Dartmouth Skiway, January 16, 2024

NELSAP

At the start of our ski trip we stopped at Dartmouth. This was an Indy pass redemption, another mountain that I'm thrilled joined it. It had been 26 years since I've skied there, so the pass gave me the perfect excuse to check it out on our way up to Northern VT.

The trail report didn't show much open - 4 trails, 2 routes down, so I wasn't expecting much. This proved to be wrong as many more trails were actually open, basically, almost all of Holts, so this was great to see. The Winslow side had ongoing snowmaking and was to open in a few days. It was snowing at a moderate pace but it was a dry, cold and powdery snow so driving there wasn't too bad. There was almost nobody there - maybe a few dozen at most, most of them racers. Staff working the lift ticket redemption line were super friendly and welcomed us to the mountain.

The Holts Double and handle tow were in operation. Holts double came from the lost Dutchess Mountain in the lower Hudson Valley.

Holts Chair

How often do you go to a ski area and encounter a completely empty floor of a lodge? I mean completely empty.

Open trails that I skied

John Meck and the Face were groomed, as was Don Worden, which was closed for racing until just before we had to leave. I got to ski that a few times and it was still mostly groomed, steep, fast and fun.

Don Worden

The other trails had quite thin cover, but the base was firm with the fluffy snow on top. Light skier traffic made these runs fun to ski, just had to watch out for a few bare spots. Even the glade next to Lift Line was open.

Lift line glade

Lift Line

John Meck

Big Green was open, and had a cool glacial erratic to ski by:

Lower Big Green

Winslow from The Face

This is a fun Indy area - go midweek, and it's like your own private ski area!

ciscokid

Never knew about the Dutchess lift( we hiked it with SJ group). Amazing not much turnout .
Sounds almost like Hickory which I’m surprised you weren’t there.
Some pics not coming through .
Thanks

NELSAP

ciscokid;c-63586 wroteNever knew about the Dutchess lift( we hiked it with SJ group). Amazing not much turnout .
Sounds almost like Hickory which I’m surprised you weren’t there.
Some pics not coming through .
Thanks

Hmmm, all the pics are showing for me. Hickory would have been nice, but we had planned this trip well before an opening date was set by them. I do hope to get there sometime this season.

ciscokid

Working now. hmm an old classic ‘60s Hall double from Dutchess.Surprised big $ Ivy League isn’t a little more aggressive snowmaking wise.

But having your own half a ski area is better than the other option.

NewEnglandSkier13

ciscokid;c-63599 wroteWorking now. hmm an old classic ‘60s Hall double from Dutchess.Surprised big $ Ivy League isn’t a little more aggressive snowmaking wise.

But having your own half a ski area is better than the other option.

Their primary focus is providing high quality trails for their racing program, which is why they're snowmaking is focused on a rather small portion of trails. However, where they do have snowmaking, it's impressive the quantity of modern snowmaking equipment that they have and how much it can put out at once.

millerm277

It's nice that they've been opening up Holt's first lately - it has most of the interesting terrain, a little more vert, and the N/NE facing terrain holds snow noticeably better IMO than the other peak.

With that said, they do have a pretty good chunk of learners there at times, that quad on Winslow does go up fairly well loaded many weekends (which is not to say that significant liftlines are common - they aren't), so there's some competing aims with what to open.

I think Big Green and MD are the only substantial trails that I'm not sure I've seen snowmaking/snowmaking infrastructure on, although as you mention - it's clear the infrastructure/output on the race trails is much greater than elsewhere.

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On a related note since there seems to be some general interest:

They've been putting out yearly reports lately in terms of some stats about how the area is doing (not financial), which I found mildly interesting and I assume some here might as well - https://sites.dartmouth.edu/skiway/friends/ - it's up on there, or here's a direct link https://sites.dartmouth.edu/skiway/files/2023/11/Dartmouth-Skiway-Annual-Report-2023.pdf

The main one being: ~41k skier visits last year, up 3k from the year before. (And based on the 2022 one, up 5k from 2 years ago.) Still quite small clearly, but some growth.

newpylong

The Skiway exists solely to provide terrain for both the Dartmouth Alpine race programs and PE for the college. Last I knew the college wrote them a check for half a million a year to cover operating losses.

They have a limited water supply and that directly effects their ability to make snow. Winslow gets it's snowmaking terrain all covered but I'm most years Holt's does not. Lyme Drop and Lower Gauntlet are typically skipped.

Through a series of large gifts they have modernized the snowmaking and groomer fleet substantially over the years. I love the Skiway I think they could do far more not being owned by the college.

abubob

millerm277

newpylong;c-63613 wroteThey have a limited water supply and that directly effects their ability to make snow.

There is something in their "Friends of the Skiway" page that solicits donations about one of the goals for money being improved water retention infrastructure - I presume that probably means they're aiming for a bigger/deeper/additional pond.

I love the Skiway I think they could do far more not being owned by the college.

Not necessarily going to say you're wrong, but that seems somewhat counter to your first point about them receiving a significant financial help between gifts + direct yearly subsidy. Somewhat hard to see how they receive the same level of gifts in the long term (even if they were a non-profit) without the same degree of college connection.

Current leadership does seem to be trying to diversify the audience a little bit - Indy Pass among that.

lotsoskiing

As Newp says, it is run as an athletic facility. Yes, they could get more business with more promotion, etc. but the priority is the racing venue.

abubob

lotsoskiing;c-63629 wroteAs Newp says, it is run as an athletic facility. Yes, they could get more business with more promotion, etc. but the priority is the racing venue.

I’ve always been impressed by their dedicated racing trail.

lotsoskiing

abubob;c-63630 wrote
lotsoskiing;c-63629 wroteAs Newp says, it is run as an athletic facility. Yes, they could get more business with more promotion, etc. but the priority is the racing venue.
I’ve always been impressed by their dedicated racing trail.

It used to be quite different- the upper pitch was narrow and had an island, so course-setting was tough. Middle flat is....flat, and it used to cross the top of the old t-bar line and go down Green Pastures (flatter). The current lower part had snowmaking added and became the new race trail that at least had some variation in terrain, but still pretty flat. The 3-4 turns on the upper pitch are pretty cool to see.

Very dramatic setting nonetheless, when seen from this side

ciscokid

Yea I root for the big green D when watching the Ivy football on tube.

My superintendent from HS graduated from Penn, sent me mom and dad to Philly Palestra, met Chuck Daly and team in the locker room winter of ‘76-7, put us up in a “skyscraper “ hotel , filled out a 39 page application, denied acceptance and went to a d3 u in Pa. That’s my fame.