Saturday day trip to Waterville Valley!

It felt great to be back at my home mountain over the weekend with my brother. The weather was a bit overcast, but the temperature was perfect for snowboarding!

The sun did try to peek out a few times. Low 30’s to start today and a slight breeze in the high 20’s when we took our last run.

One of my biggest fears when it comes to skiing or snowboarding happened to me over the weekend. I got stuck on a chairlift. Luckily, we weren’t e-vac’d off the lift, because the backup engine was able to spin us off at the top terminal and we got what was probably the best run of the day off that chair, funny enough.

We aren’t the biggest fans of the new Tecumseh Express 6-pack bubble chair, so we took the longer route to the summit skiing down to the Valley Run Quad then over to the Sunnyside Triple chair. Which worked out in our favor because the lines were much shorter and we were able to get in more runs because of this choice.

Trails of the Day I’m starting something new in this blog! Since this post is all about skiing I am going to tell you my top trails of the day. I hope you enjoy this new feature, because I had a lot of fun writing it. Here we go! #1 Governor’s Run - This blue square intermediate trail from the summit of Green Peak. It offers a unique vantage point of the resort. The furthest most left trail (on the trail map) and furthest right (while on snow) gives you a completely different feel than most of the trails at Waterville. Since this trail is along the ridge line that the Green Peak triple runs along you have a lot of variety of terrain in one trail. Mellow flat(ish) areas, some tight pitches and headwalls, and the last half of the run is wide open and extremely carveable. And, being one of the first to ski down all year is fun to… especially on un-touched, groomed terrain. #2 Ciao -

This black diamond on the Sunnyside area of the resort is classic New England ski trail if you ask me. Narrower than the adjacent Gema run, the trail is long and perfect for cruising a black diamond if you know how to carve and when there’s fresh snow the bumps on skiers left make it a great run to lap on pow and bluebird days. On Saturday, we decided to lap this run for a couple hours because the snow was very good, and you can switch it up each run... bumps or no bumps. Even though it was a tad bit scraped off mid-day we enjoyed it since there were no other skiers or snowboarders on it.

#3 Upper Bobby’s Run to Old Tecumseh - The combination of two great blue’s that you can link together can be tons of fun. And on Saturday, that’s what it was… TONS OF FUN! Upper Bobby’s can be often overlooked when getting off the Tecumseh Express, but this is a great blue square for wide turns (on less crowded days) where you can find some snow in all sections of the trail. Cutting back over to get to Old Tecumseh can be a bit tricky if you aren’t familiar with the mountain, check the trail map and make a plan before attempting to do so. Once you are on Old Tecumseh, or “Old T” as some locals and passholders call it, you’ll wind and dive your way through the mountainside, as this run sits in the middle of the main face and Northside area of the resort; making it a unique run to Waterville Valley. Oh, and that last dip on the right hand side (before turning right onto Lower Periphery) is a lot of fun to send it off! Just be careful because people like to stop and wait both on the dip and right below. The combination of these two runs are great for someone who may want to experience the “upper mountain” for the first time. I’d recommend that if it is your first time at the mountain to take your time and know your limits. Cutting across from trail to trail on Upper White Caps can be a bit sketchy if there are skiers and snowboarders going too fast and not paying attention.

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Overall it was a really solid day of snowboarding with my brother. We always have a great time on the hill together and get our money's worth when we go, and I can’t wait to shred with him again soon.

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Thanks for reading!