Wildcat Mountain — Hotel in Hart's Location

I love, love, love this mountain, but am giving 4-stars instead of 5 for one simple reason — I skied the mountain 3 times in February 2022 and found the grooming to be sub-par and downright non-existent on one of the days. Perhaps some skiers will love that and see that as a major plus …. But for a lot of East coast downhill skiers like me who thrive on groomed, corduroy downhill / giant slalom conditions, it can be downright dangerous to have NO groomed downhill trails on a mountain of this size on the heels of 16-24” snowfall. But this lack of grooming was likely intentional, since so many like to complain that “only skiing out West is real skiing”. Too many of us are teased by expert skiers jumping out of helicopters at famous mountains of the West and carving a pristine path down an untouched adhoc fresh powder trail. If that is you - great … skip this review. While I did still enjoy the challenge of navigating natural moguls down trails carved only by countless humans navigating down the hill (mind you, that were perfectly groomed and flat just days earlier), it was too much for the other snowboarders I brought with me that day. A few runs and their frustration level and pain (from several near injuries) were just too much — so they hit the bar while I kept skiing.

There is a lot of “great” associated with Wildcat that is worth illuminating. Let me share ….

Reciprocity with Attitash Mountain — but a ticket to either and it can be used on either mountain (which I took advantage of one day … I literally started the morning skiing Attitash but FINISHED the day on Wildcat … 20 miles apart!)

The views are breathtaking if you catch a good day — you are staring directly at the face of Mt. Washington.

Awesome “Old School” East coast skiing but with some comforts of modern mountains (the quad that goes to the top is FAST … 2-3x faster than the mail lift at Attitash) — good vertical drops, fast, heart-pumping trails with a good mix of beginner, intermediate and expert trails.

Nice, Long runs on either side of the mountain that are fun but tiring by the time you reach the bottom. Mid-week, I routinely took ~3 runs per hour — meaning 7-8 minute ride on the high speed quad, followed by 12-13 minute ride down.

Now the BAD:

Windy and cold; I am fine with this because I dress really warm and can still go all day on Wildcat. But if you have friends with you that are underdressed or overly sensitive to cold - look out. Wildcat can be raw. So be prepared for regular 30 mph gusts and frigid temperatures… especially in the afternoon when the sun stops poking thru the trees on many of the trails.

Vail Resorts bought Wildcat and Attitash — and most of the locals complain they have done a poor job putting money into the East coast mountains. They are more interested in making a buck than rectifying any of the issues I point out here (that is what locals say). They also complain about horrible staffing and lift maintenance on all Vail East coast mountains … especially Attitash that was a horror show on the first weekend of February skiing (no … it was NOT ski vacation week — so, there is no excuse to have 2000 skiers on your hill with only 2 slow chairlifts operating…. Can you say 50 minute wait for a chairlift that already takes 13 minutes to climb the hill??? Absurd — FIX THIS, Vail!!!); Final comment on this “bad” — ask the locals about the disaster that was the “Epic Pass” in 2022. That is partially to blame for these absurd lift lines as well — I have never ever seen anything like it.

As I mentioned, insufficient grooming on all days I was there — NOT just the day we got walloped with 16-24” of snow. Even on the best days where no fresh snow fell and grooming was solid, I had my skis cross some boulder-tips directly in the middle of an intermediate, popular trail. I suspect this is a combo of inadequate staff on the mountain… overly windy conditions on Wildcat that whips snow all around and exposes some bare conditions. Still, Wildcat should monitor the trails throughout the...

This is a review in the series of the 48 4,000 footers in NH, as Reviewing an actual mountain to me makes no sense, but hey anything for Google RIGHT? I am 54, not in great shape, I found it challenging at times, this was my wife's first 4K, she struggled also at times and my 14yr old daughter is in great hiking shape, she didn't struggle at all.

We hiked from Ellis Glenn parking area. Area to park is small, get there early. There is the standard $5 pay to park kiosk, don't be cheap, pay the fee.

The sinage isn't great, small sign to get to the Wildcat Ridge Trail is off to the left after going through the tunnel.

We were the after a good week of rain, so the river was high, and a little difficult to get across without getting wet. We took 10 minutes to look around the Ellis Falls area, well worth the extra time.

Hike up is very steep for the first 1 1/2 hours, we expected to have plenty of water spots on trail due to the recent rains, so we didn't want to pack heavy and carry a lot. Due to the steepness of this section of the trail we were wrong. Fill up early. The trail itself was extremely slippery, again due to rains the night before.

This trails has many scrambles, which was fun, but with wet rocks, a little scary. There are multiple rock faces with built in wooden stairs to help with the accent. After an hour you start to have some outlooks with great views of Mt, Washington and both large ravines, Tuckerman's being one of them.

After 2 hours the hike becomes fairly easy, and you make your way in Ridgeline to Wildcat D. There is an observation Station just after the top of the ski mountain pass the lift area.

We took the ski trails down. While doing this I took the black diamond trail to the far left, and they took one of the Blue trails going down, wanting to see what would be better going down, and meeting at the trail crossing that we knew from skiing... TAKE the blue trail as it has an actual trail/road to folloe most of the way. There were a few times that I sunk down and could have twisted an ankle, not being able to see where I was going.

After reaching the bottom to the ski parking lot, it is a 2 1/2 mile trek back to Ellis Glenn.

Overall, I was perfect weather to hike, but I have been spoiled hiking other spots in the Whites. I would much rather do the "Falling Waters" trail for Lincoln and Lafayette, or the Presidential Ridgeline, but glad to "bag" at least this...

The view is to die for! Incredible!

The parking is decent. Some of the workers have an attitude, but that seems typical nowadays.

The mountain offers lots of different terrain, though the trails tend to be very narrow. The beginner trail from the top, Upper Polecat, and the lower Polecats, offer one of the longest beginner trails in the east. But it’s crowded and pretty scratched off by 10 or 11. The steeps are fun, but icy as hell. I should have sharpened my edges before coming up.

I raced here as a kidling and it looks almost exactly the same. I loved that about it. But again, I see the Vail influence is not being kind to this area.

I found myself only skiing the edges of the trails. If you like edge skiing, you’ll love Wildcat. There was a ski race happening on the day we were there, so it cuts into terrain availability, but we worked around it.

There is a big cluster eff at the base of the mountain, where trails are coming in from three directions, skiers crossing each other trying to keep up speed to get to the far sides left or right lifts to beat the Looooooooong lift line at the chair right in front of the lodge. I had a couple of close calls where people nearly hit me. You have to be on guard.

Seating was tough in the lodge. It’s small for the number of skiers. There was a Karen hogging an entire table, with her stuff strewn all over. When we saw no one coming after a while, we took two seats at the end and had to listen to her verbally abuse us the entire time. We got our food, ate our lunch, rested a few mins and still no one came. Karen was just being a Karen. There ought to be a law about hogging tables just “in case” one of their family members decides to come in.

Overall, I do like Wildcat and would go back again, but only on a weekday when perhaps, the narrow ski slopes would not...