From Stowe’s stunning views of Mount Mansfield, to the numerous lookouts and vantage points at Whiteface, there are a lot of ski areas in the East with great views. But there’s one mountain in New Hampshire that may have the best of them all. I’m a sucker for a good view, so this morning I headed to where the license plates say “LIVE FREE OR DIE” to ski with one of, if not THE, best views in the East.

*Just a heads up that I don’t know this mountain well, so most pictures don’t have captions.*

The mountain I’m referring to is Wildcat Mountain. Wildcat’s located directly across from Mount Washington, which is the tallest mountain in the Northeast, and it faces it. This means you get an up close view of Mount Washington, and other mountains in the Presidential Range, basically the entire time you’re skiing at Wildcat. These mountains are impressive to look at. They’re big, rugged, close and have substantial alpine zones. As a result, the view at Wildcat is probably the most ‘western’ looking of any ski area in the East.

I got to Wildcat at about 10 a.m. The weather was excellent for a Wildcat ski day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the view was on full display. The mountain was empty, though I did manage to find none other than Pro Skier Darren White hanging out in the lodge listening to Huey Lewis and the News. That’s his favorite band, so no surprise there.

For those unfamiliar with Wildcat, this is not a fancy ski resort with hotels and that sort of thing. It’s just a ski area. It’s got a couple lifts, but you’ll most likely find yourself lapping the base-to-summit high speed quad, as practically the entire mountain can be skied off that one lift. Given that it’s a base-to-summit lift, the runs are pretty long, and amount to more than 2,100 ft. of vertical each run. We spent our day lapping the high speed quad, and skied most of the 41 open runs. That number may seem low, but Wildcat only has 48 runs.

Every run down the mountain brought a variety of conditions. Anywhere in the shade was nice and firm, or even just outright icy. Where the sun had been, the snow was soft, and it skied well. Coverage was good on the groomed runs. On some of the natural terrain, coverage was good, and on other natural trails it wasn’t. In the trees we entered, coverage was good, but the snow was kind of heavy and difficult at times to turn in.

As mentioned, coverage on some of the natural terrain wasn’t great. We found that out the hard way while trying to figure out how to get to some trees we kept seeing from the lift. We ended up on the run Black Cat, which they were making snow at the top of, and it was full of rocks and ice down low. I found it to be pretty tough to navigate around the obstacles, though at least one person passed us by with no issues. It was one of those runs that humbles you quickly!

Never Quit Skiing,

Lincoln

THE SKI AREA WITH THE BEST VIEW IN THE EAST

SKIING A MOUNTAIN THEY CALL THE BEAST OF THE EAST