After getting in a fair amount of skiing at Loon, I headed over to Wildcat prepared for harder terrain. I was curious after reading about the new snowmaking capabilities installed over the summer. Wildcat opened much earlier than usual this season. The other option was Bretton Woods, but they only had a few green runs open. Attitash was not open. I liked the fact that Wildcat was quick to answer a question I sent via email the day before driving over. Early season lift tickets were $49.
The drive to Wildcat from Lincoln is about an hour. I was a little worried when going through Franconia Notch near Cannon. It was snowing quite hard and the road was snow covered even though the plows were clearly working steadily. At that point, I-93/US3 is only a 2-lane highway. But shortly after US3 goes north away from I-93, there was no more snow to worry about.
It was pretty cold when I pulled into the parking lot around 10am. Wildcat is a simple set up. One lodge at the base of a ski area with 2112 vertical right across from Mt. Washington. Mt. Washington is the highest peak in NH at 6288'. Known for very high winds. Wildcat is a steep mountain that includes an express quad that reaches the 4062’ summit in 6 minutes. Also a couple triples to mid-mountain and a beginner triple. Only the quad was running. I doubt there were more than 50 people who skied at Wildcat that day.
There were three ways open from the top on Thu, Dec. 4. The long green cruiser called Polecat (Upper, Middle, Lower) that has lots of new, quiet pole snowguns, Upper Catapult (blue), and Lynx (Upper, Middle, Lower; blue). While Polecat is a green, I think there are parts as steep as some blues at mountains in the northeast of comparable size that don’t have as much vertical. Polecat is 2.75 miles long, said to be the longest novice trail in New Hampshire.
For my first run, I followed an older couple down Polecat. They were locals I’d chatted with in the lodge while booting up. I don’t think they were expecting the snowguns to be on. They headed home after the one run. The next run, I followed another local on Upper Catapult. The first part was more like a traverse than a trail because it’s relatively flat and narrow and had big snow whales that weren't groomed. The payoff was that after the turn that separates Upper Wildcat (black, closed) from Upper Catapult, there was ungroomed soft snow that was quite fun, 4-5 inches deep with few tracks. The local was very friendly. He grew up in the area. He was a Lifetime passholder before the recent change in ownership and has been skiing Wildcat for 30+ years. Now enjoying the place midweek after retirement. He appreciates the improvements even though he now has to pay $250 for a pass. That’s quite a discount off the regular season pass cost. It was his first run of the day, so he was checking conditions out carefully by stopping every so often. He was like a mountain host since he would explain what to expect. That was a perfect introduction for me. Skied the rest of the morning with him.
After lunch, I headed out for a few more runs. With the express quad, I was getting a lot of skiing time relative to the 6 min ride up. Lynx turned out to have a pretty solid surface, so I was happy to be on carvers. Finished the day with another run under the guns on Polecat. Essentially first tracks . . . fun!
Upper Catapult around noon. The first time down around 11:00 there were only a couple tracks.
Mount Washington in the background.
View of Mount Washington from Upper Polecat
Upper Catapult still fun at 2pm. All the locals were gone by then.
Looking up Wildcat from the parking lot. Lodge is one of the few that has an entrance directly to the lower floor where the restrooms are located.
Clouds hung around the top of Mount Washington all day