Vibe-Winter-2425 - Flipbook - Page 72
Pass, has the purchase of a winch cat on its long list of upgrades
ahead of the 2024/25 ski season, promising a stark contrast to
the minimal snowmaking and investments of recent years.
“We got a winch cat mainly to push snow back up the
hill,” says Erik Mogensen, owner of Indy Pass, who recently
purchased Jackson’s Black Mountain. “It’ll allow us to be more
efficient with snowmaking and take care of trouble spots so we
can stay open after the other resorts close.”
Since the late 90s and early 2000s, winch cats have become
more popular at ski areas nationwide. Not only are ski areas
making more snow, but guests have higher expectations of the
finished product. Most importantly, technology has evolved
from the winch cats of yesterday.
“In the past, there were a lot of old clutch-driven logging
winches that required [multiple] people,” says Rudd. “It was a
whole thing. It was like a five-man project for Sunday River to go
winch White Heat. But now they’ve refined [the technology] to
where everything’s automated—they’re a lot more user-friendly.”
SAFETY CONCERNS WITH SKI TOURING,
OR UPHILL SKIING
Attitash - Myles Harrigan photo
upper pitches. Through the season, winch cats may be used
daily or weekly to push snow back to the top of some of Attitash’s sustained steeper runs: Upper Ptarmigans, Tim’s Trauma,
Idiot’s Option, and even Cathedral.
“A regular cat will maintain the upper part of Cathedral, but
the snow is still getting pushed down that trail,” explains Cabot.
“So maybe once a week, we’ll bring the winch in and push all
that snow back up.”
The snow that’s pushed back up is often several feet
deep—significant for keeping rocks and other hazards from
becoming exposed.
At North America’s western resorts, where steep pitches of
groomed terrain are common, it’s no surprise that winch cats
While this improved technology has resulted in greater flexibility in grooming and higher-quality corduroy for ski area visitors,
the increased number of winch cats being used at resorts in the
last few decades also poses an issue.
During the 2022/23 ski season, the number of skiers participating in ski touring increased by 16 percent from the year prior, according to Snowsports Industries America’s annual report.
This is a continuation of an upward trend of skiers and riders
getting into ski touring in recent years, similarly fueled by
advancements in gear technology. And while many of those who
participate in ski touring prefer to do so in the backcountry, far
from ski area operations, shorter and less reliable winters have
forced skiers and riders to tour at ski areas more often.
As one can imagine, an increased number of people skinning uphill at ski areas and an increased number of winch cats
(and the high-tension cables they use) don’t mix well.
Often, these cables lurk beneath the snow, occasionally
bouncing above the snow surface as the groomer works, waiting to take out an unsuspecting skier. With natural fall lines and
bends in trails, the groomer often can’t see the entire stretch of
cable—it disappears around a bend, preventing the operator
from seeing what’s going on just uphill. Early last season, Stowe
Mountain Resort in neighboring Vermont had a close call with a
skier skiing over a winch cable, forcing the mountain to issue a
stark warning about respecting their uphill policies and moun-
Not only does the combination of touring and winch cat operations—which typically occur outside
of operating hours—present a hazard to the skier, but it also impacts the mountain operations team,
who work tirelessly to get the mountain ready each night for the following day.
are as critical as the lifts themselves (for resorts that want to
offer a variety of groomed terrain, at least). Surprisingly, they’re
just as important at East Coast resorts, despite not being known
for having the country’s steepest terrain.
In the Mt. Washington Valley alone, several ski areas, including Attitash, Wildcat, Cranmore, and even Kennett High School’s
ski jump on the Kancamagus Highway, utilize winch cats.
Jackson’s Black Mountain, which was recently bought by Indy
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tain operations, cautioning that if a cable were to break with a
skier in the vicinity, it would be lethal.
For some backcountry skiers who are used to focusing on
avalanche conditions and variable terrain in the backcountry,
the possibility of encountering a thousand feet of high-tension
cables sitting on the ground is unexpected.
Not only does the combination of touring and winch-cat
operations—which typically occur outside of operating hours—
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