En route to Sunday River for top to bottom turns on Locke, I received a message (thanks, Tim!) alerting me that Wildcat was opening on Sunday free of charge. I had checked their web page the night before but the notice wasn’t posted until nearly midnight. Top to bottom on Wildcat was definitely a better (and considerably closer) option than Sunday River. So in Gorham, I turned down Route 16 and made a donation at the Kitty for a free lift ticket.

Last season was a snowmaking disaster for Wildcat. Their outdated system suffered a fatal setback when a pump house blew during extreme cold resulting in a flash freeze. Many trails never received snowmaking and much of the mountain was late to open. Whether an upgrade would have happened without this incident, who knows.

But the end result is one of the largest snowmaking expansions I’ve seen in quite some time. Almost every resort markets snowmaking improvements almost every year. I see it so much that I just ignore the hype. Routine maintenance is billed as major upgrades in press releases intended to draw guests rather than accurately portray the upgrades.

Wildcat’s snowmaking expansion is the real deal in a big way. Wildcat never played for early to open honors before (at least not on man made snow). When Peak bought the mountain, Wildcat was relegated to Attitash’s lesser with early season going to Attitash and late season going to Wildcat despite Wildcat’s significant elevation advantage. But Wildcat’s disadvantages included a bad snow making system and no upper mountain lifts. Opening top to bottom for opening day utilizing 2000 vertical feet is quite a challenge this early. But Wildcat made it happen this year and did so with aplomb.

I caught the second chair and the first run was amazing for an opening day. Everything was groomed out and with exception of a few loose golf balls, the snow surface was sensational for an opening day. The surface and coverage actually improved at middle and lower elevations. The tight turns of Upper Lynx degraded quickly as that section of trail always does but it held together better than could be expected. As the afternoon wore on, irregular moguls stacked up on Middle Lynx.

It was stunning to see that it could be done… top to bottom 2000 vertical feet in good but not especially impressive early season snow making temperatures. Lynx was not quite wall to wall top to bottom but pretty close. With cold temperatures moving in this weekend, Wildcat is poised to have the best terrain open in the east heading into next week and the Thanksgiving holiday week. Sunday River and Killington just can’t compete with the quality of a run like Lynx at Wildcat. Surely two top to bottom runs by the end of this coming weekend and maybe three top to bottom by the weekend after that are not out of the question with good temperatures. This new system is damn impressive and Wildcat has entered the early season game with a roar. Absolutely stunning product for a free opening day.