It was an early season Tuesday morning and a friend and I were deciding – pretty much at daybreak – where we’d ski that day. We were over on the Route 93 side of New Hampshire, having landed there for a work meeting, and decided to pack our gear, spend the night and head to the snow in the morning.
We studied conditions and what was open where – all relatively good news thanks to the colder early season this year.
We decided on what we saw as a sure thing: Waterville Valley Resort (https://www.waterville.com/). Our instincts were on point: we skied all day on (albeit still semi-limited at that point of the year) pristine surfaces, zipped up the hill on comfortable and well-working lifts and had ourselves a day worth remembering.
We were not alone in the way our compass pointed us to a sure thing: The FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup – one of Deer Valley, Utah’s premier events and the vital last stop on the world-wide tour for athletes to earn points and win an Olympic spot – was forced by lack of snow and cold to move last minute.
They could head anywhere in the world. After all, the event has international importance leading up to the 2026 Olympics.
They chose Waterville. That means that come Jan. 15 and 16, the freestyle world, competitors and fans alike, will all be focused on Waterville, where the final moguls and dual moguls World Cup Competition before the Olympics – and thus the last chance for competitors to earn a spot on their Olympic team, will take place.
“It is wonderful to see a resort with a special freestyle skiing history step up to host a World Cup so that American athletes get one last chance to qualify for the 2026 Olympics Games,” 2010 Winter Olympics gold medalist Hannah Kearney told the Herald.
Why Waterville? It’s most likely a combination of the quality early-season surfaces and colder weather in the east, the resort’s excellent set up for such events and their personal experience with handling such an event – both recent and long ago.
I like, too, the history of it all. For me, skiing that day with my friend brought back memories of my early days of freestyle competition – back when Wayne Wong himself (perhaps the fun dad of freestyle skiing) often competed.
Wong – who happens to be an ambassador at Deer Valley and is (with us all) praying to the snow gods to give all of the west what it needs (we are one for all in the ski world, after all), finds the relocation choice a great one.
“It seems fitting that due to lack of early snow in the West, that Waterville Valley should be the obvious venue to host the last World Cup Freestyle event prior to the 2026 Olympics,” Wong told The Boston Herald. “Waterville Valley is the birthplace of freestyle skiing and to see the evolution from the day that I competed there and the level of competition that this generation of athletes has taken it is mind blowing.”
The dual mogul event is an exciting new addition to the Olympics this year, and one that fans are still getting to know.
Which is another silver lining of sorts to this move east: Given the short notice, the event will – unlike past World Cups at Waterville, focus almost solely on the competition itself. There will be no base village shopping set up or other extras, said resort spokesman Jamie Cobbett, but there’s plenty of reason to go.
The events will take place on Lower Bobby’s Run, and to celebrate and invite guests, the resort is opening the event up to spectators for free. You can make it easier on yourself by purchasing a $20 non-ski lift pass to ride up to the venue and then back down.
And should you want to ski or ride that day as well, Waterville is saluting the Olympics with a $26 lift ticket both days.
The goal, said Cobbett, is to pack the venue not just for fans to get an up close look just before the Olympics, but to boost the athlete’s vibe with a large and engaged crowd.
They’re most likely already stoked: when all World Cup Athletes were polled on their favorite competition sites in the past year, they chose Waterville as their favorite bump competition spot in the world.
That’s a feeling we mere skiers can tap into as well. Waterville is fun and skiable for all levels. They’ve been working on bettering themselves too. A new six-person bubble chair debuted in 2022 and is a spectacular way to keep skiers moving from the base. A new T-bar is ready to roll up top (better for windy days), and snowmaking is up to date and beyond.
The base lodge’s new giant deck is going to be a top apres spot, and the updated Freestyle Lounge is bright, lovely and just the right touch of chalet. Up top, the Schwendi Hutte still offers a cozy warm up spot, some great comfort food and now even their own local brewed and branded beer.
It’s going to be a World Cup moment in January, but Waterville is worthy every day.
Gearing up for the Olympics
The winter Olympics start soon and for winter sports enthusiasts it’s the, well, the Olympics of their beloved sport.
You need not feel like a fair weather fan if you want in on the fun. We’ve still got a full month before the opening ceremonies for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics kick off on Feb. 6. That’s plenty of time to pick your favorites, study up on the sport and maybe even get out to see or, should you have the courage, try it.
*See it in person: First up is a chance to see it all at Waterville Valley in mid-January. You can also head to Lake Placid on Jan. 11 and 12 to take in the aerials, since they were moved there for weather reasons as well. Both events will be broadcasted, so you can also wear your ski sweater and take it in from your couch.
*Study the roster: The U.S. Ski Team – and every other ski team around the world participating in the winter Olympics – is still building its Olympic roster. But you can read up and learn about them all here: https://www.usskiandsnowboard.org/teams/freeski. Learn their back stories and hobbies, and then pick out, root for and follow your favorites. It makes it all the more fun to know the athletes’ back stories.
*Try it yourself: For goodness sake, do not launch yourself off a jump with no training. But you can dip your toes into the sport with a private or small group lesson on bumps. Why not learn the basic mechanics of the events you’ll be cheering on? And for the kids who get a hankering to try the sport/lifestyle, consider a learn-to camp. Stratton Mountain Resort (https://www.stratton.com/) will host a teen freestyle camp Jan. 24-26, just in time to get them hooked on a sport they can cheer on all Olympic weeks.
*Read (or watch) up on the history of the sport. Freestyle has come a long way since it was born in New England in the early 1970s. From the days of athletes competing in bumps, jumps and ballet (no longer a part of the competition), to specialists in aerials, moguls and dual moguls, it’s been a fast and fascinating history. Watch “Hot Dog: The Movie.” Check out some old films on YouTube. Read up on more recent history like New England’s own Hannah Kearney (who wore a Red Sox jersey under her ski suit when she was an Olympian). And if you really want to embrace it all dress in the old-school freestyle skiing way. Bandana on the knee? That’s just the freestyle freak flag flying. Long may it wave.
