Weather and Ski Conditions

Friday January 23^rd  – 5:40 am

Good Morning Wildcat Community –

The Snow Globe is in full effect here at Wildcat with us picking up another inch of snow in the last 24 hours, and expecting more on the way today with another inch plus of into this evening. All of these consistent small accumulations have led to almost a foot of snow in the last week, and the great conditions on the mountain reflect this. Today is our second Season Pass Holder First Tracks at 8:30am, and is our way of thanking you our loyal passholders with first dibbs on all the amazing terrain we are opening (see more about this below)! There will also be hot beverages, donuts, and the always popular Helly Hansen prize wheel where you could win some great giveaways.

The cold front has started to move into the area overnight and expect to see highs between 7 – 12 degrees across mountain elevations while WNW winds are forecasted to pickup through the day bringing wind chills from 0 to -20’s today. Gusts are expected to blow in the low 40’s near the end of the day, and we are hoping to make it through the day without any lift impacts. As always, stay tuned to this report and our Lift & Terrain Status page for the most up to date information.

Outside of our early opening for passholders, we will be operating from 9am – 4pm for our paid guests with 4 lifts including the Wildcat Express, Bobcat, Snow Cat, and Snow Belt. The big thing I want to highlight this morning is our large expansion of natural terrain with this new snow, with Patrol dropping the ropes on 8 new natural trails yesterday, bringing us to 16 groomed & 19 natural tails. That’s 72% of our trails open! Please keep in mind that in true Wildcat fashion, our natural terrain can have variable conditions, especially as we are just building our natural base, so please use care when exploring these new areas.

We are putting the final touches on Lower Catapult after completing snowmaking there, and if you were here yesterday, you saw we are well underway making snow on another crowd favorite, Alley Cat. We are hoping to get this wrapped up soon!

PLEASE NOTE – This weekend our Patrol team was called to assist a couple groups of guests find their way out of side country terrain that is accessible from our trail network. These areas are beyond our resort boundary, for experts only, unmarked, and unpatrolled. If you are unfamiliar with this area it’s best to wait until we see a better snowpack and go with someone that has familiarity with this terrain. Thank you!

We are also continuing to monitor the upcoming cold weather & wind event on Saturday and will provide an update later this afternoon on operational plans for tomorrow.

There’s no time like now to come and see for yourself the Wildcat difference and what makes the vibe at our mountain so special. We’ll see you out there!

-            Brandon, Wildcat & Attitash General Manager

Snow Surfaces Update – 1/23

The team is working to get Alley Cat wrapped up ideally ahead of this cold front coming in as frankly the temps we will be experiencing this weekend are too cold to make snow. Yes this is a thing. When we make snow in ambient temperatures below zero, we risk freezing out water lines, which would have more lasting implications to our continued snowmaking plans.

Our next steps will be to shift to Black Cat & Middle Catapult before we head into Operation Spring Ski, bulking up key terrain across the hill to take us well into April.

As we continue to get many questions around our terrain progression, I wanted to share this news coverage from Fox Weather where they interviewed the MW Weather Observatory around wind conditions experienced in December. The short of it is that we tied for the 16^th windiest & coldest December on record, and although it was cold the extreme winds have a direct correlation to our ability to make snow effectively and not just in the woods. With water being our most important resource we need to be smart and strategic when and where we are making it, so just know we are taking advantage of every moment and do not hold back!

Uphill Access – OPEN

We have officially opening our uphill access for the season on the designated route of Polecat Trail from 4:30pm – 8am. Please reference our Uphill Policy here for more information, and please keep in mind that uphill access is not allowed during operational hours.

We appreciate the feedback around the website not accurately reflecting that uphill is open, and currently working with teams to get this resolved.