ouch -- Wildcat closed until Friday

[polski]

First big dump of the season and Wildcat is forced to close. From their snow report:

Today Monday, December 3rd, Wildcat is closed and will remain closed due to an unforeseen power outage and now scheduled preventive maintenance later this week to ideally avoid future power related events. Wildcat Mountain, working with P.S.N.H., is expecting all work to be completed by Friday, December 7th and for daily operations to resume then.

p.s. they'd reported today's closure early this morning so at least nobody got stuck on the lifts ...

 

[MrMagic]

a great opt. to break out those skins! who would of thought fresh tracks from this storm lasting till friday

 

[Breeze]

Ouch for sure!

This has been extremely frustrating and complicated for folks at Wildcat, not to mention the dismay of our customers.

PSNH HAD ( previously) scheduled today to be a power out day for Wildcat , so they could do line work. There is a long stretch of power line in Pinkham that is "in the woods" not accessible from road. There are currently several "leaners" that need to be cleared and for that to happen safely, the power has to be cut. On Saturday we were advising people that we would indeed be CLOSED on Monday so that PSNH could get their stuff done.

Saturday AM Wildcat had a brief ( 90 seconds, maybe) outage, certainly a "warning", but it was a huge Knock Knock/foreboding of worse things to come.

Saturday Afternoon PSNH CANCELED the line work scheduled for today ( due to the weather forecast). That was good news, so we thought we'd be open today, and we'd just wait for PSNH to reschedule.

TODAY upon getting into the base lodge, it was discovered that we had another situation of "partial outage", where one phase of the 3-phase power supply is missing. It has happened before, under the exact same circumstances ( I think that it was Saturday of MLK weekend in 2004). Can't run anything when that happens, and it is caused by the trees on the lines wearing the insulation. PSNH now MUST get the line work done, and they'll HAVE to do it in full-on winter conditions. Can't say I envy the line-men going into the woods, potentially with cable reels, in a foot + of new powder.

Of course they ( PSNH) don't know exactly what-all is going to be needed now, nor how long its going to take. Wildcat had to take PSNH's best guess to heart and call the midweek officially no-go.

It isn't just Wildcat skiers that are unhappy, believe me. There are a bunch of people who need to work, want to work, and who won't be able to make things happen on a lot of different levels. Customer fulfillment in the holiday season is a huge issue.

Interestingly, there are only 2 possible PSNH customers who are affected by this... Great Glen Trails/ Auto Road and Wildcat. Wildcat is the very last customer at the very end of the transmission lines from Gorham.


The AMC Visitor Center gets their grid fix from the Conway transmission lines.


Dang it, the only single good thing happening in Pinkham Notch is that there is heavy snow falling and it is supposed to keep falling overnight. It is free snow, the best kind, not the diesel-powered/ PSNH assisted expensive stuff.

Think good thoughts, they are much appreciated.

Breeze

 

[wa-loaf]

The AMC Visitor Center gets their grid fix from the Conway transmission lines.

Maybe you can run an extension cord up from the AMC? :lol:

jk, that really sucks! Hopefully it will be fixed sooner than later.

 

[Cannonball]

This, of course, is standard operating procedure for Wildcat. Conducting "scheduled preventive maintenance" at a ski area in December? How about scheduling it for September or June? If there are any garuntees in the New England ski season, it's that Wildcat will be closed during the best conditions of the year. Every move they make, from installing only one summit lift right into the world's worst weather, to scheduling mid-season maintainance seems designed to miss as many days as possible. Too bad, because they've got some of the best terrain in the region. I've been burned by that place so many times: sat on broken lifts, turned away on a powder day, etc. But I've learned my lesson and rarely consider it a viable option anymore. Those who paid $700 for a season pass and will have to pay somewhere else tomorrow will be learning their lesson too.

