hammer
Active member
Date(s) Skied: 02/16/2009
Resort or Ski Area: Dartmouth Skiway, NH
Conditions: Thin cover/granular/ice on natural trails, groomed hardpack to packed powder on snowmaking trails. Sunny & warm.
Trip Report: Had a great (albeit short) day at Dartmouth Skiway.
Headed up with the family to use up some SkiNH passes, and with the weather this past week, I was expecting the worst...nothing but groomed ice/thin cover. On billski's advice, I used the directions on the website and got there without any problems, although the frost heaves on the road from the town to the ski area were huge and required some dodging. :-o Unfortunately, it's a long drive...ended up taking us close to 2.5 hours...
I was hoping to hit the Winslow side to help my wife and daughter get acclimated, but my son headed right across the road to the Holt double:
As expected, the cover on many of the natural snow trails was thin, and unfortunately, the lower liftline section and lower gauntlet (the bumped up trail to the right in the picture) were both closed. :sad:
Our first run was down John Meck, which was groomed granular but was icy in several spots and had thin cover. The lower section looked better than the upper section:
After getting down to the bottom and back onto the very slow lift, my son decided to head down Don Worden, which is one of the race trails. This was the ROTD...nice and steep with well-groomed out snow:
Looking up at the steep section:
After hitting that a few times, I wanted to keep going but it was getting close to lunch time so we headed back across the road.
After a typical expensive fried lunch at the lodge (which was quite nice for a small ski area, almost out of place), my son and I headed over to the Winslow side for the rest of our time there. A lot of the trails were closed due to thin cover, including the area under the lift:
but there were 3 ways down from the top, including the novice trails Upper Howard Chivers to Pass Fail:
M.B.A was a nice narrow winding trail with a reasonably mellow pitch and good snow conditions:
While on the Winslow quad, I had plenty of time to look around, and I took a few pictures of Holt's Ledge:
Although the lifts were very slow (the last time I remember being on lifts this slow was at Tenney), there was only one time that the lifts weren't ski on.
Overall, I had a real nice time, just wish that we could have stayed longer. I was pleasantly surprised...they may have had a rougher start at the beginning of the season but it looked like they did the best they could with the recent thaw. I'd like to head back at some point when more of the natural snow trails are open...
Resort or Ski Area: Dartmouth Skiway, NH
Conditions: Thin cover/granular/ice on natural trails, groomed hardpack to packed powder on snowmaking trails. Sunny & warm.
Trip Report: Had a great (albeit short) day at Dartmouth Skiway.
Headed up with the family to use up some SkiNH passes, and with the weather this past week, I was expecting the worst...nothing but groomed ice/thin cover. On billski's advice, I used the directions on the website and got there without any problems, although the frost heaves on the road from the town to the ski area were huge and required some dodging. :-o Unfortunately, it's a long drive...ended up taking us close to 2.5 hours...
I was hoping to hit the Winslow side to help my wife and daughter get acclimated, but my son headed right across the road to the Holt double:
As expected, the cover on many of the natural snow trails was thin, and unfortunately, the lower liftline section and lower gauntlet (the bumped up trail to the right in the picture) were both closed. :sad:
Our first run was down John Meck, which was groomed granular but was icy in several spots and had thin cover. The lower section looked better than the upper section:
After getting down to the bottom and back onto the very slow lift, my son decided to head down Don Worden, which is one of the race trails. This was the ROTD...nice and steep with well-groomed out snow:
Looking up at the steep section:
After hitting that a few times, I wanted to keep going but it was getting close to lunch time so we headed back across the road.
After a typical expensive fried lunch at the lodge (which was quite nice for a small ski area, almost out of place), my son and I headed over to the Winslow side for the rest of our time there. A lot of the trails were closed due to thin cover, including the area under the lift:
but there were 3 ways down from the top, including the novice trails Upper Howard Chivers to Pass Fail:
M.B.A was a nice narrow winding trail with a reasonably mellow pitch and good snow conditions:
While on the Winslow quad, I had plenty of time to look around, and I took a few pictures of Holt's Ledge:
Although the lifts were very slow (the last time I remember being on lifts this slow was at Tenney), there was only one time that the lifts weren't ski on.
Overall, I had a real nice time, just wish that we could have stayed longer. I was pleasantly surprised...they may have had a rougher start at the beginning of the season but it looked like they did the best they could with the recent thaw. I'd like to head back at some point when more of the natural snow trails are open...
