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2 ft at Wildcat!

wa-loaf

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Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
15,109
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48
Location
Mordor
I can understand the drive factor but the open terrain is not even close.70 acres to 465.The loaf is the lpace to be right now.

Up to 100+ trails now. I'm still waiting for some epic trip reports ....
 

drjeff

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Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
19,183
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113
Location
Brooklyn, CT
It fit 2 average size people (in the 60's/70's/80's) if you were lucky. It had rust holes in the floor like my grandmothers old buick. Tons of graffiti and butt burns everywhere. But like people have mentioned, it had lots of character and I miss it dearly.

Fixed it for 'ya! :lol:

I'm guessing if those gondi cars were still operating today, with the generalized increase in size of the population that there'd be more than a few occasions on any given day when it would be just a single passenger gondola, often requiring some "greasing up" of a larger patron and some pushing of a liftie to get them into it! :lol:
 

soposkier

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Joined
Jan 17, 2010
Messages
472
Points
18
Up to 100+ trails now. I'm still waiting for some epic trip reports ....

Hope to get up there (Sugarloaf or Saddleback) Sunday if the rain on Friday doesn't do too much damage. Been seeing many different forecasts for what the storm will do. Wonder when Saddleback will open up Kennebago and Sugarloaf Timberline.
 

kickstand

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Joined
May 18, 2005
Messages
947
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18
Location
Wakefield, MA
Has anyone skied there when they had a gondola? When was it removed? Replaced by the quad, I assume. It's hard to believe Wildcat is a 4,000 ft mountain when viewed from Mt. Washington. It looks pretty small from that vantage point. Wildcat's base is at 2,000 ft however. It isn't a steep mountain.

Yes. I think they took it out around 97, 98. The gondola used to go to the summit. They also had a lift that went from the intersection of the current lift line and Cat Track to the summit. If you didn't want to wait for the gondola, you could take the Tomcat triple up and over to the summit lift. The views on that trip between lifts is amazing. First time I ever skied Wildcat was in early April '97. I was blown away by the views.

The gondola cars were extremely tight. I'm not a big guy, and neither are the people I was skiing with then, and 2 of us were shoehorned in there. There were rust holes in the floors. I was happy just to make it up the mountain without falling thru the bottom. They definitely needed to go, and the quad has been fantastic.

There are still plenty of gondolas around town. Moat has one outside. Lickety Splitz ice cream place has one inside. My next door neighbor has one outside the house. I'm sure I'm forgetting some more obvious ones, like at some of the ski clubs. You can still also find the old cars from the Cranmore skimobile around, too.
 

deadheadskier

Moderator
Staff member
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Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
27,921
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113
Location
Southeast NH
I can understand the drive factor but the open terrain is not even close.70 acres to 465.The loaf is the lpace to be right now.

4 hours worth of drive time vs 7 hours. Factor in a more expensive lift ticket, tolls and double the gas and it also would have cost about double to have gone to Sugarloaf.

I love Sugarloaf and I'm sure it was amazing. But, Wildcat was pretty fantastic today with plenty of terrain to enjoy.

No regrets here on my decision.
 
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