The Wildcat Ski Trail

The Wildcat Ski Trail

Elevation Profile

Thom leading the way and
dropping some knowledge

I got the call from my cousin Chris early in the week. "Snow's in the forecast. Tracy and I are working up plans to ski the backside of Wildcat with some friends on Wednesday. You interested?" "You mean Wednesday, Feb 5th that 8"-12" of snow is forecast to fall, and also happens to be National Weatherperson's Day? Ahhh.....Yes. I'll be there."

Turned out that the "friends" included Thom Perkins. Thom has been the Executive Director of the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation (JSTF) for many years and has skied the Wildcat Trail hundreds of time. So not only are we going to head into some awesome backcountry, with lots of snow in the forecast, but we're doing it with the guy who likely knows the area better than anyone else.

The Wildcat Ski Trail section that we covered is about 5 miles long and starts around 4000' between D and E peaks at the top of the Wildcat Ski Area in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It travels down the backside of the mountain following the southern ridge. If you want you can continue to link up to trails all the way back to the town of Jackson, NH. The trail is beautifully maintained by the folks at the JSTF who also maintain hundreds of miles of XC skiing trails in the area. They laid out and cut this trail back in 1972. The original Wildcat Ski Trail was cut in the 1930's by the (CCC) and was one of the most popular class A race trails in the area. That trail eventually became part of what is now the Wildcat Ski Area.

Jack and Kathy breaking
trail in the first mile.

We met at the JSTF XC center around 10:30am and left for Wildcat at 11. I found out here that not only was today National Weatherperson's Day, but it was also Thom's birthday. Happy Birthday Thom. Here's a foot of snow for you! We were joined by his partner Kathy and two other friends Toby and Jack. After we met, we loaded into vehicles, and headed to Wildcat. The driving conditions were not great but Chris piloted the Honda CRV like a champ. We unloaded our gear, clipped in our bindings, and headed for the high speed quad.

We got off the chairlift to light wind and little visibility. The view is said to be incredible though all we could see was a lot of snow falling from the sky. Which was also incredible. We headed south past the ski patrol hut on our left and came to the trailhead. It begins with a drop down a steep face straight into the woods. Some days this can be a 40' cornice of ice. Today it was maybe half that high, and composed of fluffy dry powder, easily handled by all.


The trail begins more narrow, has a fairly continuous grade, and includes a few short sections where one needs to traverse or go up. I could make some telemark turns but the combination of grade and new snow also allowed you to mostly go straight without necessitating a turn if you wanted. The trail was suitable for the mix of gear from Telemark to Cross Country skis that we each had. Jack was even skiing on what looked like very narrow skate skis and was crushing it. The badass award of the day went to Jack who charged fearlessly down some challenging terrain on some very narrow skis.

Probably the best all around gear for this trip is a backcountry touring ski with wax or scales, mid-weight boot, and 3 pin binding setup with a heal strap. This is what Thom was using as well as Chris, Tracy, and Toby. This setup was ideal for the mix of terrain. Though when we reached a beautifully maintained birch glade about 2.5 miles in, I didn't want to be on anything else but my telemark skis.

Toby surveying the glades

Tracy loving the glades

We were able to spread out and make some beautiful turns floating over fresh powder. The glades descend through an upper, middle, and lower section, and would be worth bringing skins along to repeat a couple times. The glades transform into a wider trail that becomes an access road and crosses into Prospect Farm during the descent. The trail through this section has a nice skiable grade, and continues to offer excellent opportunities to make turns.

From the crossroads down

After this you come to a major cross roads in Prospect Farm. From here you travel down a road with slightly less grade past the Dana Place Trail and directly to the parking area on Carter Dome Rd. We ended up having some time before our shuttle ride came, and were able to explore another 1 1/2 miles of trail while we waited.

Below the parking area.
Chris packs in more powder
while also admiring a classic
New England barn

In the right conditions I highly recommend this trip to almost anyone in decent shape and whom feels comfortable descending on cross country skis. The diversity of terrain and forests are interesting and fun for a variety of skier level. We were fortunate to have Thom Perkins guiding our way, and sharing his knowledge, but the trail is well marked and easy to follow on your own. It only gets potentially tricky as you get close to the parking area. You'll want to make sure you know where you are parked and what trail you need to take to get there. I highly recommend David Goodman's book Best Backcountry Skiing In The Northeast which explains a few different options for ending your ski and dealing with the shuttle/parking options. It also covers other details of this trip that we did not do, and tons of information about many other skis in the Northeast.

Thanks so much to Thom, Kathy, Jack, Toby, Chris, and Tracy for making this such a great day. Couldn't have asked for more! Special thanks to the JSFT for maintaining this and their many other miles of trail. The trail does have a fee. And you need to buy tickets from JSFT and Wildcat. All which is very reasonable. It's also reasonable to consider supporting the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation and all they do by making a donation here.

A special thanks as well to Chris for making the great video below of the trip. Gives an excellent sense of the entire journey and the types of conditions and skiing we encountered that day.


Backside Wildcat from Chris Westerlund on Vimeo.