Wildcat This Weekend

[Angus]

I'm in a "use or lose" ticket situation and trying to figure out if it's worth the trip up. I'm familiar with the terrain and will make a game day decision re: weather. I'm more interested in the coverage today and any speculation of what might be opening up by this weekend.

I don't want to get up there and be skiing over rocks and beating up the bottoms of my skis. I've never skied early season at the 'Cat just late season.

Comments most appreciated. thanks.

 

[kickstand]

I was there for 2 days the weekend before Christmas. There were only 2 trails open but the coverage was excellent. I skied on my rock skis, but definitely didn't need to. I just checked their trail report, and they opened up 3 more, but except for one of them (Cheetah), it didn't really buy them much. The other two trails are just cross-over trails from the the Lynx chair to the Bobcat chair. It gets their trail and lift count up, puts them in a good position to keep expanding and spreads people out a little bit more.

Oh, expect race teams to take up either Lower Catapult or Bobcat, either exclusively or sort of de facto. When I was there the kids were everywhere, but there was never any problem with them trying to take up the whole trail for themselves. They were very respectful, especially given this year's circumstances.

 

[awf170]

I might be up there tomorrow so I will report back. As of now though I am pretty fed up with Wildcat and I'm quite unhappy that I bought a pass there.

I have quite a list of problems with Wildcat as of now:

• They have 5 trails open, and no HSQ. That is pathetic. IMO, over the past few years Wildcat has made more snow than Cannon and opened quicker. Cannon has 12 trails open.
• They have been promising they would have the beginner area open the next day or by the weekend for weeks now and it still isn't open. How they hell do you get people there over vacation with not one green open?
• The bobcat chair does not serve a 1,000 ft. of vertical like they said in there snow report a few weeks ago. More like less than 800 ft. 850 max if count from the lodge.
• The tomcat chair does not server 1,500 ft. of vertical more like 1,400 ft. max.
• They say that there average season is mid-november to early may. I don't think they stayed open to may or opened before thanksgiving in like 5 years.(except for the Oct. storm)
• And once again. 5 trails, you have to be kidding me.

 

[Angus]

Austin, that would be great if you make it up and much appreciated and thanks Kickstand for your comments/observations.

Interestingly, last year I, and others, gave the 'Cat kudos for doing such a good job keeping trails open and conditions good given the difficult weather situation.

I know the mountain is no longer for sale - I'm wondering if they were trying to boost visits last year for prospective buyers and expended more $$$ on snow making than they normally would.

I'd be interested in where else they are making snow.

thanks again.

 

[kickstand]

I have quite a list of problems with Wildcat as of now:

• They have 5 trails open, and no HSQ. That is pathetic. IMO, over the past few years Wildcat has made more snow than Cannon and opened quicker. Cannon has 12 trails open.

when I drove up 10 days ago, I went up 93, thru Franconia Notch Parkway and across 302 to my place in Intervale. Once I hit the Parkway, things were covered in snow. Literally, as soon as I got out from under the bridge that goes to Cannon, there was not a single flake of snow on the ground. There was barely any on the ground over by Bretton Woods. The was none on route 16 all the way up Pinkham Notch. It was in the 40s both days I skied, and has barely gotten below freezing since.

• They have been promising they would have the beginner area open the next day or by the weekend for weeks now and it still isn't open. How they hell do you get people there over vacation with not one green open?

You ski there often enough to know it is MUCH warmer at the base of that mountain than at the summit.

• The bobcat chair does not serve a 1,000 ft. of vertical like they said in there snow report a few weeks ago. More like less than 800 ft. 850 max if count from the lodge.
• The tomcat chair does not server 1,500 ft. of vertical more like 1,400 ft. max.

don't you think you're splitting hairs here?

• And once again. 5 trails, you have to be kidding me.

they're not kidding. Everyone is hurting something fierce right now. In this weather, you can't single out one mountain and say they're not doing enough to get terrain open. If you don't have the snowmaking power of Sunday River or Killington, you're hurting. Even they only have a small fraction of their trails open. I know everyone is getting a little anxious and punchy, but I think you need to relax a little and let the weather come around. Mother Nature loves averages. The cold and snow - natural or man-made - will be here soon enough.

