Cat Rock Ski Area

Thanks to NELSAP reader Jed Diehl, we now know of this small ski area that operated in the town of Weston. Here's what Jed has to say about the ski area:

"Cat Rock Hill Ski Area in Weston, Massachusetts, was run by the Town of Weston from 1957 to 1978. It had 2 rope tows and one open slope with a beginners area on one side and a more advanced side with a cluster of Hemlock trees on the slope. I skied Cat Rock, or so I am told by my mother, but do not remember it. Its summit is 1.65 miles from the top of the lift at Prospect Hill Ski Area, Waltham, that I know you have visited; from across Route 128, by Totten Pond Road, Cat Rock Hill is visible to the west as a wooded hill with an open slope and a green water tower on top. Cat Rock's summit is 344 feet above sea level. The local topographical map indicates Cat Rock's vertical drop as 145', I measured it at 180' with my altimeter. The tows were powered by tractor engines, one still visible in the woods near the summit. The advanced tow has 8 metal poles still standing, the beginner tow has 3 wooden poles. My brother-in-law skied here frequently, but I haven't seen him to find out more since being spurred on by your web site. I have seen local snowboarders climbing and skiing Cat Rock. Cat Rock can be found at the end of Drabbington Way off North Ave (route 117) in Weston - it is behind the baseball field, but not visible from the parking area."

With a foot & a half of heavy maritime blow in the driveway at home, it seemed like the right day to skip the usual noontime run in the Sudbury woods and actually _drive_ to skiing . Venue of choice: Cat Rock Park in Weston MA. It's been a couple of whiles since the T-bar ran, but the decently pitched open run has ~200' of vertical to play on, with hair-ball woods shots on all sides.

Arriving at 12:30 it was 40F+ and sweaty out. Eschewing the roads & trail to skin straight up the hill, the yelps & laughs from the N. aspect told us sight unseen that first tracks were unlikely. Clearing the lofty (?) summit in something like 3:27 minutes the it looked like we were luckier than at first thought!

On the lower 1/3 of the main trail a couple of beer & weed powered snowboarders were 80% through with their civil engineering project- a 6' high kicker with an equivalent landing zone ramp 20' downslope. They'd chewed up 1/2 the width of the trail with their snowballing tracks, but there was but a lone snowboard track from 2/3 of the way up, the rest was wide open & untracked save a short postholer track to skier's left near the summit.

That didn't last long! A handful of runs later there were still some relatively untracked lines, but the beginning telemarker I was with was sure taking them wide, leaving the occasional crater in the 10-12" of heavy unforgiving crud. For the finale' I ducked through a mountain biking trail for a bit of fun in much slower conditions under the trees. Mission accomplished, 15 minutes later we were back at work, refreshed, with smiles all around."

Ted Chan also still skis the area: My buddies and I still go up the Cat Rock sometimes or imbibement. For skiing, it has to snow at least foot or so really for it to be fun, but Cat Rock has just the right density for tree skiing and a couple sweet rock face drops down the back side. In 1998 there was a big Nor'easter and it dropped about a foot and a half and you could drop the faces pretty safely. You can see the skyline of the city of Boston about 10 miles away from the summit.

The following are pictures that Jed sent to us. I've scanned them in and here they are:

The ballast for the rope tow at the bottom of the slope.