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Waterville Valley Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / Waterville Valley Ski Resort

Waterville Valley Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of New Hampshire in USA. The resort is in the town of Waterville Valley, NH.

We recently ranked all of New Hampshire's ski resorts, so you can see where Waterville Valley stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Waterville Valley is a part of the INDY Ski Pass system. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all of the slopes that are also a part of the group.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Waterville Valley around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Waterville Valley Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Waterville Valley has a total of 52 ski trails, which are serviced by 10 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. Waterville Valley is considered a smaller than average ski area, with only a maximum of 220 acres available to ski. This area is equivalent to 89 hectares, 0.3 square miles, or 0.9 square kilometers.

Waterville Valley's slopes see on average 148 inches (4.5 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 12 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
52
Ski Lift
Lifts
10
Skier
Skiable Acres
220(1 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
148"(4,511 cm)

Waterville Valley Ski Resort Elevation

Waterville Valley Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 4,004 feet, or 1,220 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 1,984 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,020 feet (616 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

Waterville Valley's summit elevation is higher than average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are much higher than this one (some stretch to 12,000 feet!), but it is not small by any stretch of the imagination.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
4,004'(1,220 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
2,020'(616 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
1,984'(605 m)

Waterville Valley Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
48.7out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Waterville Valley can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 80% of its trails rated at or above intermediate ski level.

 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Waterville Valley has 220 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Waterville Valley is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 20% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 80%.
Green Circle
Beginner
20%(44 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
60%(132 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
20%(44 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Waterville Valley Ski Resort good for beginners?

Waterville Valley can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 80% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.

Waterville Valley Ski Resort Location

Waterville Valley Ski Resort is located in the state of New Hampshire, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Waterville Valley, NH.

Address:
Waterville Valley, NH 03215 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
waterville.com

GPS Coordinates:
43.96000, -71.50000

Getting to Waterville Valley Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Waterville Valley Ski Resort), its coordinates of 43.96000, -71.50000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Waterville Valley, NH to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Waterville Valley Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Portland International JetportPWMPortland, ME63 mi
Logan International AirportBOSBoston, MA113 mi
Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International AirportYULMontréal, QC152 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Waterville Valley.

NameCodeCityDistance
Lebanon Municipal AirportLEBLebanon, NH46 mi
Portsmouth International at Pease AirportPSMPortsmouth, NH70 mi
Manchester-Boston Regional AirportMHTManchester, NH71 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Waterville Valley Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Waterville Valley Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Cannon MountainFranconia, NH4,080 ft57%16 mi
AttitashBartlett, NH2,350 ft51%17 mi
Cranmore MountainNorth Conway, NH2,000 ft39%21 mi
Bretton WoodsBretton Woods, NH3,100 ft52%21 mi
King Pine Ski AreaMadison, NH850 ft17%21 mi
Black MountainJackson, NH2,350 ft43%25 mi
Wildcat MountainGorham, NH4,062 ft55%26 mi
Loon MountainLincoln, NH3,050 ft50%26 mi
Shawnee PeakBridgton, ME1,700 ft42%35 mi
Ragged MountainAndover, NH2,250 ft42%38 mi
Burke MountainEast Burke, VT3,267 ft60%47 mi
Mt. AbramGreenwood, ME2,001 ft38%48 mi
Sunday RiverBethel, ME3,140 ft55%49 mi
Mount SunapeeNewbury, NH2,743 ft44%51 mi
Dartmouth SkiwayConcord, NH1,943 ft39%53 mi
Pats PeakHenniker, NH1,400 ft32%53 mi
Lost ValleyAuburn, ME495 ft39%62 mi
Whaleback MountainEnfield, NH1,800 ft38%63 mi
McIntyre Ski AreaManchester, NH510 ft17%66 mi
KillingtonKillington, VT4,241 ft68%67 mi
SugarbushWarren, VT4,083 ft60%67 mi
Mad River GlenMorrisville, VT3,637 ft59%68 mi
Suicide SixSouth Pomfret, VT1,200 ft36%68 mi
Pico MountainMendon, VT3,967 ft53%69 mi
Crotched MountainBennington, NH2,066 ft41%70 mi
Okemo MountainLudlow, VT3,344 ft52%72 mi
Middlebury Snow BowlHancock, VT2,720 ft39%72 mi
Bolton ValleyRichmond, VT3,150 ft40%74 mi
GunstockKingston, NH2,300 ft47%75 mi
Smuggler's NotchJeffersonville, VT3,640 ft59%76 mi
Cochran Ski AreaRichmond, VT950 ft32%79 mi
Titcomb MountainFarmington, ME750 ft32%81 mi
Magic MountainLondonderry, VT2,850 ft52%82 mi
Jay PeakJay, VT3,968 ft50%85 mi
Ski BradfordHaverhill, MA1,548 ft29%86 mi
Owl's HeadMansonville, QC2,480 ft46%86 mi
Bromley MountainPeru, VT3,284 ft42%88 mi
Stratton MountainWinhall, VT3,875 ft45%91 mi
Black MountainRumford, ME2,150 ft44%94 mi
Mont SuttonSutton, QC3,175 ft41%95 mi
Mont Hatley (Montjoye), QC0 ft0%95 mi
Mount SnowSomerset, VT3,600 ft44%99 mi

Waterville Valley Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation4,004 ft
Base Elevation1,984 ft
Vertical Drop2,020 ft
Trails52
(20% Beginner,  60% Intermediate,  20% Expert)
Lifts10
Skiable Acres220
Avg. Annual Snowfall148 inches
Waterville Valley Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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