Review: Steve Smith's The Waterville Valley Guidebook

If you've done a bit of hiking in New Hampshire, you probably know of Steve Smith and have benefited from his writing and hiking experience. Ensconsed in his unassuming little hiking-lit bookstore in Lincoln, New Hampshire like a wayside monk (and with an attitude to match), Smith has researched, edited, co-edited, co-wrote, and wrote some of the best-known hiking titles in the state: The AMC White Mountain Guide, AMC Southern New Hampshire Guide (with Ken MacGray in the latest edition), and ​the equivalent 

of a peakbagger's bible: The 4000-Footers of White Mountains. Well, Steve has a new book out (as of 2020), this one a treatise on all the trails, mountains, and historic features of the Waterville Valley region of the White Mountains: The Waterville Valley Guidebook (332 pages/ $25). Like The 4,000-Footers, the book is meticulously researched, with tidbits about the history of the area and its hiking and ski trails, local nomenclature, settlement, geology, ecology and all sorts of other fun facts (the scope of the book includes everything from village paths to rugged trails on the nearby high peaks of Osceola, Tecumseh, and the Tripyramids). Unlike The 4,000-Footers, The Waterville Valley Guidebook is loaded with color glossy photographs, some of them current, some some historic. The tone of the book is objective and informative but accessible and laid back. Both an incredibly detailed and entertaining hiking guidebook and a handsome coffee table book, it's the kind of book you'll want to pick up and read just for fun on a rainy day or consult briefly before setting out for an adventure on a sunny day. 
--Paul-William

---