Angus

Not a great look... https://www.wcvb.com/article/skiers-snowboarders-frustrated-with-vail-resorts-refusal-of-refunds-credits/35219813

thoughts on Wildcat tomorrow. the nephew is itching to go. things look good but i'm a bit nervous of a heavy rain...thoughts?

Skied at Crotched tonight with 10 year old nephew. Mostly ski team practice in early evening and then kids and families. Whole mountain is open where there is snowmaking and the snow making pond is full. There was plenty of snow to push around. They don't have a super deep base but rock solid.

Friend reports Cannon was very good today. Salt in wounds relative to Wildcat.

Going to need to make a call here in next 24 hours, Sunapee on Friday or Saturday at Wildcat. I have a 10 year old nephew visiting and he is expecting to ski - lives in MD.

LOL. I just noticed they did not update twitter but they did update their instagram account when power was restored! Power was restored just after noontime.

Skied for about 90 minutes at Crotched today in the afternoon. Not bad for what it is. Pretty good crowd. I noticed that Wildcat lost power early in the morning and said they would provide updates but didn't appear too. Yikes.

Just arrived at lake winnisquam, walked down to shore. No ice and we're in a somewhat protected cove. I was hoping we'd get some good cold and the big lakes would freeze and I could skate before the snow buried the ice.

If memory serves me right, Peaks was using Wildcat as their laboratory for snowmaking. They have a ton of those HDK tower guns up and down their trails. Wildcat has a recent history of pipe breaking/pumps malfunctioning due to the ownership prior to Peaks deferring maintenance. The other thing about Wildcat is the terrain is terribly rocky. I was admiring them yesterday while riding the lifts. You need a lot of natural snow to get many of the trails open - one of the reasons why Wildcat has the reputation for such a liberal trail opening/closure policy. I've skied there on many spring days where you literally jump from patch to patch of snow. The orientation of the mountain and prevailing winds also scour snow from many of the trails. @powderfreak I've read the way the electrical power contracts are written for these ski areas - to run lifts and power snowmaking - are interesting from perspective of the marginal price of power is very low due to a # of considerations, i.e. power plant utilization during winter months, et cetera.

Like everyone driving past the place, you look up and say 'looks fun' and then note there is no snow on the slopes. Two decades plus ago I had two colleagues - now both live in Park City - bumped into the then owner who tossed them a couple of free tickets, they came back saying the place was a hoot. I've heard some of the best terrain isn't visible from the 89. It is nice that it seems to have become a community hill.

A couple of observations - unlike the VT properties, 3 out of the 3 (edit: Sunapee was purchased as part of Okemo/Crested Butte transaction) NH properties bought by Vail as part of the Peak's purchase essentially have no resort (lodging) component. Crotched and Wildcat no. Sunapee is in a state park and there may be a condo angle in their long term plan with new lift and terrain expansion but I can't remember for sure. As usual, PF makes good points re: charging system, wet bulb, et cetera but when I see areas well south opening more terrain it is a bit frustrating. Again, I think the frustration voiced by the Attitash customers is telling IMO - btw: Cranmore is a great little mountain which I only recently discovered having driven past it for 2+ decades! Finally, my gripes are not focused upon the rank and file or even the GM, these are decisions being made at corporate level. As I've expressed here earlier, my strategy was ski VT on weekdays and Wildcat on Sundays with an occasion visit to Crotched for night skiing or afternoon but VT's COVID restrictions have kind of blown that up ... although to be honest 2 of my 4 days thus far have been in VT ... please don't tell. Also, I'll just add, I've got little interest in skiing at Attitash or Sunapee on any regular basis, to me from a terrain perspective mount snow - north side; stowe and wildcat have best (challenging) terrain of the Vail NE properties.

9 is deceptive. I get the Covid thing but as my son points out, Vail just raised a ton of $$ in debt market. Stock is at a near all-time high. I could understand them essentially focusing on Attitash for that market but then I read above folks there buying passes at Cranmore. I always say that anything in December or January is bonus skiing in NE but I really was thinking of March-April at Wildcat when I got my pass.

Slept at our cottage last nite on winnisquam (#4), no ice. Waukewan had significant amount of ice and Wickwas seemed to fully closed.

Skied at Wildcat this afternoon for about 2 hours. Lynx has good coverage but Polecat seemed to have been opened in a hurry. There is only 5-6" of natural snow. I didn't see any snowmaking going on either. I have another Wildcat reservation for next weekend but will cancel and try to get a few hours at Crotched...kind of pathetic.

wind in the mountains is very interesting. I've been on top of mount washington in near gale force winds and dropped a few hundred vertical feet and suddenly eerily calm. Same thing happened on Franconia Ridge this weekend - certainly windy above greenleaf hut but last couple of hundred vertical feet was way, way more intense - same exposure, aspect, et cetera.

Can report that once the lift lines diminished around 130ish, the skiing was enjoyable. The low angle natural trails are all bumped up with some dirt showing in troughs but it is not a rocky mountain so all good. You just pick your way around the steeper stuff which doesn't have much cover left. There is some man-made glacier that is going nowhere until May. The lift situation was a joke. Way to many people for the reduced uphill capacity. The parking lots looked busy for a mid- winter weekend. Also, I think these areas need to be a bit more assertive and start going out into the lines and requesting folks cover up or leave. Clearly folks ignoring - and I think the risk of contracting Covid is low risk outdoors.

My favorite Xmas was within last decade where I was roller skiing on the local bike trail in shorts and tshirt before going to our XMAS eve party. Guys were out running topless.what a joke.

As an aside, got my NE Ski Museum magazine last yesterday. An amazing picture of 8+ foot snowbanks in winter of 1936 on the road to Cardigan. The caption said there were heavy rains which ended the season and caused widespread flooding in valley locations. LOL - not kidding! https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/great-new-england-flood-1936/

Cardigan is not far from where @dendrite is reporting. @wxeyeNH lives just east (15-20 miles??) of Cardigan. Just went to the AMC's Cardigan Lodge and they are closed and appear to be reporting nothing. Ragged is due south by 15-20?? and still snowing there heavily https://raggedmountainresort.com/Mountain-Cam/

I assume that's a report you are receiving from friends, reading on a ski board or from personal observation. I was reading somewhere else this morning someone's excitement and was chuckling to my myself and hoping the poster had 1) very fat boards so they would float on the top or 2) planned to ski the fall line 'softly.' Otherwise, there was going to be a lot of damage.

Good for Ragged and probably Gunstock. Given you thought you were getting skunked that's amazing.

9-10" here in Concord, MA. How much more do we think? 4ish?

@powderfreak that is a crazy good photo. I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me up on the far right side of franconia ridge on Sunday! Not only do you see the top of Cannon but that's mittersill in the foreground. I assume the wide slope in the very front, down low is the training slope over at mittersill. You can even spy the observation platform/communication tower on top of Cannon.

This might be the time to do - the often discussed, never done - end-to-end winter ski/snowshoe of the Wapack.