Dartmouth Skiway on Saturday, January 27, 2018

		Dartmouth Skiway Saturday, January 27, 2018
		Submitted on January 27, 2018 by rocket21 (1436)
	Session	Morning
	Ticket Type	Retail Price
	Lift Lines	0 minutes
	Trail Conditions	35% open; Loose Granular, Frozen Granular
	Glades	Trees between Holts lift line and Upper Gauntlet looked firm, but skiable.
	Moguls	None
	Terrain Park(s)	None
	Run of the Day	Lower Thomas
	Food and Beverage	Lodge was crowded and tough to navigate (tables/benches very close together, lots of bags), so decided to skip lunch. Food smelled good though.
	Comments	Big fan of this ski area, but was let down by the snow report today. One of my favorite trails in the state is Worden's Schuss on the Holt side of the mountain and the snow report listed it as open. I checked the ski team calendar and it showed them as being at Smugg's, so I figured we'd get to ski it. However, when we arrived 15 minutes before the area opened, the trail was already marked as closed. Inquired at the ticket window and they informed us that it would not open today, because there was indeed a race. Heard from a regular that it was a college race, not involving Dartmouth, and that Worden's has been open for a total of "2 hours" in the days he's been there this year. Such a great trail, such a shame. Without that, we bought a morning ticket and made the best of it. Only one run open on the Holt's side - Gauntlet to Lower Meck. Gauntlet was okay, but the bottom half of the run was narrow and scraped, and college racers were using skiers as human slalom gates, so we made that a one and done. Initially only three ways down the Winslow side, but Lower Chivers opened in time for one run before the morning ticket expired. MBA was extremely icy - either boilerplate or blue ice. Chivers to Pass Fail was good, as they had recently refreshed it with snowmaking. It did get a bit difficult to ski later in the morning due to lots of learn-to-ski folks having it as their only option. Lower Chivers had just been pushed out, so it was uneven and extremely firm when it opened, but should be better tomorrow after the snow has cured a bit. The very top of Thomas was closed, the rest was open. Blue ice until the race start, but then decent. Unfortunately, a course was set at opening, so we only got one run in before we were squeezed to the side. Apart from when ski teams were heading up, there were no lift lines. Decent weather. Hopefully we get some snow so that I can return here this season. Difficult to do so until either Worden's is actually open to the public or else more terrain opens. Such a great mid-sized area when the trails are open.
	URL	https://www.instagram.com/p/BedkihzHkMW
	Report Rating	4