 

[thetrailboss]

This, of course, is standard operating procedure for Wildcat. Conducting "scheduled preventive maintenance" at a ski area in December? How about scheduling it for September or June? If there are any garuntees in the New England ski season, it's that Wildcat will be closed during the best conditions of the year. Every move they make, from installing only one summit lift right into the world's worst weather, to scheduling mid-season maintainance seems designed to miss as many days as possible. Too bad, because they've got some of the best terrain in the region. I've been burned by that place so many times: sat on broken lifts, turned away on a powder day, etc. But I've learned my lesson and rarely consider it a viable option anymore. Those who paid $700 for a season pass and will have to pay somewhere else tomorrow will be learning their lesson too.

:-? I think if you read the press release and what Breeze said you would see that it was not Wildcat's fault...rather PSNH.

 

[Cannonball]

Yes, I read those. In most cases it would seem like unfortunate timing and bad luck. But as I said, Wildcat is notorious for 'prime time' closures. I doubt there are real stats out there, but I'd bet just about anything that the Wilcat Quad is shut down more than any other lift in New England. I understand that they are in a windy spot, but that's only a partial excuse....they never should have sited that lift there in first place. They have consistently made poor mountain management choices. So perhaps this time it isn't their fault....but it reminds me of a story about a little girl crying wolf.

 

[thetrailboss]

Well, I think it is not fair to say that Wildcat wanted to close for this week and this begins to sound like a conspiracy theory. Any ski area that is closed is losing money...especially after a snowstorm such as this one. I don't think anyone at Wildcat wanted to be closed...

 

[thetrailboss]

I also think it may be best to address these concerns directly to the mountain first before coming here...unless you have already tried to address them...

 

[ckofer]

And didn't Wildcat make a great effort last season to stay open a bit later?

 

[Cannonball]

Fair enough. I've had this conversation many, many times over the past few years. I've never got anything but 100% agreement, so I assumed it was the general consensus. But perhaps I am traveling in restricted and poorly informed circles. It's nice to see your defense of the mountain. If you guys are having good experiences at Wildcat and haven't encountered frequent break downs, wind holds, and mismanagement I'm very happy to hear it. Maybe my experiences really have just been isloated bad luck.

I'm sorry WC, you're a good kitty.

 

[Breeze]

And didn't Wildcat make a great effort last season to stay open a bit later?

Thank you Chris. WC did make a concerted effort to stay open, and I remember what awesome days they were right to the 6th of May. Ya gotta think those 3 weeks of extending gave passholders from closed areas a few more WEEKS to ski/ride. Certainly pleased our passholders.

Someone is always willing to slam a ski area when the going gets tough. Cannonball may have had some bad luck, and maybe he shared some of Wildcat's infamous "bad weather", but it is pretty instructive to see how worked up someone might be over "mismanagement" at a ski area where folks have been enjoying snow sports since 1935 ( prior to lift-serve).

Its a bump. Many people don't like bumps. They still ski/ride, still support the industry, and thats a good thing. Wildcat isn't everyone's "choice", and doesn't need to be.

I fully expect to see SR blasted here at some point this winter when the dreaded Wind Hold Effect takes charge there, too. I know how folks love having 8 lifts on hold there.

Breeze

 

[BlakeT]

Unjust Critisism

Place the blame where it should be!!!! PSNH is notorious for its unreliable service and poor preventive maintainace (why would anyone "schedule" PM on one of the most inaccesable line runs in NH for December?). I guess its good that there is a forum for people to vent there frustration, but maybe a little thought should go into these rantings ( engage the brain before the fingers). Who in there right mind would think that Wildcat would want to shut down with a foot of new powder on the ground? Its certainly easy to be a "monday morning quarterback" but walk in managements shoes for a few days and see how it feels!

 

[Angus]

I've skied that quad a couple of times in the last few years when I couldn't believe it was running given wind conditions. Certainly, Wildcat should be applauded for last years spring effort - and nearly spring too. It seems to me, they operate within a set of constraints very different from most other ski areas and do a very nice job at it. You've got to believe that getting anything done commercially on that particular tract of land is extremely difficult. Maybe Wildcat should have requested the work be done earlier but who knows how PSNH prioritizes etc.