Cross country (nordic) skiing is a popular pastime for both students and Hanover community members during snowy Hanover winters.  Skiers can find 25 kilometers of groomed trails at Oak Hill and Garipay Field just a couple of miles away from downtown Hanover and the Dartmouth campus, maintained by the  Dartmouth Cross Country Ski Center. Grooming costs for these trails are jointly covered by the Dartmouth Ski Team (DST) and Facilities, Operations and Management (FO&M) of the College. These facilities are used by the Dartmouth Ski Team, Dartmouth Club Nordic, Dartmouth PE classes, Ford Sayre Nordic (Hanover’s youth cross country ski program) as well as a variety of community users.

 

A Need for More Terrain

The existing trail network has room to expand to better meet the needs of the Hanover skiing community. For example, grooming trails on Garipay Field is becoming more and more difficult, due to some low-lying areas that attract water runoff and are becoming increasingly swampy. This is a heightened concerned given the warm temperatures of the past few winters. Making the trails at Trescott suitable for skiing in the winter would open up a large amount of  terrain that would be comparatively more sustainable throughout the season. This terrain would ideally appeal to community users and add variety to training loops for both the Dartmouth Ski Team and the Ford Sayre Nordic team, which has continued to grow its enrollment in the past few years.

The BKL (Bill Koch League) group of Ford Sayre Nordic at Oak Hill (source: www.fordsayre.org)

In addition, the development of ski trails at Trescott fits into a master plan and goal for the Dartmouth Ski Team of expanding the existing terrain at the Oak Hill facility. This vision includes the creation of a snow making loop, homologated (approved by FIS, the international governing board for cross country skiing) 5 km race loop and a Nordic Center. The College has already approved plans to move forward with the development of  the new Nordic Center. The plan also involves making existing trails wider and smoother. According to the coach of the Dartmouth Women’s Nordic team, Cami Thompson-Graves, it would be very feasible to create a short connector between trails at the top of Oak Hill to the edge of the Trescott property. Connecting the two areas would allow grooming machines to pass between them. Coach Thompson-Graves added  during an interview that the DST could incorporate the additional terrain into the existing grooming routine at little additional cost. Overall, Thompson-Graves was very enthusiastic about the prospect of expanding available skiing terrain and noted that the idea would be likely to garner a lot of support from both the DST and Ford Sayre to improve training opportunities for these teams.

 

A grooming machine at Oak Hill (source: www.thepicta.com/dartmouthcrosscountryskicenter)

 

Trails at Trescott

The Trescott Management Plan includes a summary of a September 2015 meeting Recreation Planning meeting. Members of the Hanover skiing community including Dartmouth Women’s Nordic coach Cami Thompson-Graves and Peter and Ashley Milliken of the Ford Sayre Nordic program were present, as well as representatives from other recreational activities including hiking and hunting. During the meeting, stakeholders  discussed the potential to use or adapt the Trescott trail system for cross country skiing. The meeting notes point out that “There is demand for both classic and skate skiing and a need for more areas for training”, and that “[Trescott property] is close to schools and offers safe terrain.” It seems like many stakeholders agree that the Trescott land has considerable potential to be developed for cross country skiing. 

However, the meeting notes also recognize that trail width is important for grooming, and asks what minimum trail width is required that would minimize forestry impacts. As Coach Thompson-Graves also mentioned in the recent interview, it would be important to keep the trail system an adequate distance away from the reservoirs, and improve the signage to include scale and distances so that skiers would not get lost. Trail planning specifically for skiing is an important area for further research, and one that needs to be balanced with existing patterns of land use and forestry management. This seems like a direction of investigation that should be prioritized, based on the needs of the community and the constraints of Trescott management. Developing the area for skiing puts emphasis on both respectful recreation and community engagement.