Waterville Valley still lifts the spirits

WATERVILLE VALLEY, N.H. -- Tom Day started working here 29 years ago as a lift attendant, and today he is Waterville Valley's general manager. Over his tenure, he has pulled many a lift ticket from skiers and snowboarders for on-snow infractions like excessive speed or going down closed trails. Now many of those rebels are back with their own children, and they still recognize Day.

"They come up to me and say, 'You can pull my kid's ticket now,' " he said with a laugh.

As Waterville celebrates its 40th anniversary, there is much that is the same and much that has changed since Olympic skier Tom Corcoran and his Waterville Co. opened the ski area on Mount Tecumseh in 1966 with two double chairlifts.

The old logging roads that skiers used to hike up to schuss down have given way to groomed cruising runs and 52 trails. Twelve lifts transport the masses in modern fashion on high-speed quadruple lifts like the puppy-faced Quadzilla and the slow-moving High Country chair to the 4,004-foot summit. Waterville Valley Academy and the Black and Blue Trail Smashers ski club still produce top winter athletes. The Silver Streaks , Waterville's over-50 club, have graced the slopes for 20 years and still enjoy reserved parking for the uphill walk to the base lodge.

Waterville hosted several World Cup races from 1969 through 1991, featuring such icons as Italian Alberto Tomba and American brothers Phil and Steve Mahre . Just as many young skiers and riders might not know those legendary racers, many 40- something parents will be hard-pressed to understand the lingo in the terrain parks on the slopes. When Tomba and Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy skied Waterville, rails were what trains rode on. Now, they are terrain park elements for sliding. Site of The Boneyard, one of New England's first terrain parks in the early 1990s, Waterville now boasts four parks of varying levels, including the new entry-level Burton Progression Terrain Park.

As snow guns blanketed the slopes on a late January day and this winter's lack of snow delayed the park's opening, terrain park manager John Webster explained the park is a gateway to a playground of rails, boxes, and jumps. Because it is situated next to the massive Exhibition Park with its huge features and 400-foot superpipe, beginners at Burton can see what is ahead after they build a foundation of skills and etiquette.

"The new park will give them a small idea of what it is like to feel weightlessness," said Webster, 26. He oversees the parks and park rangers, similar to ski patrollers, who are there to lay down the laws, such as looking before leaping and knowing your ability.

Waterville also has the Little Slammer Park at the lower end of the difficulty scale. Psyched is a medium-level option. Though the wired generation has the parks and pipe, the tradition of carving turns down long trails has not gone out with the turntable. Wide intermediate runs like Tippecanoe , And Tyler Too , Old Tecumseh, and White Caps have plenty of room, as does Express off the summit.

Upper Bobby's Run to Old Tecumseh is a long favorite, while experts can try the steeps and bumps of double black diamond True Grit , Gema, and the historic Tommy's World Cup Run ( named after Corcoran).

Periphery is the classic narrow run. The intermediate Oblivion takes off from the unassuming Schwendi Hutte restaurant and gives freestylers a chance to ride a natural quarter pipe on what the locals call the "walls of justice." Before and after the dogleg left are cliffs and rocks for jumping.

Beginners have the gentle Valley Run, while solitude can be found on South Street and Stillness . Children age s 3 to 6 out for the first time have the secluded Kinderpark and its conveyor belt lift before advancing to the j-bar lift on benign Pasture .

The Kinderpark is where kids learn to ski, but parents can't seem to keep away. So, to conceal their bodies , but not their interested eyes, moms and dads stand behind a wildlife mural with cutouts for peeping. "What parent doesn't want to watch their child learn to ski?" said snowsports director Pete Weber .

Skiers like to know a mountain, and season pass holder Tricia Bourque found she still is well acquainted with Waterville. A lapsed skier from Holderness , she used to come here as a parent chaperone. Through eighth grade her two sons skied here with a school group once a week. But after the two graduated to high school Bourque lost that ski day. Then the business of running a Plymouth diner took up much of her time. Now she's back and to her it's still the same Waterville Valley.

"It still is familiar to me," she said, preparing for another day on the trails that have been attracting skiers and riders for years. Indeed, for a generation and more.

If you go...
Waterville Valley Ski Area
1 Ski Area Road
Waterville Valley, N.H.
800-GO-VALLEY (800-468-2553)
waterville.com
Lift tickets: adults $59, ages 13-18 $49, 6-12 and 65 and over $35; many online deals.
Directions: From Boston, take Interstate 93 north to New Hampshire. Take exit 28 and follow Route 49 about 12 miles to the ski area.

Marty Basch, a New Hampshire-based writer, can be reached through martybasch.com.