After last year's record-breaking season of financial success at the Dartmouth Skiway, unseasonably warm winter temperatures have gotten this season's ticket sales off to a slow start.
According to Dartmouth Skiway Manager Don Cutter, December 1996 was the warmest December on record, hindering snow-making tremendously.
Dartmouth Ski Patroller Rosalind Prabharasuth '99 said skiing conditions "are not looking real good."
Only three trails are open on the quad-chair-lift side of the Skiway, Prabharasuth said.
Cutter said Holt's Ledge, the other portion of the skiway, will remain closed until a solid base of snow is established.
"We like to make a lot of snow on a few trails rather than a little on a lot of them. That let's us survive the thaws," he said.
Cutter said the long-range forecast for ski conditions at the skiway still remains in question. "It's all weather driven," he said.
Doug Webster, a meteorologist at the Weather Systems Corporation in Lexington, Mass., said forecasting winter snowfall is little more than guesswork.
"Ask me in the spring and I'll tell you for sure," Cutter said of how the Skiway will fare in the rest of the winter.
Webster said winter snowfall in the area so far has been below the average levels of previous seasons.
Cutter said, "We are making snow at every opportunity. We anticipate having the [entire skiway] open by this weekend."
Webster said colder weather over the next few weeks should improve snow-making conditions.
Laura Turner '98, a member of the Dartmouth ski team, said "they've been making snow like crazy. [The ski season] should be good."
After failing to turn a profit from 1986 through 1992, the financial operation of the skiway has bounced back in recent years.
"We've had four solid years. Two out of the last four years were record years," Cutter said.
Cutter said last year the skiway generated the highest sales in skiway history.
There were records set in terms of number of passes sold, ski rentals, and ski school attendance, Cutter said.
A financial disaster similar to those experienced throughout the 1980s and early 1990s is, at this point, a distant concern, Cutter said.
Cutter said two new service-oriented innovations have made the skiway more user friendly to the Dartmouth community, and to students in particular.
As about half of the skiway's customers are Dartmouth-affiliated, Cutter said, a new computerized ticket system and the acceptance of the DASH card now allow for faster service and greater accuracy in customer billing.
