Sugarloaf to Offer Cat Skiing

NewEnglandSkier13NewEnglandSkier13
in NELSAP Forum Posts: 5,479
Sugarloaf will offer the only cat-skiing operation in the Northeast this winter: http://sugarloaf.com/the-mountain/burnt-mountain-cat-skiing-x2827
- Sam

Comments

  • joshua_segaljoshua_segal
    Posts: 4,839
    Pretty pricey!
  • RemskiRemski
    edited September 2017 Posts: 1,162
    That's really cool. Isn't Slidebrook at Sugarbush side country without the cats? Maybe they could add a cat back to the base areas.
  • NewEnglandSkier13NewEnglandSkier13
    Posts: 5,479
    Remski said:

    That's really cool. Isn't Slidebrook at Sugarbush side country without the cats? Maybe they could add a cat back to the base areas.


    I've always thought that would be a good idea. I know they do something with cat rides there, but I think it has more to do with dining and first tracks before lifts open than accessing backcountry terrain.
    - Sam
  • TomWhiteTomWhite
    Posts: 2,579
    NewEnglandSkier13 said:

    Remski said:

    That's really cool. Isn't Slidebrook at Sugarbush side country without the cats? Maybe they could add a cat back to the base areas.


    I've always thought that would be a good idea. I know they do something with cat rides there, but I think it has more to do with dining and first tracks before lifts open than accessing backcountry terrain.
    I don't the bus schedule but when it's running people can take it to either base:
    The wooded areas in Slide Brook Basin descend towards Slide Brook Road, which leads to German Flats Road. A Mad Bus stop is located at the bottom of Slide Brook Road at German Flats Road, where skiers and riders can catch a lift back to either Lincoln Peak or Mt. Ellen base areas.
  • lotsoskiinglotsoskiing
    Posts: 3,575
    Cat not needed at Sugarbush. bus works fine. Doubt they'd get permission to use cat anyway on the cat road that runs between the mountains- only used to transfer machines. Would make for interesting option, though I doubt it would save much time.
  • jgrecojgreco
    Posts: 321
    Sugarbush also ran cat trips for a few years on Mt. Ellen once it closed for the season. Not sure if they still do. I know a few people lucked out having reservations for the cat during a late season storm. 
  • ski_itski_it
    Posts: 4,668
    The Hermitage Club has run their cat for members on days when the lifts are not running.  
    ISNE-I Skied New England | NESAP-the New England Ski Area Project | SOSA-Saving Our Ski Areas - Location SW of Boston MA
  • lotsoskiinglotsoskiing
    Posts: 3,575
    jgreco said:

    Sugarbush also ran cat trips for a few years on Mt. Ellen once it closed for the season. Not sure if they still do. I know a few people lucked out having reservations for the cat during a late season storm. 

    Nope. one year was all it was. 
  • Bill29Bill29
    Posts: 401
    As chronicled here some time ago, the head of  the Wildcat Ski patrol, Al Risch, his wife, Allison, and others ran memorable (at least one was) cat skiing from the summit of Mt. Washington several years ago after the lifts closed at Wildcat..
  • obienickobienick
    Posts: 1,435
    Sugarbush isn't the first. Smuggs offers sunrise cat skiing.
  • mtsnow123mtsnow123
    Posts: 458
    obienick said:

    Sugarbush isn't the first. Smuggs offers sunrise cat skiing.

    I took the Smuggs sunrise cat a few years back. Pretty cool to ride with the head snow reporter: Hugh. He gives some historical perspective and any insights the groomer have from their plan the night before. I ended up riding a groomed black diamond they groom once or twice a year, so it was great having that experience.
  • joshua_segaljoshua_segal
    Posts: 4,839
    I think Sonnenberg (Twin Farms), VT has the cat as their only lift.
  • ski_itski_it
    edited September 2017 Posts: 4,668
    I think their cat is a big snowmobile with a trailer. If they even run it anymore. I believe what SL is saying is theirs is the only regularly scheduled public one.
    ISNE-I Skied New England | NESAP-the New England Ski Area Project | SOSA-Saving Our Ski Areas - Location SW of Boston MA
  • Bill29Bill29
    Posts: 401
    NELSAP area; you can look it up. Moose Hill in Spencer, Mass., used flatbed trucks to haul skiers from bottom to top. There were no other lifts. It operated on weekends and didn't have quite the vertical Sugarloaf has.

  • joshua_segaljoshua_segal
    Posts: 4,839
    Bill29 said:

    NELSAP area; you can look it up. Moose Hill in Spencer, Mass., used flatbed trucks to haul skiers from bottom to top. There were no other lifts. It operated on weekends and didn't have quite the vertical Sugarloaf has.

    Can I assume, Bill, that back in the day you part of a group who used a crowded passenger car to get to the top of Wachusett?
  • Bill29Bill29
    Posts: 401
    No, I hadn't started skiing yet. I didn't start until I was an old man of 30. But I remember diving to the summit one winter's day (they kept the road open so they could service electronic equipment up there. BTW, I don't know who "they" were) and seeing three men in a car drive up, two of them get out, gear up and head down the Pine Hill Trail. That's steeper than anything that's skied at WAWA today. They drove up and swapped drivers a few more times. A couple of years later I started to ski. I can't say that incident inspired me, but it didn't hurt.
    I don't know who those guys in the car were, but if someone were to tll me that two of them were Mason Flagg and Frasier Noble, it wouldn't surprise me. Those two skied that mountain (Pine Hill and Balance Rock trails, maybe cut by the CCC) in the 1930s and 1940s. I don't know whether Frasier was.in the 10th Mountain Division during WWII, I know Mason was, along with many other Central Mass skiers, and fought in Italy during WWII (a Purple Heart an Bronze Star with two Oak Leak Clusters) The 10th Mountain Trail on Wachusett honors them and all the others who served in that division. Mason and Frasier are gone now, as are many others who pioneered skiing on Mt. Wachusett.
    Sorry Joshua. I guess that answer was a lot more long-winded that you expected. I guess the short answer is, no, I wasn't. Take your pick.
  • joshua_segaljoshua_segal
    Posts: 4,839
    Bill29 said:

    ...
    Sorry Joshua. I guess that answer was a lot more long-winded that you expected. I guess the short answer is, no, I wasn't. Take your pick.

    I couldn't have been more pleased with the response! In 1978, when Wachusett was still a T-Bar area, I got talking to one of those fellows, which is how I know the story.  It was a beautiful sunshiny day in the spring.  I hiked to the top for a run and got a preview of what the ski area became a few years later.
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