Wildcat fifty years on

By Marty Basch

From his office in Sandpoint, Idaho, Tom Chasse was skiing down memory lane about a mountain three time zones away."I could go back there and it wouldn't be a whole lot different from the way it was in the early 80s," said Chasse. "It was comfortable, down-to-earth and is a mountain that doesn't have all the bells and whistles that ski areas have today."Though today he is president and CEO of Schweitzer Mountain, Chasse spent seven years at Wildcat Mountain in the 1980's - two as race coordinator and five as ski school director and like many who worked, raced, skied or snowboarded the 4,000 foot plus peak, there's a soft spot in his alpine heart for a rugged Granite State icon which opened 50 years ago.The feisty ski area in the White Mountain National Forest was born by sweat, saws and axes in the summer of 1933, when Civilian Conservation Corps crews built one of the first ski racing trails in the country: the Wildcat trail. For 25 years, skiers initially walked up in their leather boots, wool sweaters and gabardine pants to ski on long wooden boards with bear trap bindings until a group of forward-thinking competitive skiers figured the mountain would be right for a lift-serviced ski area.Wildcat's high elevation, snowfall and northern exposure helped convince Brooks Dodge, George Macomber, Mack Beal and the late Malcolm McLane to press ahead to form the Wildcat Mountain Corporation.Dodge cleared trails, Macomber oversaw construction, McLane, an attorney, outlined the prospectus which included lifetime passes while Beal worked with the Italian company making the at-the-time innovative bubble-style gondola lift. The ski area was ready for the winter of 1957, but there was one component missing: snow.A New Year's storm brought over a foot and the T-bar started. It wasn't until January 25, 1958 that the gondolas began running. Those colorful bubbles would operate until 1997, largely due to the efforts of Stan Judge, an engineer hired as general manager in 1959. Wildcat was the first Eastern ski area to operate on U.S. Forest Service land. It also was the first in the U.S. to fly the Carlevaro-Savio gondola.The lift became Wildcat's public face, and soon it was competitions that made Wildcat renowned . Skiers like Penny Pitou and Gordie Eaton competed in the 1959 Easterns while two years later Wildcat hosted the Nationals.As ski areas developed, lodging became important. The Wildcat Mountain Corporation couldn't build on U.S. Forest Service land.The funky gondolas, characterized by a 15 minute ride to the summit, and an even longer wait at times to get into one, were replaced by the Wildcat Express high speed detachable quad in 1997, cutting that topside ride to around six minutes.In 1986, the mountain was sold to current owner Pat Franchi. What Wildcat hasn't lost over time is its character and terrain. Perhaps its hearty history attracts like-minded soulful skiers and snowboarders to plunge down its 2100 feet of vertical. It's home to the longest beginner trail in the state, the nearly three mile long Polecat. There's a liberal tree skiing policy, and challenges on Lynx, Liftline and Wildcat."The undulations in the terrain, the off-chamber slopes challenge you," said Chasse. "You gain good skiing skills."Since 1999, Tom Caughey has been Wildcat's general manager. He also worked at the Cat while in high school and college as a ski patroller. He says the trails follow the lay of the land and have only been minimally improved over the years while making way for snowmaking and drainage changes."We are a little rough around the edges, but that's just the challenge of being a small ski area in a big resort industry," said Caughey. "One of the things that has kept Wildcat going is the drive of all the people who have been through the headaches of a rough winter, a good winter, and different economic conditions. I think that they have the personal strengths of the founders."Wildcat's expert reputation has been with it from the beginning. Rick Owen, now a Littleton motel owner, was ski school director from 1973 to 1978. "I think it was done by design," he said. "They wanted it for skiers like themselves. They made the trails narrow so it would hold the snow better when the winds blew off Mount Washington."Now that springs here, skiers and riders will make the pilgrimage to see the king of spring.Marty Basch can be reached at marty@martybasch.com.