[fatlazyless]

For the diehard cross country skier, WV got about one new inch of natural snow cover yesterday, what with the early 4" of snowfall that turned into a long day of rain. With temps at about 27 right now Sunday morning, it has froze pretty hard making for some decent(?) natural cover.

$20 gets you a WV cross-country ticket for a weekend day today, Sunday.

Almost free of charge: Having a $20, annual, White Mt Nat'l Forest parking sticker on the windshield, or purchasing a three dollar day pass from the self-serve post-in-the-ground Forest Service dispenser at the Waterville Valley Depot Camp parking lot, up at the north end of town puts you on the 5-miles or so of WMNF multiple use trails; Livermore Trail up about two miles to the bridge, Greeley Ponds Trail, and Tripoli Road. And, the Forest Service does actually check each car for payment on the weekends!

Typically this WMNF multiple use trails area; hiking, snow-shoing, or xc skiing gets a lot more people out on the trails than the meticulously groomed WV xc trails because it costs almost zero; u-need a parking sticker or day pass, as opposed to paying twenty dollars. .... such a deal!

And for $35, you can go ski the downhill mountain which today for the first time this ski season has one trail open from the top of the quad lift down to the base lodge. Downhill skiing is such an expensive sport!