Waterville Valley is a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

in Waterville Valley,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is located within the

White Mountain National Forest The White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) is a federally managed forest contained within the White Mountains in the northeastern United States. It was established in 1918 as a result of the Weeks Act of 1911; federal acquisition of land had alrea ...

. Built on

Mount Tecumseh Mount Tecumseh is a mountain located in Grafton County, New Hampshire. The mountain is named after the Shawnee leader Tecumseh (–1813), and is a part of the White Mountains. The east side of Tecumseh drains into the Mad River; the west si ...

, with a summit

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

, the ski trails extend to a high point on the south ridge of the mountain at , offering a vertical drop of . The ski area has 11 lifts, including two high-speed quads and the slopes primarily face east and northeast. In addition to downhill skiing, the resort offers of

Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the Ski binding, binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, nationally-ranked

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

courts, a

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarde ...

park, a year-round ice arena, hiking, biking, and water sports.

History

Organized skiing first started on Mount Tecumseh in the 1930s with the construction of two

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

ski trails. The first of the two trails was abandoned after a decade, while the latter would later become incorporated into the Waterville Valley ski area. A group led by Tom Corcoran opened Waterville Valley in 1966 with four new Stadeli double

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...

s and a J-Bar

surface lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...

. Of the original chairlifts, only the Lower Meadows remains. Over the next few decades, three Stadeli triple chairlifts were installed, including the World Cup Triple in 1985. In 1988, a

Poma Poma, incorporated as Pomagalski S.A., and sometimes referred to as the Poma Group, is a French company which manufactures cable-driven lift systems, including fixed and detachable chairlifts, gondola lifts, funiculars, aerial tramways, people ...

high-speed detachable quad chairlift was installed, running parallel to the World Cup Triple and High Country Double chairlifts. Due to wind issues, the upper portion of this lift was later removed. As a result, the top portion of the ski area is only served by the High Country Double chairlift. In 1997, a Doppelmayr high speed detachable quad chairlift was installed, known as "Quadzilla".

Ownership

After filing for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

protection in the summer of 1994, Waterville Valley was briefly owned by the

American Skiing Company American Skiing Company was one of the largest operators of alpine ski, snowboard and golf resorts in the United States. Its resorts included Sunday River and Sugarloaf, in Maine, The Canyons in Utah, Killington, Mount Snow, Haystack, Heavenl ...

in the mid-1990s. Due to anti-trust issues, Waterville and

Cranmore Mountain Resort Cranmore Mountain Resort, operating in the summer as Cranmore Mountain Adventure Park, is a ski area located in North Conway, New Hampshire, United States. It began operations in 1937, and was owned until 1984 by the Schneider family. During the ...

were sold to California-based Booth Creek Ski Holdings in the fall of 1996. Members of the Sununu family of New Hampshire and a group of area investors purchased the resort in October 2010 and it remains independent.

World Cup

Waterville Valley first hosted

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

alpine events in

slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

and

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

and was a regular stop on the tour for most of the 1980s. The 1969 races saw American women take four of the six podium positions, as

Kiki Cutter Christina "Kiki" Cutter (born July 24, 1949) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She was the first American to win a World Cup event, a slalom race in Oslo, Norway, on February 25, 1968. Although Cutter competed on the ...

won the slalom for her fourth World Cup win and

Judy Nagel Judy Ann Nagel (born August 27, 1951) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. Early years Born in Seattle, Washington, Nagel was the younger of two daughters of an Olympic ski racer. She learned to ski and race at Stevens ...

took third. Two days earlier,

Marilyn Cochran Marilyn Cochran Brown (born February 5, 1950) is a former FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer from the United States. The eldest of four siblings of the "Skiing Cochrans" family of Richmond, Vermont, she became th ...

and

Karen Budge Karen Annette Budge (born November 14, 1949) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She had three podium finishes and 30 top ten results in World Cup competitions between 1967 and 1972; overall her best result was 15th pl ...

tied for second in the giant slalom. After two podiums at Waterville Valley in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, Tamara McKinney won five consecutive World Cup events at the resort from

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. The most recent WC races were held , with six events in March to conclude the

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

season. The circuit did not return to the eastern U.S. for over a quarter century, until November

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

at Killington,

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, with women's technical events (giant slalom, slalom) on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

weekend.

Clubs and schools

Waterville Valley hosts the "Black and Blue Trail Smashers" (also known as BBTS) ski club, one of the oldest in the USA, founded in 1934. The team has expanded its training to include ski racing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding, and

boardercross Snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, is a snowboard competition in which four to six competitors race down a course. Snowboard cross courses are typically quite narrow and include cambered turns, various types of jumps, berms, rollers, ...

disciplines. WVBBTS has received many prestigious awards since its inception, including the USSA Club of the Year award in 2006. It is the "home club" of Olympic gold medalist

Hannah Kearney Hannah Angela Kearney (born February 26, 1986) is an American mogul skier who won a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Personal life Kearney was born in Norwich, Vermont to Jill (née Gass) an ...

, winner of the women's moguls in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. Waterville Valley Academy (WVA), a seasonal winter sports boarding school that specializes in training skiers and snowboarders, conducts training at Waterville. WVA is a subsidiary of the Waterville Valley BBTS ski club, using many of the club's resources and staff in its operations.

References

External links

*
New England Ski History
– Waterville Valley *
Mt. Tecumseh—New England's Alpine CCC Ski Trails
– World Cup events – Waterville Valley {{NHski Buildings and structures in Grafton County, New Hampshire Civilian Conservation Corps in New Hampshire Resorts in the United States Ski areas and resorts in New Hampshire Tourist attractions in Grafton County, New Hampshire Waterville Valley, New Hampshire