WILDCAT: The 2005 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge

[thetrailboss]

Irene Donnell, the Director of Marketing and Communications at Wildcat, has 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 we'll select ten to present for official responses.

Also please don't be offended if we edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or some other minor thing. In order to get in all of the questions we MAY merge some questions but we'll do our best to keep the substance of your question. If we don't get your question in, feel free to post a follow up after we get the results...we are encouraging the representatives follow the threads. :wink:

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!

 

[Vortex]

I am a pass holder from a couple other resorts, but I like to ski Wildcat and have taken advantage of the deals you have offered in the past for Pass holders of other resorts. Do you have any deals like that set up for the coming season?

 

[thetrailboss]

OK, HERE are some articles and threads about Wildcat and HERE are Irene's answers to last season's challenge. Hopefully this will help you to come up with some great questions.

 

[thetrailboss]

OK, the obvious question. Why is Wildcat for sale? What can you say about this? Have you had any prospective clients?

 

[kickstand]

Irene, how about a comprehensive backcountry guided tour?

I had a WildCard last year and I thought that was a great pass option. Are there any plans this year to bring that back, or to introduce some other creative pricing packages and deals to lure people to Wildcat? Many of the more recent deals (2-fer Wednesday, Ladies' Thursday) were definitely worth the visit.

 

[awf170]

Why did you decide to groom black cat more this season, i was really disappoionted one time when i went there and it was totally groomed. Also another question on gondola line about half way down why does it do a S turn instead of going straight, there are a few boulderings and stuff but it seems like it could be easily flatted out, and even when there was enough snow there it why was still blocked off?

 

[awf170]

Early in the season, around mid december upper wildcat was said to be open on the website for about a week or two, when it was never open. And one of those days a talked to someone involed in mangement(it might of been you) about it they said it was never supposed to open, and had no plans of opening it. So my guess this was a typo of some sort. So this isnt really a question but shouldnt some check something like that to not cause confusion, and how could something like that go unnoticed?

 

[NHpowderhound]

Irene, thank you for taking our questions.
I gave up my Wildcat pass two seasons ago after my frustration with the Jeckyll and Hyde lift known as the Wildcat Express. I love how fast it is but it seems to be shut down more than an acceptible amount of time. We know Wildcat has it's own unique geographical challenges with wind. But I would think there could be more opportunities to get paying customers up the hill.
What is the general protocol when deciding to shut down the quad?
Has wildcat looked into a surface lift?
Can the lift towers be lowered to the ground in certain places where they are more exposed?
Thanks again!
((*
*))NHPH

 

[NHpowderhound]

Does Wildcat plan on any multi-mountain pass deals like the Cannon/BW, ASC or SKI93 deals?
((*
*))NHPH

 

[awf170]

Irene, thank you for taking our questions.
I gave up my Wildcat pass two seasons ago after my frustration with the Jeckyll and Hyde lift known as the Wildcat Express. I love how fast it is but it seems to be shut down more than an acceptible amount of time. We know Wildcat has it's own unique geographical challenges with wind. But I would think there could be more opportunities to get paying customers up the hill.
What is the general protocol when deciding to shut down the quad?
Has wildcat looked into a surface lift?
Can the lift towers be lowered to the ground in certain places where they are more exposed?
Thanks again!
((*
*))NHPH

it doesnt seem as bad anymore IMO, in the past 2 seasons i have been about 15 times and it shut down once due to icing. It also seems like it doesnt die anymore, i remember it seemed like it died like 3 weekends in a row a few years ago

 

[awf170]

Does Wildcat plan on any multi-mountain pass deals like the Cannon/BW, ASC or SKI93 deals?
((*
*))NHPH

that would be awsome a wildcat/cannon, the only 2 real ski areas in NH

 

[loafer89]

I visited Wildcat on March 27th, 2005 with my family and we had a bad experience from the start. 1) The snow conditions on the groomed trails were were an unpleasant mix of packed powder and large frozen granular ice chunks. 2) My son and I were skiing down Middle Wildcat and we were detoured around a ongoing race (not marked from above)onto the Middle Catapult trail which was WAY beyond my sons ability level. He subsequently took a bad fall on the trail and did not want to ski at Wildcat any longer. When I complained about this to customer service I was more of less brushed off.

We made the decision to LEAVE Wilcat and go ski at Cranmore, wasting $55. My question is what do you plan to do to improve the snow surface, and better mark races and trail closing for skiers to avoid these activities?

 

[dmc]

Does Wildcat plan on any multi-mountain pass deals like the Cannon/BW, ASC or SKI93 deals?
((*
*))NHPH

that would be awsome a wildcat/cannon, the only 2 real ski areas in NH

I absolutely fell in love with Wildcat this winter..
Just love the trail/glade/woods layout... Amazing views.. Great conditions...Mellow vibe...
My only question is... Whats up with the layout of the Quad chair when you first get on? YOu gotta sit then it swings around the bullwheel... Just seems a little odd...

I NEED to hit Cannon next winter...

 

[awf170]

Does Wildcat plan on any multi-mountain pass deals like the Cannon/BW, ASC or SKI93 deals?
((*
*))NHPH

that would be awsome a wildcat/cannon, the only 2 real ski areas in NH

I absolutely fell in love with Wildcat this winter..
Just love the trail/glade/woods layout... Amazing views.. Great conditions...Mellow vibe...
My only question is... Whats up with the layout of the Quad chair when you first get on? YOu gotta sit then it swings around the bullwheel... Just seems a little odd...

I NEED to hit Cannon next winter...

ya that loading is kinda wierd, but it makes sense because all of the traffic is coming from that side, and there is not enough room behind it to load straight, i love how that chair just takes off after your round the corner...
and yes you do need to hit cannon next year

 

[awf170]

Are there any plans do something with the summit gondola, like make it into a warming hut and a snackshop like it used to be. Why was it closed in the first place?

 

[thetrailboss]

OK, let's plan on wrapping this one up on Wednesday AM.

 

[thetrailboss]

Great questions, guys. Thanks a lot and keep up the great submissions.

(Lock).

 

[Greg]

Irene's responses are in:

http://skiing.alpinezone.com/articles/challenge/2005/response.htm?resort=wildcat

 

[Treeliner]

Interesting + informative responses - I especially found this bit fascinating, as it's something I would have otherwise never known about;

When the wind is blowing from the Northwest (which is the primary direction of winter storms) it causes the outgoing chairs to be blown back, holding them in the terminal. The lift has many sensors that calculate chair spacing and will shut down if the sensors detect that the chairs are to close together. This is called an anti-collision fault. Therefore, once this starts to happen on a consistent basis, it is very difficult to keep the lift running without many stops and starts, making for a slow and unpleasant ride.

 

[thetrailboss]

On my first glance, it appears that Irene did a good job giving the Challenge the attention it deserved. :beer: I will read it more in depth later...