EasternSlopes.com
If you think Salt Lake City and Lake Tahoe are the only places that offer a central location from which to ski or ride different resorts during a week's stay, think again.
The East has the Mount Washington Valley in New Hampshire. Like its western counterparts, this compact region offers snow lovers a host of après-ski amenities, lodging possibilities and all manner of off-slope activity. It's the happy exception to the rule that most Eastern skiing and riding is resort oriented. The towns of North Conway, Jackson, Bartlett, Glen and, at the northern edge, Gorham, offer far greater choices than you can find at any single Eastern resort. The only amenity in short supply is public transportation: You need a car. But given the choices of places to go in the area, you'll be happy to have your own set of wheels. The region, which used to be known as the Eastern Slope, is rich in skiing history. It was dubbed "the center of the skiing world" by radio personality Lowell Thomas. The excitement of the early days carried through the decades and spawned numerous downhill areas, from tiny King Pine to the posh and extensive Bretton Woods. And, just to make sure Mother Nature gets her due, there's the hike-to excitement of the awesome and foreboding Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines. The epicenter of all the activity is North Conway, which, it's fair to say, has more snow sports options close by than any other town in the east. You can see Cranmore Mountain from downtown, and it's only a minute or two away. Black Mountain and Attitash Bear Peak are within a 10-minute drive. Fabled Wildcat is about 25-30 minutes up Route 16. Shawnee Peak is just over the line in Maine, and takes about the same amount of time to drive to. Bretton Woods and King Pine are easily within 45 minutes, while Sunday River, Maine, is less than an hour. If you base in Jackson, or even in Gorham, to avoid all the bustle of North Conway, Sunday River and Wildcat are even closer. The list of amenities for the Mount Washington Valley are impressive indeed. Be assured, there's something for everyone, and we hope you'll take advantage of our research.
The broad diversity in the area will please even the hardest of hard-core skiers. In fact, it's somewhat amazing that a large percentage of the people visiting the Mount Washington Valley on any given winter weekend are not there for the downhill skiing and snowboarding.
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The Mountain Life 
