Angus

The issue at Cannon is the notch just channels the warm southerly winds during a rain storm just eroding the pack. Cannon turns to rain before Wildcat all the time. With that said, Cannon and Wildcat have best terrain in NH by far. I once read some history of Cannon and the location of the ski area went against the recommendation of ...Sel Hannah maybe? Friend posted some video skiing glades today at BW, looked great. I love how the glades at BW can open with so little snow depth It is funny bc I am already contemplating a Indy and Cannon pass next year due my dissatisfaction with Wildcat. Cannon is also a shorter drive for me.

I was the perfect age for the Blizzard of 78 - 14 soon to turn 15. Just enough independence. Two weeks of no school. One day decided to walk 9, 10, 11 miles to my friend's home in Hingham, thankfully deciding that crossing an ice strewn Hingham Harbor was not the safest short cut to his house. Took most of the day to get there, just walking down the middle of a normally heavily trafficked state road (228) occasionally stepping aside as emergency vehicles headed to Hull. Called my parents to tell them I wouldn't be coming home for a few days and they didn't much care. Everyone in the neighborhood just pulled together and shoveled each others driveways. The roads were all snow covered so you couldn't drive anywhere. A few years back, a now retired colleague and I were talking about the storm in the office with a bunch of young people present. He abandoned his car on 128 around the Burlington/Lexington line and hiked into an adjacent neighborhood and essentially knocked on a strangers door and asked for shelter. He lived there with the family for 3 or days. Our younger colleagues thought we were joking. The stories of people getting stuck in the old boston garden post beanpot are legend. When the stores opened there wasn't anything in them after the first hour so my Mom just made bread which we ate with butter for two weeks along with some rationed food. I think the best thing about the Blizzard was the absolute insanity it created for the next two decades everytime a weather forecast said 'heavy snow.' People rushing to the store, emptying shelves, sheer panic. My family had just started skiing so my siblings and I would put our skis on everyday and just "ski" around in the woods behind our house - there was nothing else to do - and the landscape had been totally transformed - all the vegetation had been bent over and covered in snow. We lost power for a few days, then it was restored; but at some point, we lost it again and I have this vague memory of my father absolutely losing it on the phone with some poor electric company representative. LOL. My Mother probably shooed us out the room! Good times.

You've mentioned that 40" rule - that seems like a good rule of thumb. I saw people skiing Starr Line and Feline on Saturday which is littered with 3-4' plus boulders with 12-18" of snow on it which is just asking to get hurt or break a ski or board...If someone wants to ruin their equipment I don't care but I feel bad for ski patrol who would have to hike up and carry the knucklehead off the mountain if there was an accident. I would be pissed.

that looks great but I always worry about skiing in stuff like that if I don't know what's underneath - I'm very cautious. I saw a couple a skiers eject headfirst at high speed at Wildcat on Saturday and land really hard as they came blazing down the slope and caught something under the snow. One guy who I thought had seriously hurt himself, pulled himself off the mat and his friend standing next to me said something like 'you got to chill or you're going to seriously hurt yourself.' he just laughed.

Remember driving up 128 with my Dad after that storm and there were abandoned cars on the side of the road buried in snow. We lost all our snow - I remember being pissed! and started the Blizzard with bare ground or barely nothing. After the Blizzard there were repeated 'rumors' of other big storms but I don't much remember any substantial snow or rain for the rest of February. We maintained that snow well into March though. I was a freshman in HS and remember going out for the spring track and coming back from distance runs in mid-late march and lying down in the snow afterwards to cool off!

@HIPPYVALLEYI grew up on the S. Shore and had a few friend's Dads working at the shipyard. As a kid in the early-mid 70's , I literally watched that shipyard fold. The fathers all went out on furlough, seemed to continue to get paid for what seemed like years and then just retired. They were all union guys. I remember driving over the Fore River bridge watching the LNG tankers being build. Of course, you didn't realize what was going on. An amazing history.

Covid reality has set in for me and I will pursue my original strategy of skiing the VT areas on weekdays and skiing Wildcat on Sundays and Crotched on weekday nights occasionally. I will disregard the quarantine rules in VT rationalizing that I'm not setting foot inside a building, eating outside and riding a chair either alone or with only one other person (in the case of the quad). Hopefully, there is a snowmaking budget at Wildcat and it's the above average temps you've suggested which has prevented wildcat from making snow; and between snowmaking and natural snow, Wildcat will be able to make their normal push into the last weekend of April.

Yeah, b/c everyone from eastern Massachusetts was at Attitash and Wildcat! I like that double - the top of Lookout trail has a nice old school vibe, narrow, steep, big bumps and the chair hangs low to ground.

Skied at wildcat today. Turned to rain briefly in base area - never made it up very far up hill. Good base snow.

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.