Date(s) Skied: Saturday, November 29th, 2008
Resort or Ski Area: Waterville Valley
Conditions: Packed Powder, skied off hard pack
Trip Report:
Returned to Waterville Valley on Saturday for my first time skiing there since the Reagan administration. Not much had changed that I recall outside of the two detachable quads. Had a nice afternoon up there on what was essentially half the High country area, 4 trails from the first summit down to mid mountain that converged into three heading down to the bottom and a bit of their beginner areas open around the base. While I won't say I was blown away by the place, Waterville isn't a bad mountain at all. It has a long consistent vertical drop and some (un-open) classic narrowish winding trails. I do remember True Grit as being one of the best bump runs in the east, but it was not open. Heavy snow making operations going on and it would appear that with decent weather, they'll double their open terrain by next weekend.
The conditions were pretty darn good and I'm sure they would've been better first thing in the morning, but my friend from Boston who was also my ride only wanted to ski the afternoon. I was happy to have my Warren Miller voucher in hand and appreciated being able to use on a Saturday, where as Sunday River and Sugarloaf it's not valid for that day of the weekend. The crowds weren't bad at all on the lifts, but the trails got somewhat congested at the intersections. The lower mountain was basically skied off by 1:30, but the High Country area had sweet snow until closing. I probably would've spent more time up there if the lift wasn't comically slow. Seriously, if that lift isn't the slowest chair lift in the world, I don't know what is. Think how slow a detachable lift is at loading and unloading and that's how slow this chair was.
Only complaint I really have regarding the day is that because there was limited park terrain open, the jibbers were running roughshod all over the mountain in large packs with zero regard for other skiers around them. This didn't come as too much of a surprise as I'm aware of Waterville's popularity with terrain park fans, but the ski patrol honestly should have been out with a little more force as I would not have been surprised to hear about major collision injuries. I had a few near misses myself and some choice words for a couple of kids because of it. :lol:
Here's some photo's
Booting up in the Lodge, Dana catches me with quite the Blue Steele look :lol:
up top views from High Country Double. Waterville has some amazing views of the surrounding whites
view up the Main Face from the Lodge
Resort or Ski Area: Waterville Valley
Conditions: Packed Powder, skied off hard pack
Trip Report:
Returned to Waterville Valley on Saturday for my first time skiing there since the Reagan administration. Not much had changed that I recall outside of the two detachable quads. Had a nice afternoon up there on what was essentially half the High country area, 4 trails from the first summit down to mid mountain that converged into three heading down to the bottom and a bit of their beginner areas open around the base. While I won't say I was blown away by the place, Waterville isn't a bad mountain at all. It has a long consistent vertical drop and some (un-open) classic narrowish winding trails. I do remember True Grit as being one of the best bump runs in the east, but it was not open. Heavy snow making operations going on and it would appear that with decent weather, they'll double their open terrain by next weekend.
The conditions were pretty darn good and I'm sure they would've been better first thing in the morning, but my friend from Boston who was also my ride only wanted to ski the afternoon. I was happy to have my Warren Miller voucher in hand and appreciated being able to use on a Saturday, where as Sunday River and Sugarloaf it's not valid for that day of the weekend. The crowds weren't bad at all on the lifts, but the trails got somewhat congested at the intersections. The lower mountain was basically skied off by 1:30, but the High Country area had sweet snow until closing. I probably would've spent more time up there if the lift wasn't comically slow. Seriously, if that lift isn't the slowest chair lift in the world, I don't know what is. Think how slow a detachable lift is at loading and unloading and that's how slow this chair was.
Only complaint I really have regarding the day is that because there was limited park terrain open, the jibbers were running roughshod all over the mountain in large packs with zero regard for other skiers around them. This didn't come as too much of a surprise as I'm aware of Waterville's popularity with terrain park fans, but the ski patrol honestly should have been out with a little more force as I would not have been surprised to hear about major collision injuries. I had a few near misses myself and some choice words for a couple of kids because of it. :lol:
Here's some photo's
Booting up in the Lodge, Dana catches me with quite the Blue Steele look :lol:
up top views from High Country Double. Waterville has some amazing views of the surrounding whites
view up the Main Face from the Lodge
Love the anecdote at the end about the t-shirt. Thanks for sharing your day with us!
