After a first ski of the season this past Friday over on the Pack Monadnock Auto Road, I kicked off my lift-served skiing at Waterville Valley. Snow falling for the first hour+ of my drive up from the Boston metro, eventually tapering away into dark clouds.
Pass pickup was a breeze - outside line took about 5 minutes. They just had the Tecumseh Express and the summit T-bar running, plus a beginner lift elsewhere. Valley Way, Green Peak, Sunnyside and other main lifts were quiet.
Lines weren't terribly long at all for the big ol six-pack. Took 5-7 minutes to get through at 9:30, and as the day progressed the lines consistently decreased. After lunch and until our last run around 3, we were only waiting a minute or two for a chair. What a breeze!
Anyway. 22 trails open was pretty darn good. Just about everything off the T-bar was open, though a little icy. Three ways off the summit (Tangent, Periphery, White Caps), though only a single train funneling into the base area as everything open emptied into Lower Periphery. Conditions were exceptional for early-season in the morning - very little icy, some soft powder on roughly half the trail (either from not being totally skied off from the storm midweek or from the 3" or so they received Friday). Lower Sel's Run was the best trail of the day - no snowmaking but the natural snow was extremely soft even into the afternoon. Only a couple of rocks exposed, but otherwise as long as you were fine with running over 4-8" tall twigs coming out of the ground, you'd have a grand ole time.
By 2pm, everything was starting to ice over despite temps never coming above 32F for melt effect. Crowds thinned out quickly around then. At this time, it had also finally become sunny and provided great views of the valley and the Osceolas.
Only thing negative I can say about WV this early in the season is that the lines were... a mess. People were generally polite and no one was skipping eachother, but when you see people lined up 15-18 across for a 6 person lift... It doesn't make things move particularly well. I know they do a better job of this normally so I'm not too upset about it. But geez, guys, a couple extra fences and putting up those "Groups of 1, 2, 3, and 4+" direction signs would not be that much work.
All in all, though, pretty solid day of skiing. Nice views, parking was pretty easy, decent conditions and actually some space in the lodge to grab lunch which was a pleasant surprise for my friend and I to not eat at my car. Will probably be saving my second Indy day here for late in the season.