 

[Breeze]

Austin,

I do understand your frustration because every single person who works ( and we do work, hard) at Wildcat is feeling the same way. This is not a position we enjoy at this time of year. .

If you've been watching the great tools we share with MWObs, the ARVTP , especially, you'd know we've been in an inversion situation for most of this entire preseason. Summit temps and base temps have been cold off and on, but always warm between 2300' and 4000'.

It is what it is every where. I won't apologize for the MWV/NHARA race teams hogging trail, Attitash and Cranmore have told them NO and these kids have qualifiers and schedules they need to prepare for. Tenney has closed and will not be available to these teams for the rest of the season. Just another reason to have to share what is available. .

Since our parking lot is 1963' above msl, and our pumphouse is where you very well know it is, you know we are in the situation of pumping water uphill. Can't make much snow taking water in at a low temp@ /low elevation , pumping it( with diesel $$) to a higher elevation and having it warm up to 39 F.

OOps. How is that going to work?? It is no good being upside down in the temperature department.

I understand your frustration and share your worries. I can't do a thing for you, except remind you that....The record high temps for MW on this day were set in 1940 and met in 1949 at 37 F, and the record low of MINUS 36 F was recorded in 1993.

Breeze

 

[riverc0il]

[*]They have 5 trails open, and no HSQ. That is pathetic. IMO, over the past few years Wildcat has made more snow than Cannon and opened quicker. Cannon has 12 trails open.
[*]They have been promising they would have the beginner area open the next day or by the weekend for weeks now and it still isn't open. How they hell do you get people there over vacation with not one green open?
[*]And once again. 5 trails, you have to be kidding me.[/LIST]

the comparison to cannon is interesting. cannon has been amazingly aggressive this year with snow making expansion, especially when you compare to similar ski areas in similar markets (wildcat, jay, etc.). jay only has three routes, two beginner trails, and a transport trail. wildcat not having any green circles open is an interesting point considering it is holiday week. i can not speak for their snow making strategy, but you can see the benefit of not having to rely on a single top to bottom lift when it comes to snow making expansion. it is a lot easier to blow on a lot of smaller trails than one great big trail from the summit. wildcat would have more options if they still had a summit chair so they could run with two chairs. if they focus snow making on the summit but have a windy day that forces a wind hold, no one skis those summit trails and the snow making is essentially wasted effort in the short term.

cannon also blew the upper mountain trails early and had decent natural snow fall on upper mountain which probably sped up opening the summit faster than i might have predicted. again, i can only point to the fact that cannon is being very aggressive with their snow making this year. cheers to cannon for going all out. i haven't been there since the upper mountain dump, but i think considering what cannon is offering, they are one of the best bets and best values right night considering the weather. then again, they only have one more route than jay when you think about it, but a lot more skiable acres and quality of terrain. but i would take cruising at cannon over cruising at jay any day.

 

[Breeze]

I'm in a "use or lose" ticket situation and trying to figure out if it's worth the trip up. I'm familiar with the terrain and will make a game day decision re: weather. I'm more interested in the coverage today and any speculation of what might be opening up by this weekend.

I don't want to get up there and be skiing over rocks and beating up the bottoms of my skis. I've never skied early season at the 'Cat just late season.

Comments most appreciated. thanks.

0


Hold your cards until the New Years weekend. Wildcat is not offering terrain for your rock ski's. .. we are tasking you to stay on groomed terrain only.

We may be dysfunctional but we are not inviting you to hurt yourself .

Breeze

 

[cbcbd]

Hey Breeze, do you know Jeff Lea? I work with him down here in CT for the warm months and he heads up to work at Wildcat during the winter. I'll probably be seeing him soon anyways, but if you do know him and see him tell him Doug from Stamford says hi.

