AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge: Wildcat

[Greg]

Irene Donnell from Wildcat also agreed to take the AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge! This is your chance to get official answers to your ski-related questions direct from a Northeast ski resort representative! Please post some suggested questions in this thread and I'll select ten to present for official responses.

As always, please be respectful of Irene and keep it civil. Also, please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. Wildcat needs to be discrete about certain information.

Ask away!

 

[riverc0il]

oh boy! *rubs hands together*

1) wildcat has notoriously aweful snow reporting. in a world of bad snow condition reports, wildcat seems to be above and beyond other resorts and is in my opinion the worst offender in new england for poor snow conditions. can this situation be addressed?

2) scanning of tickets is annoying, especially watching empty chairs go up because the line is being held up by someone scanning tickets. this is common practice at big resorts and really disappointed me when i saw this practice begin at wildcat. why is this practice needed and must it continue? isn't a visual inspection of lift tickets just as good, or does wildcat actually make legit use with the statistics generated?

3) have single day weekend lift tickets been set for the 2004-2005 season? wildcat used to be my favorite mountain, but when the lift ticket price went to $52, i scaled back my ski days at wildcat dramatically (typically only go once per year now). i can't afford lodging and ski by myself so the two day cheaper weekend price is not an option. any plans to drop that ticket price below that $50 threashold typically reserved for the big overpriced corporate type resorts?

4) i was disappointed to see the old gondi towers come down. they were an excellent part of wildcat and new england ski history and added something to the gondi lift line trail. now that the towers are gone, will that lead to grooming of this fine top to bottom bump run, or can we look forward to bumps in the future without the obstacles some of us enjoyed.

ahhhhh, wildcat. what a mountain with some awesome terrain. i rarely have a bad day there, but question the value for the money and some recent management decisions. hopefully i'll find some answers here that will make me want to increase my days at wildcat, but i'm not too hopeful.

 

[salida]

Awesome!

My main question is about terrain expansion as riverc0il has already hit my pet peeves about wildcat.

What is the state of expansion at wildcat. From my recollection of Wild cat from the summit of Mount Washington it looks as if there are some nice cliff and some fairly steep terrain that could be expanded to the south. It would be reminiscent of Cannon's tramline. Have you ever thought about expanding to the south along wildcat ridge trail to the edge before it dips back around to the south. It seems as if there is another area almost the size of wildcat before the topography would limit the ski area. This terrain could be great glade and extreme cliff skiing. Also, It looks as if there is a bowl type area to the north along wildcat ridge trail. This terrain looks as if it could be nice north facing slope that would keep snow long into the spring. It looks as if it could have a lift at the bottom of the bowl that runs to the top of wildcat. Very interesting terrain indeed.

thanks
porter

 

[eatskisleep]

oh boy! *rubs hands together*



4) i was disappointed to see the old gondi towers come down. they were an excellent part of wildcat and new england ski history and added something to the gondi lift line trail. now that the towers are gone, will that lead to grooming of this fine top to bottom bump run, or can we look forward to bumps in the future without the obstacles some of us enjoyed.

Yes-I love moguls,

Okay now for my questions...

**Since Wildcat is owned by the Goverment (Nation Forest) how does this affect your profits and the way that you run? Does it make it so you can't cut out new terrain?

**Wildcat used to be know as a "tough/expert" mountain, it seems like you are trying to move away from this perspective, one example is getting rid of the "Wildcat :Earn Youyr Bragging Rights" stickers being removed from sales/production. My question is, why not try to get the expert skiers there, as well as the beginners? Maybe make stickers like "I skied the two and three quarter miles of sheer pleasure Polecat Trail" as well as the "Earn Your Bragging Rights Stickers"?

**Except inthe Spring, there is typically alot of ice at Wildcat, some people like this, and some people hate it. What can be done to try to get rid of some of this ice?

Thanks for answering all of my questions, sorry that they are so long. And just incase it seems like I don't like the Cat, I do , I bought a season pass there last year, and intend on buying one again this year. Love their expert terrain, have to explore the woods some more this year though (elevator shaft, here I come) Thanks.

 

[eatskisleep]

Awesome!

My main question is about terrain expansion as riverc0il has already hit my pet peeves about wildcat.

What is the state of expansion at wildcat. From my recollection of Wild cat from the summit of Mount Washington it looks as if there are some nice cliff and some fairly steep terrain that could be expanded to the south. It would be reminiscent of Cannon's tramline. Have you ever thought about expanding to the south along wildcat ridge trail to the edge before it dips back around to the south. It seems as if there is another area almost the size of wildcat before the topography would limit the ski area. This terrain could be great glade and extreme cliff skiing. Also, It looks as if there is a bowl type area to the north along wildcat ridge trail. This terrain looks as if it could be nice north facing slope that would keep snow long into the spring. It looks as if it could have a lift at the bottom of the bowl that runs to the top of wildcat. Very interesting terrain indeed.

thanks
porter

I agree with you, The Cat could add some intersing/expert/intermediate/fun/bestever terrain around. Just make sure that they keep the "Hidden Gems" Thanks.

 

[Greg]

With ASC currently offering the ASC Gold Pass (no blackout dates; good at six resorts) for $599, will Wildcat be adjusting the pre-9/30 season pass price?

 

[Greg]

I've sent ten questions to Irene.

 

[eatskisleep]

Since Wildcat is one of my favorate places to ski, I can't wait! YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[Greg]

Irene's responses are in:

http://skiing.alpinezone.com/articles/challenge/response.htm?resort=wildcat

 

[ChileMass]

Nice detailed responses between the advertisements - !

I can't wait to get up there this season......

 

[Greg]

Nice detailed responses between the advertisements - !

Agreed. There was a friendly vibe to the responses too. After all, you guys have to admit, we beat up Wildcat a bit with some of these questions. I think Irene handled herself nicely and provided detailed answers.

 

[bvibert]

I thought her answers were well thought out and detailed. Although she did tend to veer off from the topic of the question and go into sales pitches I definately want to get up there to ski sometime!

 

[Joshua B]

Hmmm, too bad no one thought to ask about the summit eyesore.