Waterville Valley - 12/20/2010

[mikestaple]

Date(s) Skied: 12/20/2010

Resort or Ski Area: Waterville Valley

Conditions: Packed Powder

Trip Report:

Drove away from snowy southeast MA at 5:30am with the 5 year old to view the brown and snow free state of NH yesterday. Fortunately, all ski areas have had primo snow making conditions for the past 4 weeks (one awful 36 hour rain period excluded).

With Liftopia ticket in hand, we got set in the lodge and walked onto the Quadzilla - Waterville's green terrain and half pipe (closed) lift. We lapped the well covered Valley Run trail a few times. Well groomed terrain with good coverage.

They snow guns were out in force along the bottom of Lower Bobby's Run. The liftie said they were aiming to have all of their black runs up for the Christmas crush. Later in the day they were working on the Sunnyside lift in preparation for this as well.

A quick trip up the White Peak Express Quad had us moving down Tippecanoe, to Siegel Street and Lower Sel's Choice. The 5 year old was concerned he was moving too fast and needed a hot chocolate, so inside for a quick break which turned into lunch.

Later a few more runs up and down Vally Run ended the day. Overall, Waterville has decent coverage. The very top of the mountain looked good - and was open - , but I couldn't coerce the little one to go up "the big lift again". I was very happy to see him skiing with "french fries" and hockey stops and out of the early day "pizza wedges" by day end. (Also, at noon they had moved some snow making gear over to the half pipe and terrain park area of Exhibition.)

Also, demoed some Line Prophet 90s. They were excellent. Effortless to carve long and short turns and easily handled the groomers and the few places of ice we found. Would be nice to try them again on some bumps or glades.

A great first day of the season for both of us.

Sorry no pics. Next time.

 

[speden]

I hit up Waterville today (12/21). It was really windy out there. A sign at the top of the lift said the gusts were 20 to 50 mph, and it felt like that. I got blown over by a gust at one point during the day, which was a new experience for me!

I explored around a little bit, but ended up sticking to the Oblivion trail most of the day. It was sheltered from the wind and had more loose snow on top than the wind blown trails on the other side.

I made my second attempt of the season to get a discount from my "Ride & Ski Card", which says you get $25 off a midweek ticket at Waterville. Well for my luck they had a special today where the tickets only cost whatever number of points the oppossing team put up against the Patriots, which was 27 bucks thanks to the Packers. So my Ski Card discount was not as good as just paying the $27 special. I'm determined to actually get a discount somewhere after buying this card, but it's looking impossible.

Some pics from today:

View from the parking lot.

They had guns going in a few places today.

Generally good coverage on the open trails. The surface was pretty firm PP.

The High Country double wasn't running today, probably due to the wind.

That's "No Grit" over there.

Here's the lower part of Oblivion. Not a bad trail, but this section is a little flat.

Here's "True Grit" next to the slow Sunnyside Triple. True Grit is a double black that isn't open yet, but next to it is a black called Gema that was open.

This is the top of "Upper Bobby's Run" next to the top of the White Peak quad.

There's a lodge up top next to the entrance to Oblivion. I didn't get a chance to check it out, so stuck to the base lodge, which is a pretty nice lodge.

 

[57stevey]

So my Ski Card discount was not as good as just paying the $27 special. I'm determined to actually get a discount somewhere after buying this card, but it's looking impossible.

Hmmm. I have used mine at Ragged on more than one occasion without any issues. Are you having it not accepted, or just finding better deals?

 

[speden]

Hmmm. I have used mine at Ragged on more than one occasion without any issues. Are you having it not accepted, or just finding better deals?

The first time at Pat's Peak they said the price was already discounted since it was early season, so they refused to give me the $5 off. The second time was today at Waterville, and the Patriots deal was a better deal than the card.

Ragged usually has good prices on Liftopia, so when I go there I'd usually buy my tickets that way. The Ride & Ski card deals at Ragged look like 2 for 1, so if you're by yourself will they sell a half price ticket?

Seems like whenever I'm going skiing there's always a better deal than the card, or the card won't apply for some reason. Well, I'm going to keep trying... :smile:

 

[57stevey]

Ragged usually has good prices on Liftopia, so when I go there I'd usually buy my tickets that way. The Ride & Ski card deals at Ragged look like 2 for 1, so if you're by yourself will they sell a half price ticket?

Not sure about one half price ticket, but you can usually find another single and if one of you has cash then you're good to go. When I have gone to Sunapee on their regular 2-fer day, I have seen them actively hooking people up, which I thought was cool.

 

[moon]

Cool to see photos of Waterville. That used to be my home mountain in the 90s when my parents had a condo there ... I haven't been back since. I didn't realize they shortened the quad (used to go to the very top of the high country section). Anyone know why they changed that?

 

[deadheadskier]

Cool to see photos of Waterville. That used to be my home mountain in the 90s when my parents had a condo there ... I haven't been back since. I didn't realize they shortened the quad (used to go to the very top of the high country section). Anyone know why they changed that?

wind

 

[mikestaple]

No wind yesterday. The high country double was running. My little guy just didn't want to go to the top. Next time I'll bring one of his kamikaze friends and they'll try to out machismo each other and want to go to the top.

Looks like the guns were still on Exhibition (terrain park) and like you - speden - it is always nice to pull into lot 1 for an easy trip to the lodge:-D

True Grit and Lower Bobby's definitely needed some snow blown on them to open up. I think after they get the lower terrain park open, those two are next up for snow making.

 

[speden]

It looked to me like they only blow snow on a couple of trails at a time, or maybe they've just shifted into a lower gear since they have quite a few trails open already. In addition to the Exhibition park area, it sounded like they had guns going on "Stillness". I was disappointed that South Street and Stillness weren't open yet. They looked more narrow and interesting than Valley Run, and would have been more protected from the wind. The wind was so strong up Valley Run in places that I'd almost come to a standstill. It's also a little off camber to the right which I found a little annoying. But thankfully it wasn't very crowded today so dodging other skiers wasn't a problem.

I think they also had guns going on Periphery now that I think about it.

 

[JonD]

Thanks for the trip report. I was considering hitting WV next week. Conditions seem a little better than what I expected.

 

[bobbutts]

I made my second attempt of the season to get a discount from my "Ride & Ski Card", which says you get $25 off a midweek ticket at Waterville. Well for my luck they had a special today where the tickets only cost whatever number of points the oppossing team put up against the Patriots, which was 27 bucks thanks to the Packers. So my Ski Card discount was not as good as just paying the $27 special. I'm determined to actually get a discount somewhere after buying this card, but it's looking impossible.

Magic deal is good esp fri or mon @$25
Also Whaleback feels almost unfair.. 2 for 1 @ $15

 

[CTNoob]

Thanks for the pics. Love the shot from the elbow of Oblivion with the Tri's in the distance, love that trail, always wind protected with good snow.

I am glad WV kept the weekday twofers, that's some pretty decent skiing for $34 a piece.