 

[awf170]

the comparison to cannon is interesting. cannon has been amazingly aggressive this year with snow making expansion, especially when you compare to similar ski areas in similar markets (wildcat, jay, etc.). jay only has three routes, two beginner trails, and a transport trail. wildcat not having any green circles open is an interesting point considering it is holiday week. i can not speak for their snow making strategy, but you can see the benefit of not having to rely on a single top to bottom lift when it comes to snow making expansion. it is a lot easier to blow on a lot of smaller trails than one great big trail from the summit. wildcat would have more options if they still had a summit chair so they could run with two chairs. if they focus snow making on the summit but have a windy day that forces a wind hold, no one skis those summit trails and the snow making is essentially wasted effort in the short term.

cannon also blew the upper mountain trails early and had decent natural snow fall on upper mountain which probably sped up opening the summit faster than i might have predicted. again, i can only point to the fact that cannon is being very aggressive with their snow making this year. cheers to cannon for going all out. i haven't been there since the upper mountain dump, but i think considering what cannon is offering, they are one of the best bets and best values right night considering the weather. then again, they only have one more route than jay when you think about it, but a lot more skiable acres and quality of terrain. but i would take cruising at cannon over cruising at jay any day.

And this is why I will be paying to ski at Cannon tomorrow instead of using my pass at Wildcat.


Breeze, thanks a lot for the response. But I still think they could be doing better. How can you not have the snowcat area open over christmas vacation? Getting that open before anything else seems like a no-brainer to me.

Also, sense you are already here. What is the deal with the new glades? Did you guys actually go thin them out, or did you just put them on the map?

Thanks.

 

[Sky]

Breeze....looking forward to hitting the cat with my family as soon as winter arrives.

Good luck with the rest of the winter! There are many folks starving for snow and will be hitting trails as soon as the bang becomes equal to the buck.

Thanks for posting!

Sky

 

[threecy]

I think you need to give New England ski areas a break this year - this is the worst ski season so far in modern history for them - my guess is you'll see areas like Wildcat spend what limited funds they'll have left this coming summer on modifying snowmaking systems so that they can either get more terrain open faster or get different terrain open faster.

 

[kickstand]

Also, sense you are already here. What is the deal with the new glades? Did you guys actually go thin them out, or did you just put them on the map?

Excellent question. I was wondering about that myself. Breeze - any insight???

 

[SIKSKIER]

Interesting comments about Cannon.I'm someone who skies Cannon 40-50 days a year for the past 30 years so I have a pretty good perspective on the way things are run.All the regulars constantly bitch(myself included) about how they don't run the Mt nearly as good as a private area and snowmaking would be one of those grips.I really don't think they have been any more aggressive than in past years.I will say though I've been cutting them slack this year especially after seeing the limited amount of terrain Wildcat has.I guess we are not the worst when it comes to getting terrain open.fwiw

 

[Angus]

0


Hold your cards until the New Years weekend. Wildcat is not offering terrain for your rock ski's. .. we are tasking you to stay on groomed terrain only.

Breeze - thanks for your input. I don't own rock skis and in fact I am incredibly anal about keeping my bottoms free of big gorges and scratches - hence my question about the "quality" of the terrain.

to summarize - what the mountain has open is in good shape and won't put my "pristine" ski bottoms at risk.

follow-up - any chance that additional terrain will open Saturday? and what kind of crowds would you expect for me to find over the weekend.

 

[Breeze]

I'm in a "use or lose" ticket situation and trying to figure out if it's worth the trip up. I'm familiar with the terrain and will make a game day decision re: weather. I'm more interested in the coverage today and any speculation of what might be opening up by this weekend.

I don't want to get up there and be skiing over rocks and beating up the bottoms of my skis. I've never skied early season at the 'Cat just late season.

Comments most appreciated. thanks.

You won't beat up your skis at Wildcat as long as you don't duck ropes.

We offer a one-hour snow guarantee, so if you have a valid year -end voucher, honestly convert it to a live ticket, go and ski that ticket ... if you are still unhappy, we will voucher you for another day of skiing. We've opened ourselves up to a lot of potential abuse on this policy but feel deeply that trust is a 2-way street. Need I say more??

