The WVT Story- finally!

Here is a link to the photos from the trip.

There are certain ski routes that I think about on a fairly regular basis, wondering what the conditions are like and always planning when I can make the trip. One of those routs is the Wildcat Valley Trail that extends from the summit of Wildcat ski area all the way down to Jackson.

This is a classic back country trail, no grooming, no fancy bridge work, no guarantees, and sometimes no tracks- but always full of fun and adventure. It is a trail that many people know about, and many people want to do (and certainly have the skills to do) but for one reason or another never make it up to the top of Wildcat to do the trip.

The trail is part of the Jackson Ski Touring trail system, and here is how they describe the trail, "Wildcat Valley Trail - 17.8 km, Most Difficult; connects the summit of Wildcat Mountain to Jackson Village. Skiers should be in top physical condition and thoroughly prepared before attempting upper most section of trail. Skiers must walk 1/2 mi. from Carter Notch Road to Black Mountain Cabin Trail before trail picks up again 150 meters along Melloon Road. Upper trail closes at 2 PM. Elev. Differential 3,240 Ft."

Read that last part again- Elevation Differential 3,240 feet. Let's put that into perspective. Wildcat has a lot of vertical for a downhill area in the east- just over 2,000'. The most lift serviced vertical in the East at an alpine area is 3,166' over at Whiteface in New York. This trail has almost 100' more vertical in total descent. Just to keep the comparisons going, Snowbird in Utah has the same vertical drop- 3,240.

The beautiful part is that you can buy a one ride ticket at Wildcat and start at the top so the bulk of your journey is downhill. This is how I would suggest you do the trip, because who would want to start out by skiing uphill, I mean really.

So we began our journey by skiing up Wildcat (hey, nobody, and I mean nobody has ever said I was very smart). When I say "we" I am talking about my wife Karen, and a friend of mine who is known to the world as Matt, and of course myself. We began with a nice leisurely ski up Wildcat, which again is not the best way to do this- take the lift it is much easier. I'll fast forward past the climb (namely because my wife beat me to the top and wasn't even breathing hard) and get to where you (the smart person) would be getting off the lift, nice a fresh and ready for your adventure. This is where you can freak out the skiers at Wildcat as you ski straight off the lift and duck the boundary rope and climb up to the entrance to the trail. It is amazing how quickly the air becomes quite when you do this (not that it is ever windy up on top of Wildcat) and you find yourself standing in a cave of pine trees with a trail marker in front of you. Every time I do this I feel a sense of excitement as to what is ahead, and this trip was no different.

Karen was the first to push off as she was getting cold and wanted to start moving. Matt and I were still getting our gear all sorted out. I was the next off the start line and began to enjoy the glide. I should point out at this point what we were using for gear as I get asked this question all the time. I was using my trusty Garmont Beluga with a set of skins for the climb up. Karen was on a pair of Salomon Blades (a metal edged, waxless ski) with skins, Matt chose full telemark equipment with skins for the climb. My personal feeling is the perfect set up is either a beefy cross-country set up or a light back country set up. Telemark gear is great for the few steep pitches, but a lot of weight for the climbs and not that much fun for the traverse sections. If you do run full tele gear bring either kick wax or a set of skins to make sure you can do the traverses.

Back to the trip, the descent is mellow in regards to pitch, but it makes up for it in being narrow and twisty. You can never see too far down the trail, and it seems like if there is going to be a blow down then you will find it just after some hairy corner. One thing that works well in soft snow is to just use the untracked snow as a natural brake when the speeds gets to be a bit much, jump out of the track and you'll slow down pretty fast.

After a bit of descending and traversing you get to a beautiful birch glade that just opens up beneath your feet. It's worthwhile to stop and enjoy the view before you drop in and make a great set of turns. It is not uncommon to do a few laps in the birch glade when the snow is good as it just such a fun section of trail. Karen and Matt both hooted and hollered as they made very nice looking turns with the birch trees serving as a perfect backdrop. After the glade we headed back into the tight and twisty fun that is the Wildcat Valley Trail.

On this trip we had staged a car at the Dana Place Inn, and with that in mind had our eyes peeled for the Dana Place Trail. When we got there we noticed we were the first to ski this particular section, and with the amount of snow that we've had we found that there was some work to be done with the trail breaking. Fortunately there were three of us so we shared the work, although we found that when we put Karen at the front it seemed like she barely broke the surface, I was finding the easiest skiing was when Matt was at the lead. There were a few open water crossings that got entertaining and we had our own "gap jumps" that would have made any terrain park aficionado proud.

We eventually got to a section of the Dana Place trail that had been groomed earlier in the season and had snowshoe tracks making the skiing much faster. The terrain was beautiful and the sun had come out giving us a blue bird day. We didn't see any other skiers out on the trail (although no to far way close to 300 were giving it their all in the White Mountain Classic that was held at Jackson Ski Touring on Saturday, January 24).

When we got to the last section of the Dana Place Trail we found that skiers weren't the only ones using the trail as it looked like we were skiing along a moose run. It was entertaining seeing their tracks and trying to avoid their droppings as we made our way down the mountain. We eventually made it out to Route 16 and did the short walk back to the car, looking up Pinkham Notch and feeling an immense feeling of accomplishment at the trip.

It was such a great way to spend the morning and a great way to explore the mountains and wilderness in which we live. I would encourage you to take the trip, and if you are little concerned about your ability take a lesson at your favorite touring center and let them know you want to work on back country skills. You can purchase a Wildcat Valley Trail ticket at either AMC, Jackson or at Wildcat (where you can also purchase your one trip lift ticket as well). I would encourage you to check in with Jackson Ski Touring in advance to get a trail conditions report as it is an un-groomed trail and conditions can vary greatly. In addition after you make the trip report back to let them know what you thought as it is a great way for them to compile trail condition information.

This originally ran in the Mountain Ear on January 28, 2009.