Wildcat This Weekend

[JimG.]

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.

Never did and never will understand the ski area management tendency to muzzle employees who post on ski related websites and answer questions. I totally understand your fear.

Trust is a 2 way street...honestly and openness leads to increased customer satisfaction. I agree you are taking a chance with the 1 hour guarantee, but overall it will lead to increased customer satisfaction. Kudos to you and Wildcat.

 

[dmc]

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.

wow... thats so far removed from the way I ski/ride... I tend to gravitate to rocky areas where I find the snow to be less tracked and terrain challenge to be higher..

All of my boards have scratches - but it doesnt concern me unless the gash is on the edge.. otherwise i just fill them with petex at my friends shop and just go along my merry way...

Like my Grandma used to say: "The best meat is next to the bones"

 

[JimG.]

wow... thats so far removed from the way I ski/ride... I tend to gravitate to rocky areas where I find the snow to be less tracked and terrain challenge to be higher..

All of my boards have scratches - but it doesnt concern me unless the gash is on the edge.. otherwise i just fill them with petex at my friends shop and just go along my merry way...

Like my Grandma used to say: "The best meat is next to the bones"

My best days in the east always seem to involve a core shot or two.

I find the less I worry about it the fewer gouges I get. Not really sure why that works, but it does.

 

[dmc]

My best days in the east always seem to involve a core shot or two.

Yup... the deeper the pow the more damage I actually do...

 

[Angus]

I may reflect the attitudes of a large # of folks who like to ski and aren't into the resort thing. In terms of big mountain skiing in NH, Cannon and Wildcat are clearly my #1 & 2 (no particular order). They both have classic old style terrain - narrow and winding and steep - and focus on the skiing not the real estate development or base lodge amenities.

Again, I thought last year Wildcat did a great job grooming and conditions-wise. Likewise, I was at Cannon only once - the 2nd week of February I believe - and was very impressed by the conditions and the amount of terrain open given there was maybe 2 inches of natural snow in the notch - none at the Lincoln exit - does that sound familiar? Don't forget though - that Cannon close 2 or 3 weeks earlier than Wildcat last year - so I bet they shut their guns off earlier.

 

[riverc0il]

cannon tends to shut down the first week of april regardless of conditions. i have seen them shut it down with every trail open just a few years ago. wildcat is a great place for spring skiing and i appreciate the mountain opps pushing as far into april as possible, often barely connecting patches and sometimes posting that certain trails require walking over a little grass. that is my type of spring skiing!

 

[Breeze]

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)

I wish to Ullr ( and the plumbing Gods) I could say yes, but I can't. An honest effort was in force to lay down enough to open Upper Catapult from the summit for this weekend, so we could bring the Quad online. One of the underground pressurized pipes up there let go yesterday about 4 pm and we had to retreat from that mission. Repairs have been made as of today, but we chose to refocus on Lynx overnight ( Middle and Lower, off the Tomcat) while we fixed the blow-out. I don't know whether we might be able to bring Lynx online tomorow, but I do know it is in progress, in intent, and the guns are hard on it. That is a hopeful for that side of the hill.

The other issue we have is giving up Cheetah over this holiday weekend to racing, we have to get the tunnel open and redirect some traffic away from the competition course, so Wild Kitten is seeing heavy snow-gun coverage tonight as well.

Attitash and Cranmore have no terrain available for the race teams so Wildcat is pretty much " knickers twisted" until everyone plays Catch-up.

Wish I had better news, but thats the way it goes.

Breeze


Edited to mention the newly cut areas are ON the trail map, within the boundaries of the ski area, so subject to patrol and sweep. Not named except for the colloquial.

Breeze

 

[Breeze]

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.

You are such a sweetheart, Sky. I'll be sure to high five you when I see you. Pray for the Steep and Deep in April when it is truly awesome.

Breeze

 

[Breeze]

Never did and never will understand the ski area management tendency to muzzle employees who post on ski related websites and answer questions. I totally understand your fear.

Trust is a 2 way street...honestly and openness leads to increased customer satisfaction. I agree you are taking a chance with the 1 hour guarantee, but overall it will lead to increased customer satisfaction. Kudos to you and Wildcat.

Thanks Jim. Some days are better than others, and your kind words are appreciated tonight.

Breeze

 

[MikeTrainor]

Breeze,

Great to have someone from the cat here now! I managed to get 2 Wildcards this Christmas so I will be there a few days...hope the quad is running the weekend of the 6th, keep us updated!

 

[Breeze]

Breeze,

Great to have someone from the cat here now! I managed to get 2 Wildcards this Christmas so I will be there a few days...hope the quad is running the weekend of the 6th, keep us updated!

