control last year.

 

[EPB]

Personally, I'd like the Fed to loosen up a bit regarding ski trail development in the White Mountain National Forrest; especially at Wildcat. The WMNF is over 750K acres. Wildcat's 250 acres of terrain is .03% of the total land area.

I'd love to see another couple of trails cut off the summit of Wildcat and as far as I'm concerned, the entire place could be gladed border to border given the tiny fraction of the forest their terrain represents. I'm thinking 1 trail between Upper Polecat and Upper Lynx and another between Upper Catapult and Upper Wildcat would go a long ways towards improving the snow quality on the existing terrain. I know there's a few tree shots in those locations that might get compromised, but if there's one issue with Wildcat is that it just doesn't have enough terrain off the summit to accommodate the capacity of the Quad.

I completely agree. Attitash and Wildcat both have a lot of potential to expand if the forest service had a more liberal terrain expansion policy. Attitash could use a couple more trails (and upper mountain glades, the WMNF line at Attitash is just below the unloading terminal of the Flying Yankee) to justify a high speed quad of its own and Bear Peak could use another run between Kachina and Avenger among other locations within the current boundaries. I'm not going to get into the possibility of expanding into the bowl between Attitash and Bear Peak because it's a pipe dream, but a couple trails from each side that go into the bowl and filter back into the existing ski area could be doable with looser restrictions.

I would also like to see another trail (or 2-3) cut at Wildcat off of the Wildcat trail that would leave the existing boundary and connect back to the existing trail network below the Bobcat lift. It looks doable via Google Earth. A couple more in-bounds runs and glades would also be great, especially thinned out glade areas on the upper parts of the mountain, or some select steeper areas within the existing boundaries.

 

[deadheadskier]

Good call on a couple of trails from Upper Wildcat down towards Wild Kitten. Middle Wildcat is a real problem area in terms of getting skied off quickly. Adding a trail or two in that area between Upper Wildcat and Wild Kitten would go a long ways towards improving how that area of the mountain skis. I always found the Southern Boundary of the area kind of weird the way Upper Wildcat cuts back towards the middle of the mountain and then the boundary bows back out again with Wild Kitten.

I haven't explored the trees in there, but it would seem to be a good spot for some stealth cutting.

 

[gregnye]

Wildcat has a new interactive trailmap!!!!! Wow! Fancy!

Click the tree skiing button and note how many unnamed gladed areas they have--some that I have not seen before (and note that mountain jag glade is now permanently closed and does not show up)

By the way: The bobcat chair is on windhold today

Link:http://www.skiwildcat.com/snow-report.html Then click on picture of trail map on right corner

 

[MadMadWorld]

Wildcat has a new interactive trailmap!!!!! Wow! Fancy!

Click the tree skiing button and note how many unnamed gladed areas they have--some that I have not seen before (and note that mountain jag glade is now permanently closed and does not show up)

By the way: The bobcat chair is on windhold today

Link:http://www.skiwildcat.com/snow-report.html Then click on picture of trail map on right corner

Thankfully, they left the goods off the map!

 

[kickstand]

Wildcat has a new interactive trailmap!!!!! Wow! Fancy!

Click the tree skiing button and note how many unnamed gladed areas they have--some that I have not seen before (and note that mountain jag glade is now permanently closed and does not show up)

Cool new map. Those "unnamed" glades have been on their trail maps for a couple of seasons or so now. I don't think there is any signage for them, either. I look at it as more of a guide to where to find some good tree skiing without really having to go exploring.