HANOVER, N.H. -- They each have their somewhat quirky ski country niche: On any Friday night or Sunday evening, perhaps more skiers go buzzing by the Whaleback Ski Area -- passing within a snowball toss of the homey base lodge -- than drive past any other ski area in New England. And a half hour or so up the road -- Interstate 89 to Route 10 through Hanover to Lyme -- is the Dartmouth Skiway where Dartmouth skiers for decades have passed through on their way to the Olympics.

Welcome to an Upper Valley, New Hampshire ski tour. From Whaleback, travel I-89, and as the Vermont border approaches you can't miss it, to the Dartmouth Skiway, just up from the postcard-pretty village common in Lyme.

Whaleback, bigger than it looks from the highway, and the Skiway, also with its steeps and steeped in history, are linked by geography and size and role in the skiing marketplace. Neither area is ever going to be a high-speed, quad-filled, or condo-filled megaresort. Neither is about to expand peak-to-peak-to-peak.

Both would just as soon leave the bigness and the bustle -- OK, they wouldn't mind the bustle, but aren't expecting it any time soon -- to others. Looking for another of those skiing throwbacks where a good time can be had by all members of the family, a place where you can drop the kids and come back later and find them, or catch up with them for lunch with no problem? And looking for all of this for a good price?

They have it.

Hang out with Hanover and maybe the Hanover Inn as a base and ski them both. Or pick one of the inns -- the Alden Country Inn or Dowd's Country Inn -- around the common in Lyme and ski the Skiway. Or choose one of the budget motels in the West Lebanon area, just up the road from Whaleback. Or do them in a day -- Whaleback is closest, just over two hours from Boston.

Both ski areas date from the mid-'50s, and they've evolved into the late '90s in varying fashion.

Whaleback was closed for several winters early this decade before Tim and Sally Herbert returned to rescue the ski area that her father had owned for 15 years until 1984. They've been adding to the snowmaking, and have upped the trail count from 16 to 26 since taking over and reopening in December 1993.

Ride the double chair up over the front of the mountain, and the din of the highway below is gone as you crest the top. The high profile from the highway can be both a blessing and a bane, said Tim Herbert. Some see the Front Three trails -- Blow Hole, Face, and The Barnacles -- and are scared off by the steeps. There are other much more forgiving ways down, such as the mile-long Ivory Run. And there are fun cruisers, too, such as Ambergris and Spout.

A note here on names. Whaleback started life as Snowcrest, with perhaps a half-dozen trails before there was an interstate. When Jim Griffiths, Herbert's father-in-law, took over, he installed a chairlift, and the name was changed. Apparently, coming south on I-89, the mountain looked like a whale's back, and thus the name. And like-minded trail names.

Whaleback added lift-serviced snow tubing, the latest craze to hit ski country, for this year. Don't be fooled by short-looking runs of a few hundred feet. They are all this 40-something downhill slider wanted.

There is a definite, and appreciated, small-mountain feel to the base lodge and the lounge upstairs. Part of that undoubtedly comes from Sally's assortment of soups and chilies -- the Italian sausage soup sounds especially intriguing -- and is helped by cookies and whoopie pies.

Part comes from the people. The day we tubed, several of our fellow tubers were ski patrollers and lift workers getting out to try it on an offday and having a great time. And this is the type of place where skiing regulars chipped in to help clear downed trees as the mountain bounced back from January's crippling ice storm.

Start up I-89 from Whaleback, and the Skiway may be reached either by cutting through Hanover, or by jumping on I-91 in Vermont to Exit 14, to Lyme, and taking a right at the white church.

Where Whaleback calls about 600 skiers a good day, the Skiway does about double that on a good weekend day on its Twin Peaks -- the Holt's and Winslow mountains -- that each are serviced by a chairlift rising from either side of the base lodge.

The general rule: Seeking steeps, head for Holt's and its double chair; want winding cruisers, give Winslow and its quad a shot. Try Upper Gauntlet to lower John Meck to get the blood rushing on Holt's. Start on Howard Chivers and test yourself on Pass/Fail for one popular route down Winslow.

You might find the Dartmouth Ski Team working on its giant slalom technique on Don Worden Schuss. Then there's the Thomas Trail, named after Lowell Thomas, the son, not the radio announcer.

The views are nice, particularly from the Winslow chairlift, looking across to the ledges on the back side of Holt's.

Today's wildlife lesson: Those ledges are where New Hampshire's last pair of peregrine falcons nested in 1952 and where peregrines were first reintroduced several years ago, according to general manager Don Cutter Jr. There is also a rehabilitating bear denning between a couple of Skiway trails, though Cutter won't say precisely which ones.

There has been front-burner talk of modernizing the base lodge and snowmaking, but for the same reasons the Skiway, Dartmouth owned and run, is relatively stable in a slippery-slope industry, change has been slow in coming. The lodge is nothing fancy, but do check out the plaque bearing the names of the 81 Dartmouth people -- from the Brothers Chivers of Hanover to Lyme's own Liz McIntrye -- who have competed in the Winter Olympics. And that number doesn't include this year's crop.

Dartmouth looked to maintain and strengthen its long history of skiing, and to keep up with Middlebury and its Snow Bowl, when it conducted a lengthy search for land and then opened the Skiway in 1956. The proper exposure was needed in those days before snowmaking, and the goal was to be as close to Dartmouth as possible, thus ruling out another candidate, Mount Moosilaukee.

There have been only two managers at the Snow Bowl. The late Howard Chivers, after whom a trail is named, and Cutter, who took over in 1984.

The mission today is the same as when the Skiway, the home of the alpine events of the Dartmouth Winter Carnival, started. Run the Skiway primarily for the Dartmouth students, the Dartmouth Ski team, and employees and staff. And the public is always welcome.

About 800 Dartmouth students out of an enrollment of 3,200 have season passes, and that's not counting ski teams. Shuttle buses run between campus and the Skiway Tuesday through Saturday. And there are 365 students who come out once a week for a lesson in the student physical education program.

Like Whaleback, the Skiway does a huge business in elementary school programs in the area. One reason is the renowned Ford Sayre youth program, which skis out of here, has sent numerous Upper Valley athletes on to United States Ski Teams.

The top ticket price at the Skiway is $28 for a weekend or holiday adult ticket. A ticket for the J-Bar is $5, any time, any age. There are various ticket deals available, including a two-day, two-adult package for $112, with kids then $12 for the two days. There are eight-week Simon's lessons, a package of lessons with Simon Mayer, a former Austrian junior champion who has been teaching at the Skiway for 32 years.

Besides its school programs, Whaleback has a jam-packed night racing league. The top ticket at Whaleback is $25 for a weekend. Juniors, through age 16, are $19.

One of the skiing magazines, said Herbert, recently praised the friendliness of his area and said that if the television show ``Cheers'' was to be re-created in a ski area setting, Whaleback could be the site.

Ditto for the Dartmouth Skiway.