LOLOL Mike, I sure hope to see you the 6th!

We picked up another 3+ natural today, so we've been gifted this week.

Pray for a good outcome on Monday?

Breeze

 

[awf170]

LOLOL Mike, I sure hope to see you the 6th!

We picked up another 3+ natural today, so we've been gifted this week.

Pray for a good outcome on Monday?

Breeze

Nice. I'll be there tomorrow. :smile: Do you think natural snow trails will be skiable? How much snow is on the ground?

 

[Breeze]

Nice. I'll be there tomorrow. :smile: Do you think natural snow trails will be skiable? How much snow is on the ground?

Austin, dear heart,

Mother Nature was GRINCH in the Christmas stocking department this year. There are NO trails open on natural snow at Wildcat as of today 12/30/06. Everything OPEN ( slim and holding) is open <with extreme help > from snowmaking.

Did you ski Cannon today?? How was that?

Breeze

 

[awf170]

Austin, dear heart,

Mother Nature was GRINCH in the Christmas stocking department this year. There are NO trails open on natural snow at Wildcat as of today 12/30/06. Everything OPEN ( slim and holding) is open <with extreme help > from snowmaking.

Did you ski Cannon today?? How was that?

Breeze

I skied Cannon on thursday. It was pretty good. The middle of almost every trail was icy, but the edges were very nice. Good coverage though. My guess is that Wildcat has a deeper base on most trails. Will lynx be groomed out for tomorrow? I remember skiing lynx last year before they groomed it out and man was that fun.

Also, about how much snow is on the ground at the base, and at the top of tomcat?

 

[eatskisleep]

Great Topic!

Glad you are here listening/replying Breeze.

I picked up my season pass on Thursday the 28th expecting conditions to be icy (hey we all know what The 'Cat is typically like) but was very surprised! Conditions were great. I also skied Wildcat on the 29th and on the 31st and conditions just kept getting better.

My Dad came skiing on the 28th and found that the ticket price was ridiculous @$55 (I think it was that much). Took and run and found it was much better conditions than at Sunday River the previous day which had 40 trails open (and was a sheet of ice). He liked it so much he opted to get another day ticket at $29 for the following day (Great Deal!)

While in the lodge after skiing on Thursday I heard about the pipe bursting by the patrol shack near the top of the Tomcat Triple... on Friday I saw one of the guys working on it for a better part of the day.

Lynx was awesome. View was great! Great bumps for that 1500 vertical feet... a nice "leg burner" with a few interesting spots on it. On another note someone ducked the ropes on Lynx on Thursday (idiots) considering there was only about 3-4 inches of natural snow (before snowmaking started)... I guess they were on rentals and wanted to brag to their friends about how "hardcore" they are.

I took over 100 pictures at Wildcat so I will post some of the best soon... and I hope some of you guys actually reply to my topic!

Hmmmmm... some stashed on the trail-map. Could be a good thing; could be a bad thing. I know stuff like T-Brook and Shanka can't be put on the he map but hopefully other stuff like Elevator Shaft, Timing Line, Cape Canavral, etc. will stay off the map. I've seen the new trail-map and I know of a few areas where there has been skiing before... area off of Tomcat Schuss looks nice, never skied there but I will have to check it out this season.

Thank-you for NOT grooming Middle Catapult and Middle and Lower Lynx!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

 

[Breeze]

EatSleepSki,

Thank you for posting about your personal experience. Wildcat has a reputation that may or may not hold true for all skiers. Our Mountain Ops Director, Alexa, is doing her best to make the Kitty acessible to everyone. That is a tall order, given the terrain and the resources. When we hear good experiences, it is a plus for us.

Breeze

 

[awf170]

Bump...

Just a suggestion, but could you possibly say which trails you making snow on instead of just saying "[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Snowmaking is ongoing when temps permit!".

Also, any idea when the quad will open. Wednesday?
[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[MikeTrainor]

I have to agree more info on wildcats website would be helpful

 

[awf170]

Wildcat loves me!

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Snowmaking is ongoing along the Upper Catapult Trail"

http://www.skiwildcat.com/snowreport.html
[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[MikeTrainor]

Wildcat loves me!

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Snowmaking is ongoing along the Upper Catapult Trail"

http://www.skiwildcat.com/snowreport.html
[/SIZE][/FONT]

And it was great. The quad opened today. Normally I tend to stay off the quad when tomcat is open, but the expert only/ ungroomed signs kept quite a few off. Only bad news to report is the snow making pipe that feeds the summit burst again today.