Wildcat, NH 4/12/14

Around last Tuesday, Eammon and I looked at the weather forecast and sighed:  50s and 90% rain.  "Well, I guess Sunday at Wachussett was our last day for skiing this year."  Not that it was a horrible thing.  Eammon's been making huge leaps in leaning how to ski, so that's been pretty satisfying for both of us.  Then Friday came around, and the weather forecast turned to 50s and.... sunshine!  Eammon sent me a link to Cannon mtn, but then I read an article about the hidden treasure of Wildcat and we decided to go there instead.  We'd been to Wildcat about 3 weeks earlier, so we already knew it was amazing.  I got caught up in work and play and never got around to writing a trip report for it to post here, but our second trip was even better!  Our first trip up there was awesome: it was puking snow the entire day and every run down was like first tracks.  It was hard to see, though, and bitterly cold.  Our second trip up there was a corn harvest the whole day, and we were both wearing just light windproof pants and windbreakers over our baselayers because it was so warm.  We also had amazing views of Mt. Washington:



More amazing views off the backside of Wildcat:


Ski conditions were fabulous.  It was a sugary, granular corn consistency.  It hadn't turned slushy, it wasn't sticky, and it was soft.  It made skiing the more difficult trails a breeze, aside from having to gingerly pick our way around bare spots on the steeper, natural snow trails.  We only did a couple of those in order to preserve the bases on our skis/board.  It was perfect hero snow, though, and for me, it was the best day of skiing the entire season.  


Tuckerman's ravine.  The Inferno Race was being held Saturday, and you could see a line of racers hiking/skinning up the right side of the bowl.  It looked like a line of tiny ants from our vantage point.  


Two VERY happy Wildcat patrons!  We took this photo at the summit after we caught the last chair up, just a couple minutes before they closed down all the lifts.  We took the long, winding green trail down to the bottom to maximize our snow time and were just about the last people off the mountain aside from the ski patrol.


We love the vibe of Wildcat.  It's very down to earth and basic no frills, but that's how we like it.  We're there to slide down the mountain, and that's it.  They have a free bag check in the bottom floor, which was really nice!  We absolutely love North Conway, too.  We stopped at a place called Cafe Noche just on the southern skirt of Conway on our way home the first time we visited Wildcat.  It's right on rt 16 and serves very good Mexican food. For our second trip, we stopped at Moat Mountain Smokehouse and Brewery in North Conway, along rt 16.  The food and beer there was quite tasty, although it does have a tendency to get crowded during peak season.  Eammon and I are now considering North Conway in the running with the Mad River Valley as our "retirement" option.  That's how much we love it up there!  We haven't been to the other ski resorts in the area, but Attitash, Cranmore, and Black mountain are all within a 30 minute drive of North Conway, along with Wildcat.  Hopefully next year, I'll be posting a trip report from the other side of highway 16, from Tuckerman's ravine!  That's our goal for next season.  

Yes! My thoughts exactly. I was in North Conway and environs only long enough about a year ago to get impressions, but if impressions mean anything, I could go there many, many times and even consider it as a permanent base. As much as I, too, like the MRV and the Lake Placid-Saranac-Keene Valley area, that part of New Hampshire has its appeal. Oh, and the ocean is nearby, too. Seriously, Snowmonkey, let's make that trip happen next year.

I was there at the beginning of March. Don't know if I've been to a place where so many stop to take pictures. Including yours truly. The views all around at the summit are just incredible. That view at the top toward Maine--did you see the Atlantic Ocean like that sign suggests is possible? I had a really clear day and couldn't... Anyway, nice post.

snowmonkey wrote

 It was perfect hero snow, though, and for me, it was the best day of skiing the entire season.  

Wildcat is awesome.

I love the views of course, but also how cool is it to have a HSQ that serves up 100% of your terrain?  I think that's close to true.  It means in spring if they are open on a weekday you could have run of a lot of good snow.

Nice report. Never looked off the back to Maine I think. Doh!

Oh, yeah, I totally forgot to put in that important bit of info:  you can get from the base to summit in less than 7 minutes, 2000+ ft of vertical!  Yeah, that is the second best part (aside from the views)!  During our first visit, the parking lots were so full that people were parking along the highway, but we still never waited in line longer than 5 minutes.  Our second visit was practically ski-onto-the-lifts each time.  I can't understand why such an amazing mountain isn't more crowded, but on the other hand, I like that aspect of it!!