Jan Stearns, Marketing Dir. 1-888-987-8333

As you're driving along Route 49 and about to enter the village of Waterville Valley, you're greeted by this sign:

If you Google "birthplace of freestyle skiing," you won't find Waterville Valley or resort founder Tom Corcoran mentioned anywhere. Instead, those bigger, glitzier, more famous areas -- Sun Valley & Heavenly Valley -- get all the recognition and glory.

Waterville Valley Resort has always been a bit of a secret to the greater world (shhhhh...that's how many of us like it!). This is apparently the case with the world's understanding of where freestyle skiing was born!

In author Grace Bean's history of Waterville Valley, The Town at the end of the road, she wrote that "Waterville Valley became the first [ski] area to offer freestyle instruction. A freestyle program was started in 1969-70...Freestyle classes were offered at all levels, including the Kids' Ski School..."

Bean also noted that "Tom Corcoran and Doug Pfeiffer, editor of Skiing Magazine, organized the First National Open Championships of Freestyle Skiing at Waterville Valley (February 28-March 1, 1970)...Herman Goellner, an experienced skier from Vermont, was the 1970 winner. The event was so successful that in 1972 two other areas offered freestyle competitions - Vail and Sun Valley."

"...Probably the most excitement engendered for freestyle in Waterville was the presence of Wayne Wong, a remarkable twenty-two-year-old acrobatic skier from Vancouver, BC, who came east in the spring of 1971 to participate in Waterville's National Championships of Exhibition Skiing. He had started skiing at age eleven and continued as a teenager but found it "too expensive." His school friends had talked him into coming to Waterville, just to see how he would do. The student council had collected $200 to send him...He finished third in the Waterville Competition. Within a year he was a national phenomenon. The next winter he returned to Waterville as an instructor and headed up the junior freestyle program. In 1972 he was named by Skiing Magazine as "Hot Shot Skier of the Year."

Well, there you have it. Waterville Valley IS the birthplace of freestyle skiing. Harumph...So there Sun Valley and Heavenly Valley.

Photo below: Wayne Wong

Waterville Valley, New Hampshire has enjoyed a long history of ski racing that started with resort founder and two-time Olympic ski racer Tom Corcoran. Corcoran put Waterville Valley on the map by launching world class athletes in skiing and snowboarding.

Several Waterville Valley athletes are hoping to represent the U.S. in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Michelle Gorgone, a 2006 Olympian and WVBBTS Ski Club alumna, is expected to compete again in Alpine Snowboarding. Hannah Kearney, also a 2006 Olympian and alumna of the WVBBTS Freestle Ski Program is currently on the Women's A Team for Moguls and a frontrunner to represent the U.S. Nordic skier Kris Freeman will be heading to his third Olympic appearance and claims Waterville Valley as his official training site. The resort is also hoping that Dylan Ferguson, currently on the U.S. Aerials B Team will be selected to the Olympic roster.

In honor of this winter's 21st Olympic Games and the Olympic athletes who got their start at Waterville Valley - Waterville Valley Resort is offering an Olympic-sized learn to ski and ride deal over three weekends: December 12 & 13, 2009, January 9 & 10 and March 20 & 21, 2010.

Each weekend will feature the resort's new Olympic $21 Learn to Ski and Ride Specials, including a beginner lesson, skis or snowboard rental equipment, and a beginner area lift ticket for the day. At the end of your first day on the slopes, Waterville Valley will give each new skier or snowboarder a "WV Learn to Ski/Ride Pocket Guide" full of incentives to come back for two more days! After day three, a "Love to Ski/Ride Pass" will provide you with 50% off lessons, rentals and lift ticket discounts for the rest of the season.

This is great, affordable way to learn. Who knows? Maybe we'll see some future Olympians on Waterville Valley's slopes this winter!

If you're heading to Waterville Valley this winter, be sure to stop by Waterville Valley Realty and say hello!

It’s hard to believe that when skiing and riding are in full swing and the mountains are covered in snow, a number of Waterville Valley property owners don’t even use their condominium or home. They enjoy all that Waterville Valley has to offer in the warmer months only.

This creates the perfect opportunity for families and individuals to find their own affordable winter home – through a seasonal rental.

Waterville Valley Realty has a terrific selection of 1- to 4 bedroom condominiums for rent starting at $5,500 for the entire winter season.

Why rent for the season? Flexibility and affordability.

Imagine not having to load and unload your ski equipment every time you visit Waterville Valley. With a seasonal rental you move it in and your ski gear is always there. Imagine not having to pack a cooler and car snacks every time your family heads to the mountain. With a seasonal rental, you stock the kitchen with your favorite food and drink for the season. Imagine the money you’ll save on hotel rooms and the time you’ll be able to spend on the slopes rather than travelling in your car up and down the highway. There’s nothing quite like moving in at the beginning of the ski season and knowing you can hop in the car on a Friday night and be on the slopes by eight in the morning on Saturday with no hassles.

Some folks like to rent for the season to “try on” the resort before buying a second home. Over the years, a significant number of seasonal renters become Waterville Valley property owners, mostly because they fall in love with our Valley and want to make it their recreation home in all seasons, but also from an investment standpoint – rental dollars can be converted into a down payment towards a purchase that will likely grow in value over time.

Waterville Valley Realty has the best and most varied selection of winter and summer season rentals. Call 1-888-987-8333 or stop by the Real Estate Sales Center at 41 Valley Road, Waterville Valley – open daily from 9 to 5.

