Catamount 2/12/2004

[severine]

I'll start off by saying I can now sympathize with that other thread about non-posted races occuring. I had checked their events calendar ahead of time, but found upon arrival that some huge kids' race was going on even though it was Thursday during the day. Parts of the mountain were shut down for the race (although it didn't directly affect me because I can't ski black diamonds yet) and, of course, the lodge was packed full in spite of our wishful expectations that it would be pretty uncrowded on a weekday. On the plus side, full day lift tickets are only $15 on Wed and Thur, so that helped make up for the inconvenience.
Snow conditions varied drastically throughout the mountain. In some areas, it was a rough machine groomed packed/sometimes hard packed powder. In other areas, it was soft with a thick layer of powder, and just about everything in between, including death cookies on a few of the trails. Lift lines on the easier side of the mountain were mostly nonexistant due to the race on the right side. Trails were fairly uncrowded until around noon and after. By 3:30, busloads of kids started arriving, just in time for us to leave and avoid the largest crowds of the day.
Overall, it was nice having the trails mostly to ourselves. But the lodge was way too crowded with parents hanging around while their children raced, to the point of blocking our bags in when I needed to get my neck gaiter out at lunch time and having to sit outside to eat our lunch because every table was full. If I skied black diamonds, I probably would have been more upset about the race, but it didn't affect me on the greens and blues that I skied. Can't beat the value, unless you go to Butternut on Mon or Tues. I'm definitely looking forward to going back there again.

 

[Joshua B]

Nice report. For a while it seemed I was the only one who cared about unexpected races! Everyone else seemed to think it was nothing even worth mentioning. :roll:

 

[severine]

I can totally sympathize with you now. As I mentioned, if I had been of a higher ability level, it would have affected me more, but it was still irritating to find the mountain overrun with racing children on a school day and the lodge packed full with parents who were reluctant to make room for anyone else. At least it was cheap...
Ironically, when we went to Mohawk on Saturday, we hit Arrowhead just as they were cleaning up a practice race course. The course covered some of my favorite intermediate terrain there--had I hit that side of the mountain earlier, it most certainly would have affected me and potentially ruined the good day I was having. Once again, it was an unposted event. I feel for you! At least luck was on my side with that one and I happened to hit that trail at the right time (they were literally cleaning up that course as I got there)...lack of liftlines and fairly uncrowded trails also helped with that one. But I'm still a bit peeved...

 

[threecy]

One positive thing about races - generally only one trail is closed and also, though there may be a few hundred racers, they'll only use the lift 3 or 4 times.

 

[severine]

Catamount technically has 29 trails.... but you know how resorts like to name little 10ft sections as separate trails. It's more like 20-25 trails, and then you have to take away the 5 or so of them that are considered "learning areas", so it doesn't leave much--especially if you can't ski black diamonds yet like me.
During the week, about half of the lifts at Catamount aren't operated. On the day we went, only one lift to the summit was being utilized (the same the racers were using). There is another lift that goes to the top of the left section of the mountain, but you can access only about 1/3 of the mountain from that lift. So you see, since Catamount is a smaller mountain, it is a greater inconvenience. Unfortunately with the lack of larger ski areas close by, the small ones around here get crowded quickly and often. It's not the same as you'd find further north. I imagine this wouldn't be as much of an issue at a larger ski area, but it is around here.

 

[Joshua B]

I think it's obvious that some people have never been inconvenienced by races. But those of us who have can understand each other's frustration.

Yes, of course races bring in lots of money to the ski area, and we all want to see our favorite ski areas do well.

 

[threecy]

Yes, races can be an inconvenience, but I think if it weren't for the attitudes some racers had, people wouldn't mind as much.

In a year like this, racers pay the bills at many ski areas.

 

[skijay]

Try Catamount's neighbor, Butternut. It is about 10-15 minutes away on rt 23 (eastbound). They have the summit quad running daily which accesses all type of terrain. I have been there during the week on "bus load" days and never had a problem.

I also like the fact that during races they fire up the poma lift for them.

 

[Joshua B]

There is a good point about the skiers who are racing. Seems they have to race from the top of the lift to the top of the race trail, cutting off everyone in the process.

I forgot about this aspect of racing day, but you're absolutely right about this happening frequently.