Waterville Valley Resort on Saturday, November 26, 2016

		Waterville Valley Resort Saturday, November 26, 2016
		Submitted on November 26, 2016 by rocket21 (1394)
	Session	Morning
	Ticket Type	Discount from Ski Area
	Lift Lines	1 to 2 minutes
	Trail Conditions	10% open; Variable Conditions, Variable Conditions
	Glades	None
	Moguls	None
	Terrain Park(s)	A few features set up at the bottom of High Country.
	Run of the Day	Scramble
	Food and Beverage	Did not partake.
	Comments	Very nice weather initially, was there were blue skies and views reaching to the Presidentials, as well as an undercast to the south. Clouds obscured things later in the morning. I found their web site to be lacking the night before, as there were no rates posted for Saturday, implying it was full price. When I stumbled into their online store, I found a $36 ticket, which seemed reasonable. Presumably they're still working out the bugs, as it took almost 15 minutes to get my ticket. The longest lift line of the day happened soon thereafter, when a BBTS group came through and the lift scanners could only fill every other chair, as the scanning devices seemed to not be working well. No lines for the quad otherwise. The seven trails open amounted to a continuous top to bottom run, which is a decent showing considering the limited snowmaking ops. Basically one groomed way down High Country (generally staying skier's left of the chairlift), which was quite nice this morning and easily the run of the day. People were finding a couple inches of powder on skier's right of the lift and it looked decent. Lift lines were hit or miss - either ski on, or else waiting a few minutes if a BBTS group ended up there at the same time. The route served by the quad was initially down the lift line, then down through the race trail. The stuff closest to the snow guns was very firm, likely due to the moisture yesterday. I suspect it may have softened up as the temperatures increased, as it wasn't bulletproof. Some okay stuff on skiers right initially (generally wall to wall coverage White Caps). White Caps will ski much differently this winter, now that the World Cup Triple is out of the way. There's a chokepoint near the bottom of Upper Sel's Choice, just before dropping down to Tommy's World Cup, where coverage was thin/narrow. I suspect this section could be temporarily lost if we get the forecasted rain mid week. Once down to World Cup, where they have tower fan guns, there's good coverage. The route then leverages the J-Bar slope to get back to the lift. I found it interesting how much bigger Waterville skied when there were no active trail junctions, and instead a single continuous trail. I ended up skiing 2 runs off the High Country and 4 runs off the quad for about 6,600 vertical feet. Nice get day one of the season under my belt!
	URL	https://www.instagram.com/p/BNSZ63vhN_L/?taken-by=skinewenglandnet
	Report Rating	6