Wildcat Opens Early For 60th Anniversary Season, New Deck, New Programs, & Snowmaking Upgrades
yesterday Wildcat Mountain opened for skiing and riding making this one of its earliest openings ever. Sixty years ago, this January, Wildcat Mountain offered lift-serviced skiing for the first time with the East’s first gondola. Much has changed since then but at Wildcat much has also stayed the same which for many people is why they continue to visit.
Wildcat opened with one run consisting of 5 trails commonly referred to as the Lynx Trails on over 2100’ of vertical offering up the most vertical in East. Wildcat will operate weekends from 9am – 3:30pm until Thanksgiving and then will switch to daily operations moving forward.
Snowmaking will move to Pole Cat – New England’s longest most scenic green circle tail – starting this afternoon. The mountain operations team will continue to take advantage of the early season cold temperatures and look to expand trail offerings.
This past off season there were a few upgrades to Wildcat’s facilities including a brand new base lodge deck and balcony, which guests will enjoy all year long. The deck offers great views of the Wildcat base area and surrounding mountains. The new deck presents new opportunities for live music, après parties, summer weddings and events.
On the snowmaking front, Wildcat’s mountain operations team removed old snowmaking pipe from the Cheetah trail, replacing it with brand new underground pipe. This project will ensure reliable snowmaking capabilities on Cheetah, which is a homologated race trail that has not been used in a racing capacity in recent years due to snowmaking challenges. This upgrade will allow the many race programs in the valley different trails to train on as well as hold competition events.
Other improvements to the snowmaking infrastructure include additional hydrants and valves, which will allow crews to move snowmaking equipment more efficiently, and open more trails in a shorter time frame.
Brian Heon, VP & General Manager of Wildcat, “Continuing to maintain and upgrade our snowmaking infrastructure remains to be a top priority for Peak Resorts, and something we are really excited about. By adding new pipe, hydrants & valves, we are allowing our snowmaking team to move more efficiently from trail to trail.”
January 25th is the official 60th Anniversary date and Wildcat is planning a variety of events, activities, and deals for January 25 – 28. Earlier this summer, tickets were available as low as $9 for Thursday, January 25 and deals are still available for the weekend online, including multi-day ticket packages. Current activities surrounding the 60th anniversary include a firework show, specialty beer brewed by Tuckerman’s Brewing Company, commemorative Wildcat Posters, a scavenger hunt, and of course birthday cake featuring the many logos of Wildcat through the years.
Wildcat and its sister Peak Resorts are also happy to roll out a few new programs this year that are valid across all of their Peak Pass Northeast mountains. The Peak Discovery Learn-To Program, is now available for purchase at $99 through Christmas Eve and is aimed at introducing new skiers and riders to the sport. Guests purchasing the program will receive a card that is valid for three lessons, equipment rentals including helmets and lift tickets. The first two will be valid for lower mountain tickets at resorts like Wildcat and Attitash but will be full mountain tickets upon their third visit. The new Discovery Program also affords guests the opportunity to take their lessons at multiple resort locations. A guest can take lesson #1 at Wildcat and then lesson #2 at a property like Mount Snow or Attitash.
“I’m extremely excited about rolling this product out across all our Northeast properties,” stated Greg Fisher VP of Marketing & Conway resident.
“Anyone interested in the sport should take advantage of the incredible value the Peak Discovery Program affords,” continued Fisher.
Also new to Wildcat & Peak Resorts is the Military Program. This year all Military Personnel with proper ID including active, veterans, retired military as well as their dependents will receive a card offering 40% off midweek non-holiday lift tickets and 25% off weekend/holiday tickets. The card much like a season pass and the previously mentioned Discovery Card Program will be valid at all resorts and once issued Military personnel will not need to show ID again.