I was raised in northern New Hampshire. Like many New Hampshirites, my parents had both a wood burning stove and a fireplace that they used as a supplemental heat source in the winter. Despite my mother’s desire to simply turn a knob on the thermostat when the house became chilly, my father insisted on blazing wood fires to heat our large colonial house.

My father was very proud of his woodpiles. He spent week…months…heck, years of his life cutting, splitting, tossing, hauling, stacking and moving firewood.

My brother and sister and I dreaded fall weekends. Not because of impending cold weather, but because my father would be home, and that meant we’d be rustled out of bed early so we could head outside to “do wood.”

Our day didn’t end when the last piece of firewood was split or stacked. Before the sun set we’d hop into dad’s pick-up truck and drive around town so he could compare his neighbors’ wood piles to his own. Dad would return home beaming because no one could top his woodpile. And it wasn’t just the sheer quantity of wood my dad had amassed. It was the quality of his wood and the beauty of his stack job. Sometimes he’d just hang out by his woodpile watching as his neighbors would drive by surreptitiously comparing his pile to theirs.

Fast-forward 30 years. My husband, Harry, and I have two woodstoves and heat our house entirely with wood. Although I’d prefer to fire up the oil burning furnace during the winter months, my husband loves a wood fire.

He’s been bucking up, splitting, hauling, tossing and stacking our firewood since late summer.

I arrived home from work the other afternoon to find him gazing – almost lovingly – at his pile. Am I having flashbacks?

I asked Harry how his day was. His eyes were glazed as he answered, “Do you know how much wood we have?”

I probably rolled my eyes, but he didn’t notice because he answered his own question, “I have NINE cords!” “…Look at all this oak…the stuff I just split is already ‘checking’…I had to start stacking over here because I have so much wood…I need to get more tarps…don’t you love the smell of wood…you should see all the kindling wood I’ve collected…”

Harry must have noticed I was looking bored. “Do you want a lawn chair? I’ll grab a chair and you can watch me stack wood?”

I interrupted Harry’s ode to his woodpile and suggested we drive into Campton to pick-up a pizza for dinner. Harry agreed.

We hopped into the pick-up truck and started down Upper Mad River Road.

“Look at that,” Harry exclaimed. He slowed the truck and I followed his gaze to – what else – a neighbor’s woodpile. “Check out the size of his wood pile,” he said. Uh-oh…I sense a little woodpile envy here!

“Well,” Harry justified, “He probably has a wood furnace, that’s why he has more wood than I do…”

This winter marks the 76th anniversary of the Waterville Valley Black & Blue Trail Smashers (BBTS), one of the oldest ski clubs in the country.

The BBTS Legacy

Waterville Valley Black & Blue Trail Smashers had its beginnings in the early 1930’s as a social ski club based out of the Greater Boston area. In the early days of skiing, many a WVBBTS member made what was then a long journey to Waterville Valley, NH to climb the 4,000+-foot Mt. Tecumseh with axes and saws, blaze their own trails and ski down. There were even walk up alpine races that took place on this early hand blazed trail. You can imagine the black and blue marks sported by these early alpine enthusiasts, which is how the club got its name!

Fast forward to the mid-1960’s when two-time U.S. alpine Olympian Tom Corcoran founded Waterville Valley Ski Area as we know it today. Under Corcoran’s direction, BBTS transitioned into a full-blown alpine competition training program. Tom saw the need for a full-time academic and training academy for those alpine racers whose rigorous mid-week training and competition schedules made it impossible to attend their home town school during the winter months. He helped establish the Waterville Valley Academy in the early 1970s. Waterville Valley Academy is still going strong and is the only full time competitive snowsports academy in New Hampshire.

WVBBTS Today

A few years back a non-profit educational foundation was formed – the Waterville Valley Black & Blue Ski Educational Foundation (WVBBTS) – and is one of the leading snowsports training organizations in the U.S. for alpine racers, freestyle skiers and snowboarders. WVBBTS operates the Waterville Valley Academy, a full-time academic and snowsports training program for grades 6-12 and the BBTS Ski Club, a season long weekend and school vacation training program for alpine, freestyle and snowboard athletes.

WVBBTS currently has over 1,000 current members, including nearly 400 athletes, 90 of whom attend Waterville Valley Academy.

WVBBTS Academy and Club athletes train and compete at the highest of levels. Academy and Club alumni include U.S. Olympic gold medal aerialist Nikki Stone, U.S. alpine, freestyle and snowboard national team members, and medalists at the international, national, regional and local levels.

On March 8-10, 2010, WVBBTS will host the 2010 Freestyle Junior Olympics. Earlier in the year, the U.S. Ski Association (the U.S.governing body for alpine,freestyle and snowboard athletes) designated WVBBTS a USSA Elite Aerial Training Site, one of only two in the country. WVBBTS has received the highest of recognitions from USSA: In 2006, USSA name WVBBTS the USSA Club of the Year and the Snowboard Club of the Year, and the 1999 and 2004 Freestyle Club of the Year. USSA also awarded WVBBTS Freestyle Program Director Nick Preston the 2006 Russell Wilder Award recognizing Nick as an individual exhibiting “the most outstanding effort in focusing the interests of American youth on the sports of skiing or snowboarding.”

For more information on Waterville Valley Academy or the BBTS Ski Club contact Sharon Schmidt at sschmidt@wvbbts.org or 603-236-8088 or visit WVBBTS.org online.

Photos courtesy of WVBBTS