New skiway lodge ready for coming ski season

Posted 10/27/00

All that's needed now is a little cold weather.

The Dartmouth Skiway's new McLane Family Lodge will be completed in time for the start of the 2000-01 ski season, opening a new chapter in the rich history of Dartmouth skiing.

The two-story, 16,000-square-foot facility, built on the site of the Skiway's original Brundage Lodge, is geared to accommodate the increasing numbers of recreational and competitive skiers who come to the Skiway each year.

Linda and Andy McLane, of Weston, MA, launched the fundraising for the project with a gift of $1.5 million to name the lodge after their family of Dartmouth alumni and skiers. Andy McLane is a 1969 Dartmouth graduate and a 1973 graduate of the Amos Tuck School of Business. Many community members and Dartmouth alumni were also a part of the success in raising $4.5 million to build the new lodge and increase snowmaking capacity. The McLane Family Lodge boasts more than four times the area of Brundage Lodge, with a spacious meeting room; a large ski team locker room; an expanded rental shop; a retail store; a friendlier, more efficient dining area; and larger bathrooms.

"We're delighted with the progress on the construction of the lodge, and we're looking forward to one of our best ski seasons ever," says Skiway Manager Don Cutter Jr. "Linda and Andy McLane, and all of our donors to this project, have helped ensure that we'll continue our success in the future."

Located in Lyme, N.H., just 15 minutes north of the Dartmouth College campus, the Dartmouth Skiway features 30 trails on 104 skiable acres (including a snowboard park), with skiing for beginners to experts. The trails are serviced by three lifts: a quad chair lift and a J-bar lift on Winslow Mountain, and a double chair lift on Holt's Ledge.

The Skiway has always served a broad range of skiers, from local residents and visitors to the Upper Valley, to numerous local school programs and physical education programs for Dartmouth students, to competitive youth programs like the Ford Sayre Ski Council. The Skiway also is home to the Dartmouth Ski Team, one of the nation's elite collegiate ski programs.

Snowmaking currently covers 54 percent of the trails, but the Skiway continues to develop its snowmaking capabilities. In 1998, the Natick, MA-based Snow Economics Inc.-co-owned by Herman K. Dupre, the father of four Dartmouth graduates and ski team members- made a significant contribution toward the purchase of 60 snowmaking guns; more snowmaking equipment is expected to be added this year as a result of the fundraising campaign.

"The state-of-the-art equipment we acquired in 1998 was the first step in substantially increasing our snowmaking capacity," said Cutter. "With the additional snowmaking we're adding this year, we'll be able to cover our terrain more efficiently, giving us another big jump on the season."

For information on rates, conditions and season pass availability, call the Dartmouth Skiway at (603) 795-2143 or visit the Skiway online.