Waterville Potential

H

heitsy

Member
This past weekend I drove up from Boston and skied WVV with some friends. Though I had been to the mountain a few times in the past, I hadn't really skied around that much. This is mostly because the park is so spot on at that place that I never got bored enough to venture around. However, that's a topic for a different post.

On Saturday the wind was so high that I didn't feel like hitting the jumps, so I pretty much just cruised around with my snowboarder friends. We ended up exploring most of the mountain and it was the first time that I really got to see how much potential that place really has for expanded gladed terrain. A few examples for those of you that are familiar with the mountain:

-the woods to the skier's left of True Grit- if this section of woods were cleared, they'd have a long, wide glade with an aggressive double fall line and likely some pretty sweet cliffs. I scoped it out from the sunnyside triple, but didn't really try to go in at all. It looked like there were a few access trails cut through the woods which would make for convenient break points.

-the woods to the skier's right off of Upper Psyched- So I know this one actually works. I dropped in with a few of my friends just to the right of the second table. It's got a really steep pitch at first and a few big rocks that you can hop off. Maybe this is supposed to be a local secret (if so, sorry for blowing up your spot guys), but I think it would only benefit from being professionally developed. If they thinned it out up top it would allow you to link a bunch more turns and make it a really fun glade.

-The woods above and below No Grit- I only skied this trail once all weekend, but definitely saw potential in the woods above and below. The proposed trail (Lotsa Grit? Tons o' Grit? Eggs and Grits? We'll work on the name...) could start from upper True Grit and empty out onto Oblivion near the middle. The pitch looks good, though there might be some drainage near the bottom which could flatten it out at the end and complicate things.

So what I saw this weekend was a different side of Waterville; a cool little mountain with a lot of potential. My home mountain is Okemo- a resort that's been developed to within an inch of its life- so that mentality could be influencing my thinking, but I really wish this would happen for WVV. It's already such a fun place to shred and doing this would only add to their total skiable terrain and give the tree enthusiasts somewhere new to rip on powder days.

I wanted to get some feedback from those of you who call Waterville Valley home. Is there some reason that the mountain hasn't already done this? Maybe a permit issue that stops them from logging in these areas? I know that the ski area has an eye toward expansion with the proposed move toward Green Peak (located to the skier's right off of Oblivion). Though I look forward to riding that new terrain if and when this happens, I find it surprising that current owners aren't doing more to develop what they have on the main mountain. I'd love to get some thoughts and opinions from those of you who know a little more about this cool little resort.
 
Haha. That did get pretty wordy. For those of you with similarly short attention spans, here are the cliff notes:

Waterville is a great little mountain with a freeskier vibe, an aggressive pitch and a plan for expansion. Why haven't more glades been developed on the main peak when there's so much potential?
 
i loved wv for many years, but the mountain doesn't have much to offer aside from the park after a while
 
That's kind of what I'm saying. The place could be so much better if they created a few tree trails that were accessible off of the main quad.
 
I can understand that. The woods to the right of Psyched were sweet (if a little tight), but cover was thin even after the new snow they got last week. Where it opened up near the bottom there was a much better base and I didn't see any exposed roots, rocks, etc.
 
Spot on. Poma pass is the only thing I get there. Loon is bigger, better, more mass holes there though. Cannon has great trees. Wv is more of a family resort. Not to with the times
 
Why do they have to "create" tree lines for you to ski? Learn how to fucking ski and go ride in the woods. There's no need to take out trees just so gaper park rats can pizza their way into getting lost 500ft. off the trail.
 
i know that they will be expanding the mountain to the two peaks next to it but it will be at least a 7 year process for both of them. as for the tree trails you mentioned are where all the academy and local kids go for pow days because the mountain sucks and gets skied off so quckly
 
That's a bummer that the expansion is going to take so long.The mountain does tend to get skied off relatively quickly due to the high volume of people in a small area. And I'm sure what you said is true and theres some sweet local powder stashes that I haven't been taken to. I just think from what I've scoped out, they could only benefit from a little development.
 
Pretty much the only reason we haven't done anything about it is because of money. We recently got a new owner and things have come pretty much to a stand still since then. The original plans were to expand all of Mt. Tecumseh (The tall tabletop mountain skiers left of high country) and to open up unreal glades all throughout there (Terrain would expand like crazy). We are expanding to green peaks only because there is a bird that only mates above 2800' and is close to extinction or something like that. The bird effected expanding Tecumseh, so they decided to expand green peaks instead. Also money became an issue and thats pretty much been the only extreme restriction we have had. Another reason for no glades is because Waterville is trying to become more of a family mountain, instead of a charging skiers mountain. The reason to become a family mountain would be to gain interest from people around Massachusetts and places like that instead of commercialized Loon and Cannon. (PS, you made some really solid points in that and I agree with you 110%. You are not the only one looking for some intense backcountry around there...)
 
13199509:jack.brendel said:
Pretty much the only reason we haven't done anything about it is because of money. We recently got a new owner and things have come pretty much to a stand still since then. The original plans were to expand all of Mt. Tecumseh (The tall tabletop mountain skiers left of high country) and to open up unreal glades all throughout there (Terrain would expand like crazy). We are expanding to green peaks only because there is a bird that only mates above 2800' and is close to extinction or something like that. The bird effected expanding Tecumseh, so they decided to expand green peaks instead. Also money became an issue and thats pretty much been the only extreme restriction we have had. Another reason for no glades is because Waterville is trying to become more of a family mountain, instead of a charging skiers mountain. The reason to become a family mountain would be to gain interest from people around Massachusetts and places like that instead of commercialized Loon and Cannon. (PS, you made some really solid points in that and I agree with you 110%. You are not the only one looking for some intense backcountry around there...)
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Very well said. Thats the one thing that everyone who skies there wants. More Backcountry. Hopefully after Green peak they keep expanding but for some reason thats taking longer than they said. And also its on National Forest Land so to do anything is a massive bitch and takes a while. With all the regulations and permits and everyone who lives in Waterville has to agree etc. It makes the expansions waterville wants to do a huge pain.
 
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