Wildcats A - E bushwack

[Hampshire]

The bushwack from Square Ledge to D is pretty straight forward. We hit some pretty thick stuff near the 3500' elevation as we came upon a ski trail. We got a lot of looks and ecouragement from the skiers and ski patrol the final 500'. The trip across the ridge to A to was uneventful. Crampons would have been useful for some of the steeper decents with the layer of thick ice on the rocks below the snow layer. We returned to D and followed the Ridge trail to E, we began the bushwack back to PNVC around the 3100' to avoid the more exposed open ledges below. We came upon our own tracks around 2700'.

The bushwack is certainly a viable option for those looking to aviod the open ledges of the lower Ridge trail.

We ran into three hearty souls carrying sleds up (they came up the Ridge trail from PNVC (without crampons) to slide down the Polecat ski trail after the ski area closed.

 

[Tramper Al]

Question

Hi,

Thanks for the report, but I am a little confused. From looking at the topo in the past, I had always envisioned a very short (like 200 yards) bushwhack straight from the top of the square ledge trail to the southernmost Wildcat ski trail. Is this what you did, or did you bushwhack uphill (and parallel to the ski trail) quite a distance before coming out on the ski trail just 500 feet from the top? Just curious.

 

[Hampshire]

We bushwhacked uphill parallel to the ski trials. We took a compass barring from Square Ledge to D a followed the path of least resistance. We were trying to avoid the ski trails but were happy to see it when we did. The area is not too thick, with the exception near where we came upon the ski trail.

 

[el-bagr]

Wildcat slide incident?

I saw in the trail conditions section two reports (by David and by Carol) from 1/8/05 reporting that a hiker named Carl broke his leg on the Wildcat A slide (Carter Notch side). Best wishes to Carl. Anyone have more details?

edit: on a whim, I checked out AMC BB and found this discussion of the incident. I repeat Mohamed's reminder that there is a tricky landslide pitch between Carter Notch and Wildcat A that must be negotiated.

 

[HikerBob]

For the curious the slide looked like THIS and THIS back in August.

At that time things were still pretty loose on the slide itself and, as you can see from the second picture, not a lot sticking up on the downslope. Imagine this covered with boilerplate and you have the potential for a long slide of your own!

Bob

 

[Tramper Al]

All the more reason why Hampshire's report is good to see. Perhaps this offers a reasonable alternative to experienced winter bushwhackers wishing to climb the Wildcats while avoiding ledges, ski trails, and an evidently sometimes treacherous slide.