Wildcat Valley Trail

[BladeGirl]

We're renting a place in Gorham, NH this season and looking forward to trying the Wildcat Valley Trail. How does it compare to the Tuckerbrook trail off the backside of Mittersill (especially the top/steepest part)? RR? NH Tele? anyone else?

-BG

[Tommy T]

We're renting a place in Gorham, NH this season and looking forward to trying the Wildcat Valley Trail. How does it compare to the Tuckerbrook trail off the backside of Mittersill (especially the top/steepest part)? RR? NH Tele? anyone else?

-BG

Wildcat Valley Trail is an expert level CROSS COUNTRY trail. It's a 3200 foot drop in over 10 miles. Tuckerbrook is an expert level DOWN HILL racing trail. It's a 2800 foot drop in about 3 miles.

Wildcat Valley is regularly skied on standard weight, in- track touring area skis. I have a good female friend who did it on short, cross country skating skis.

Nevertheless, it is best suited for light back country equipment. Most of it is not groomed or track set, so you'll either be breaking trail or skiing in other people's ruts. It gets icy pretty regularly.

It is not at all suitable for alpine equipment. In fact, heavy telemark gear is pretty out of place.

The top couple of hundred feet are steep enough that a snowplow is useful. There are two hairpin turns that require a quick set of step turns or a slow stem turn out of the snowplow. Most of the cross country types fall on those two corners leaving a huge mess in the snow that then trips up some poor telemarker who is trying to do it right.

The are a few open birch glades that can give a beginning telemarker a taste of alpine style back country but there are also a lot of flat and even a few uphill sections. The final third, back into and finishing on the Jackson cross country center trails, is pretty much completely flat from an alpinists point of view.

It's a nice cruise for an advanced cross country skier but that's all.

(Nota Bene: The initial 20 foot drop from the groomed area at the top of Wildcat to the trail itself is actually quite steep and usually icy, regardless of the actuall trail conditions. I know a woman who broke a cross country ski trying to get down this first nasty spot. This frequently lures Wildcat area alpine skiers to start down it. They quickly turn around and claw their way back up. This is absolutely not typical of what is otherwise a pretty mild, if somewhat isolated, trail.

Tommy T.

[BladeGirl]

Exactly what I needed to know, thank you. Any ideas where I can find me a trail like Tuckerbrook in the area of Gorham, NH (1/2 hour drive radius)?

-BG

[Tommy T]

Exactly what I needed to know, thank you. Any ideas where I can find me a trail like Tuckerbrook in the area of Gorham, NH (1/2 hour drive radius)?

-BG

Are you asking for lift-served back-country or are you willing to hike for turns?

Tuckerbrook is pretty unique in that it was originally cut as a downhill racing ski trail, it happens to adjoin a lift served area and a variety of sanctioned and unsanctioned users have maintained it as a ski trail for nearly 70 years. The closest thing to it near Gorham would be the Sherburne, the main exit from Tucks, down from Hermit Lake to Pinkham Notch. Sherburne, of course, still requires a hike.

Another old racing trail, cut by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934, is the old Doublehead Trail that goes off the north summit of Doublehead. It is 1500 feet vertical in about 1.25 (1.8 mile hike up from the road). It is grown in and is maintained as a hiking trail. It requires enough snow to fill the hiking treadway (or you're bobsleding, not skiing) and to cover some of the brush in the woods. It also requires a willingness to ski or ride in tight trees and to cross several drainages (jump, wade or trust a snow bridge, depending on conditions).

There are lines through the woods outside the boundaries at most ski areas but they don't really count as trails like Tuckerbrook. Off the backside of West Mountain at Bretton Woods is an out-of-bounds area that is pretty challenging and requires a hike back up to get to the area's trails and back to a road. The drainages off of the trail "Two Miles Home" used to be out-of-bounds lines that could be reached from the summit cross country trail and went back to the base area but expansion has put them on the map. They are still difficult and undeveloped but are now used more heavily and are definitely in-bounds and lift served.

Locals may have knowledge of lift-served out of bounds at Attitash. I don't ride there much. I have heard rumours but haven't seen any inviting lines leading off towards nowhere.

Tommy T.