As far as the new tree-skiing areas, yes we did cut with permission of the NFS. Jeremiah Beech organized some intrepid volunteers who stripped out everything under 3" in diameter and limbed up above head height. That was/is a gamble, the downside being those who liked their "private" stash won't find it private anymore. I'll let OTHERS speak to the hand on that.

Tomorrow morning ( Friday) the Snowcat will be operating, and we will have lift served green circle terrain available, with our full complement of lessons.

Breeze looks around wondering if her Bosses lurk here trying to catch her out... for answering questions.

 

[riverc0il]

Interesting comments about Cannon.I'm someone who skies Cannon 40-50 days a year for the past 30 years so I have a pretty good perspective on the way things are run.All the regulars constantly bitch(myself included) about how they don't run the Mt nearly as good as a private area and snowmaking would be one of those grips.I really don't think they have been any more aggressive than in past years.I will say though I've been cutting them slack this year especially after seeing the limited amount of terrain Wildcat has.I guess we are not the worst when it comes to getting terrain open.fwiw

i think you need to look at the aggressive aspect from a point of relativity considering just how damn bad this winter has started and how few chances cannon has had to blow. i was amazed to see snow making on the upper mountain before they were blowing on the lower mountain and the addition of the new snow guns in the base area seemed to have helped. compared to a normal year, perhaps snow making efforts seem similar, but i gotta tip my hat to them as this is anything but a normal year and i am impressed with their amount of open terrain (speaking as a jay pass holder that is REALLY disappointed with jay's snow making efforts thus far). i can't speak for 30 years past, but i have been a dedicated cannon skier the past four or five years and this year seems better than the past few years when you take into account the weather and how bad other areas are doing. i heard there was a new guy in charge of snow making operations this year?

 

[awf170]

As far as the new tree-skiing areas, yes we did cut with permission of the NFS. Jeremiah Beech organized some intrepid volunteers who stripped out everything under 3" in diameter and limbed up above head height. That was/is a gamble, the downside being those who liked their "private" stash won't find it private anymore. I'll let OTHERS speak to the hand on that.

Sweet! That is awesome. All that stuff was too tight for any fun anyway. Also, I doubt there were really many "stashes" in there anyway. So what is going to be the policy on these glades? Are they patrolled? Open and closed? Named? I am very happy. Now I just need snow.

Also, is the quad going to be open this weekend. (please god say yes)

 

[Sky]

Breeze...great to have a rep from the cat (officially or otherwise) answering questions.

I applaude your comment about using that voucher. Equates to long-term thinking.

This winter must be absolute hell on all resorts.

Looking forward to getting up to see you guys this year.

 

[SIKSKIER]

i think you need to look at the aggressive aspect from a point of relativity considering just how damn bad this winter has started and how few chances cannon has had to blow. i was amazed to see snow making on the upper mountain before they were blowing on the lower mountain and the addition of the new snow guns in the base area seemed to have helped. compared to a normal year, perhaps snow making efforts seem similar, but i gotta tip my hat to them as this is anything but a normal year and i am impressed with their amount of open terrain (speaking as a jay pass holder that is REALLY disappointed with jay's snow making efforts thus far). i can't speak for 30 years past, but i have been a dedicated cannon skier the past four or five years and this year seems better than the past few years when you take into account the weather and how bad other areas are doing. i heard there was a new guy in charge of snow making operations this year?

I hear you riveroil.I actually am changing my tune a little and siding more with you after seeing Cannons website this morning.They report that Zoomer will be running Saturday with Rocket and Garys open.Is this the same place I love to complain about?Actually,I'm a huge Cannon fan which is why I've been there for so long.It doesn't hurt having a place right at the bottom of Mittersill either.I will be thanking the Mt manager when I see him this weekend.Nice job Cannon!!
As far as a new guy in charge of the snowmaking,I've seen Matt(forgot his last name)who has been heading that dept.for the last few years,in the middle of the operation the last 3 weeks.They bought 4 new fan guns which do a great job in the base area.These guns actually increased their capacity to make snow without upgrading the compressers because they don't use air.Pretty cool!