Wildcat 10FEB13

1 degree temps and completely clear skies as I pulled into the lot about 40 minutes before the lifts started. I was about the 30th car there and walking into the base lodge you could tell people were chomping at the bit to get some.

I skied with a group of 5 all day. Conditions were a mix of copious powder and rocks and ice. The fresh snow was incredibly dry and packed super dense so the untouched stuff stopped you in your tracks half of the time. Winds on the top were souring the summit but they died a bit later. In the afternoon the snow got a bit slicker from the sun which was actually welcome.

This was the most crowded day any of us had seen here. Lift lines were a 5 to 10 minute wait. Thankfully the staff did a good job of managing it.

There are still some trails closed but ropes were dropped today. Most of the terrain under the summit lift was open and skied fantastic. The glade off of Cheetah skied well. We tried dropping into a glade off of Lower Polecat but it hadn't been touched so 3 of us all got simultaneously stuck in our tracks. No hope of pushing forward so we climbed 20 feet back up to the trail.

Ended the afternoon with runs around Cougar, Catenary (both ungroomed) and the glades nearby. Lynx was ungroomed all the way down and Tomcat Schuss was pretty powder loaded but you had to watch yourself.

Quit for drinks around 2:15 totally wiped out because I'd worked all night prior to skiing. Sorry no pics. Great day at the Cat.

Edit: Geez I put Jan in the title. Obviously Feb. I can't see how to change this in Tapatalk. If a mod could change that I'd appreciate it.

I was there yesterday too. It was one of the best ski days I have had in awhile. Mid 30s, winds <10mph, and a blue sky with a fantastic view of Mt Washington. Snow conditions were heavily affected by winds from the day before. Some trails like Wildcat were completely bare while trails like Catenary and Panther were absolutely amazing. Pretty much all low angle trees were unskiable because the snow was too dense. The woods off of Stray Cat were in great shape though and had lots of untracked snow even late into the afternoon. Most importantly, T-Brook skied like a dream! On our first lift ride up, it was pretty obvious where the snow on the mountain had blown and we decided not to bother with a warm up run and headed straight for it. The wind packed snow made for a great base and we never had any issue until the section right before the runout. A few inches and it will fill in nicely.