Tim Smith has been thinking about ski resorts his whole life — and not just as a skier. At 13, he was running toboggans for his father, a ski patrol director at a little hill called Mount Holiday in Traverse City, Michigan. By 15, he had passed his National Ski Patrol certification. Decades later, he is the General Manager of Waterville Valley Resort, still a certified patroller alongside his wife, Katie, and still very much in the business of building mountains — literally and figuratively.
In this episode of Waterville Unwrapped, Smith sat down with hosts Charlie and Ken for a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from the origins of Green Peak to the gondola’s path through the federal permitting process — and more than a few detours into snow science, Midwestern ski culture, and what it takes to host a World Cup on three weeks’ notice.
From Crotched Mountain to Waterville Valley
Smith’s path to Waterville in 2014 was deliberate. After years in Colorado working for Beaver Creek, then stints in Wisconsin and six years running mountain operations at Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire, he and Katie were ready for a change. When their twin boys were approaching school age, the couple decided that wherever they landed, that’s where they’d stay. Waterville checked the boxes: a unique setting, a school they believed in, and a resort with a storied history linked to legends Smith already knew.
“A bunch of my mentors when I was in Colorado, working for Beaver Creek, they came from Waterville,” Smith said. The connection to Tom Corcoran — who had ties to Crotched Mountain and helped shape the early ski industry — made the valley feel less like a leap into the unknown and more like a homecoming of sorts.
His job interview with Chris Sununu stretched from a scheduled half-hour to five and a half hours. The key takeaway, Smith recalled, was that Chris was going to let him actually run the ski resort — a level of trust and autonomy he hadn’t experienced before. The following year, Chris named him GM and then announced he was running for governor, leaving Smith to face what he calls “the worst winter ever”: 59 inches of snow total. Rather than derail him, the brutal season forced a reset. “It actually kind of helped because we broke everything and had to really rebuild everything,” he said. Out of that rebuilding came Green Peak.
Building Green Peak — and What Comes Next
The creation of Green Peak involved relocating the old World Cup triple lift and clearing 45 acres of trees — a job that took a logging crew just three weeks. Smith chose a fixed-grip triple over a high-speed quad deliberately, reasoning that lower passenger throughput (1,800 per hour versus 2,400) would keep the terrain less crowded and preserve the quality of the experience. He also had a longer game in mind: a gondola on the front side of the mountain had always been part of the vision, and pumping the slopes full of skiers via a high-speed quad would work against that.
That gondola is now the centerpiece of Smith’s vision for Waterville Valley as a year-round mountain leisure destination. When Charlie pressed him on how likely it is to break ground within five years, Smith didn’t hesitate: “Nine out of ten.” The base will be located in the parking lot near The Loft — guests exiting The Loft’s second floor would simply turn right to board. Services would continue below, and a grand staircase would connect the gondola base to a greenway leading through what Smith describes as a “barbell” development layout. At the summit of Green Peak, the plan calls for a restaurant with 360-degree views — Osceola to the north, the Tripyramids, and the Mad River valley stretching toward Route 49.
The hurdles are real: air rights negotiations, NH DES permitting for alterations of terrain, and a full Environmental Impact Statement through the National Forest’s NEPA process. A draft EIS, prepared with third-party firm SE Group, is expected to be published soon, followed by public comment periods and a projected Record of Decision from the White Mountain National Forest supervisor in late 2027.
The Adventure Center and the Summer Push
Before the gondola comes something more immediate. Smith described the Adventure Center as a key step in proving that Waterville Valley has the activity base to support the larger investments ahead. “We really needed to increase activity before we could justify the gondola or justify the new hotel,” he said.
The multi-story building will consolidate what is currently scattered across the resort: the Nordic center, mountain bike operations, rental and retail, employee facilities, a small cafeteria with a patio facing toward Osceola, and a multi-purpose function room for groups. Outside, guests will find an RCI aerial adventure course with zip tracks and high-elements challenges, an 18-hole miniature golf course, a disc golf redesign, and a small maze. On the second floor, Smith plans an indoor play area for young children — something he said guest feedback has made clear is genuinely needed. “Sometimes those kids just need to run around and be kids and play,” he said. The aerial course components aren’t expected to arrive until March, so the full Adventure Center won’t be operational this summer — but Smith is targeting opening roughly a year from the time of recording.
World Cups, Night Skiing, and the Après Turnaround
Two years ago, Waterville Valley hosted its second World Cup mogul event and was ranked the number one mogul venue in the world, beating Deer Valley in every category except lodging. This past season brought a more dramatic test: the resort received a call asking if it could host a relocated World Cup with just three weeks’ notice — the first time in the event’s history a World Cup had been moved. Smith’s team said yes without hesitation. “Everyone’s like, ‘Yep, we’ll do it!’” he recalled. The event has since been featured in Qualified, an NBC documentary now streaming on Peacock, centered on the U.S. women’s mogul team’s path to the Olympics.
Night skiing, new to Waterville this season, has roots in Smith’s Midwestern upbringing. The new T-bar — twice as long and twice as high as the old platter lift — makes it possible, and Smith has used it to host Plymouth Regional High School’s ski team, a Thursday night league, and college nights. The initiative is part of a broader effort to address what used to be one of the resort’s most common guest complaints: not enough to do after skiing. With the arcade and The Loft now drawing after-ski crowds, Smith said that complaint has essentially disappeared from guest research. “That’s a really welcome comment,” he said.
The Sunnyside Lodge Question
Smith was candid about the challenges facing the Sunnyside Lodge. The log-cabin-kit structure has no meaningful insulation, burns through roughly 300 gallons of diesel per week in heating costs, and sits in what Smith considers a problematic location — neither at the top of a lift pod nor at the bottom of a run, but in the middle of Valley Run. A private investor looked at it; the energy bills ended the conversation. Smith hasn’t given up on finding a use — on-mountain lodging and specialty events have both come up as ideas — but he’s clear-eyed about the economics. “You could take care of the energy issues,” he said, “but the bottom line is its location.”
A Community Built on Dialogue
Throughout the conversation, Smith returned to a theme: that Waterville Valley’s success depends on the resort and the community working together openly. He drew a pointed comparison to Sugar Loaf resort in Cedar, Michigan, which closed in 2001 after a combination of politics and ownership decisions, and never recovered — taking the town’s economy with it. “We need to talk to each other, not around each other,” he said.
It’s a philosophy that extends internally as well. Smith spoke at length about investing in his team, building year-round employment through in-house construction projects, and empowering staff to try new things. “Good people breed good people,” he said simply.
The full conversation — including Smith’s deep dive into lift technology, gondola design details, and a promise to return for a dedicated snow science episode — is in the player above.