Waterville Valley Resort is on Mount Tecumseh in Waterville Valley, a small resort town in the White Mountain National Forest of New Hampshire. The lifts reach 3,840 feet, below the 4,004-foot summit, and the base is at 1,820 feet, for 2,020 feet of vertical. There are 265 skiable acres and 62 trails, and snowmaking covers all of the skiable terrain. Ten lifts serve the mountain, among them the Tecumseh Express, a six-person high-speed chair with bubble covers. It’s 5,700 feet long, climbs 1,585 feet in about six minutes, and the resort says it was the first chairlift of its kind in the United States.
The Civilian Conservation Corps cut the first ski trails on Mount Tecumseh in 1937. Tom Corcoran, a two-time Olympic skier, opened the resort in December 1966 with four double chairlifts. Waterville calls itself the birthplace of freestyle skiing: it started the first freestyle instruction program in the United States in 1969, and in 1994 it opened New Hampshire’s first terrain park.
There are two live cams, Summit and Base Area. More than 2,000 feet of vertical separates them, so conditions can differ a lot. The Summit cam is the one to check for wind and visibility before you head up.
Take I-93 to exit 28, then Route 49 east for 11 miles to the resort village, and turn left onto Tripoli Road for the ski area. The resort says there’s only one road in and out, and warns that GPS may suggest Sandwich Notch Road or Tripoli Road from Lincoln, which are closed and mostly impassable in winter. The resort puts Manchester about 1¼ hours away, Boston about 2 hours and Montreal about 3½ hours.
New Hampshire has no chain or winter tire law for passenger cars. New England 511 shows road conditions.
Waterville Valley is on the Indy Pass with no blackout dates. It isn’t on the Epic or Ikon Pass.