As of today, December 4, there's like little to no natural snow on the ground in Waterville Valley, Campton, and Thornton. Just a few, wee small hints of the white stuff is scattered around the edges...... less than 1% of the ground area is white.
All the local hiking leg exercise, popular go-to trails: Smarts Brook, Mts Welch & Dickey, Noon Peak, Jennings Peak, Mt Tecumseh are all still doable without the snow.
Good bicycling in the Valley, doing the 4.5 mile Valley loop, or up and down the ten miles on Route 49 which has a smooth, paved, three foot wide shoulder area on both sides of the state highway, north and south, as it travels for ten miles through the WMNF. Rock salt used for melting ice on winter roads is definitely 'bad news' for aluminum or steel bicycle parts and this state highway gets a heavy dose of rock salt and winter melt from the big orange NH-DOT trucks, while the town roads in the flat Valley area seem to receive less road salt from the town which is something to consider for cold weather bicycling.
Plenty to do outside on a good day without spending the big money at the ski area which only has maybe one trail open, up and down the mountain.
A $30/year/vehicle WMNF windshield sticker makes your car good to go for 12 months to access all the hiking trails including the multi use trails in WV which become tracked, cross country ski trails, leaving from the Depot Camp parking lot in the north end of Waterville Valley. So, which is the better deal .....down hill skiing for $81/person/day 9am-4pm, or paying $30/car/year to go hit the hiking and cross country ski trails?
www.waterville.com/cams/ Cam on left: WV base area with main 4-seater chair lift, large outdoor staircase, and newly constructed $81-(weekend & holiday) ticket windows .... downhill skiing is a somewhat expensive activity.
So, how much does it cost today, Wednesday, Dec 6? Dunno? ..... after looking at the website....could not determine today's price? ....will make a phone call to .... 236-8311 .... apparently no one was at the ticket office to answer the phone so it's an open question ...... what's the price for today?
My educated guess is at about $40 to 50 .... but I honestly do not know?
Ski area base area on left ..........golf course on the right with Mt Osceola in the background .....oopsie-doopsie.....looks like the golf course shot has been replaced with the much less informative Town Square shot.....oh well.....too bad? Hey there WV live cam ..... do us a favor and switch the right hand shot back to the golf course which shows what's happening with natural snow cover, and shows 4315-foot high, Mt Osceola in the background ....thank-you.
You can file the right hand cam shot into the circular "fake news" file. At the top of the shot, above the roof, it shows the ski area mountain, approximately 3800' high, White's Peak, high point for the ski area on 4003' Mt Tecumseh, with the ski trails dusted white as seen from a distance of about 2 1/2-miles ....... like I say.....is a fake news photo.....almost no natural snow in WV-land today.
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Tartaglia's Pizza ...... believe it is immediately at the exit 28 exit area, across the road from the Dunkin' Donuts, and maybe they bake their pizza with a real wood fired pizza oven .....dunno, have never been there? But, I hear that just one large, wood fire baked Tartaglia's pizza pie has more real, shredded mozzarella cheese than the ski area has for real, natural snow, as of Dec 5 ..... hear hear! ........ and woof woof!
