Yesterday I headed up to Wildcat Mountain in Pinkham Notch, New Hampshire, to take a few runs with a ski buddy who lives over there. And met a few other friends, old and new.

A few thousand others were there too, celebrating the recent dump of snow. Many of us couldn't believe we were having a packed powder day on April 14!

Theatrical maven Greg Titherington, formerly from Portland, taught at Wildcat for several years. We've been skiing together since the mid-1990s.

Greg Titherington, formerly of Portland, pauses before plunging down the Lynx Lair on Wildcat Mountain yesterday
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

Greg poses near the high-speed summit quad, where lift lines never exceeded four minutes yesterday
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

Greg introduced me to Rich and Sandra Russo, husband-wife stalwarts of the Wildcat Ski School, who are also active in the Granite State's thespian scene.

Rich and Sandra Russo, stalwarts of the Wildcat Mountain ski school, pose near the 4,062-foot summit
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

I introduced Greg to Krissy Fraser, who works at nearby Attitash. Krissy's mountain was recently purchased by Peak Resorts, a Missouri-based ski area holding company. Although the new owners only closed the deal on April 4, they've already announced that a total commitment to state-of-the-art snowmaking would be their hallmark for the upcoming years.

Krissy Fraser, who works at nearby Attitash, was up at the Cat yesterday
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

Meantime we were all enjoying the new natural on Wildcat, where the closing date has been moved back to Sunday, April 22, latest in New Hampshire for this year. And after that, Wildcat will take the gondola cabins out of storage and hook them onto the high-speed chairlift line and start summer operations.

New for this summer will be a 2,000-foot ZipRider, a first-in-the-East.

Coming to the Cat this June: a 2,000-foot twin ZipRider
COURTESY WILDCAT MOUNTAIN

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