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First State-wide Snow Storm a Boon for Winter Businesses

Workers at the Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn prepare the chairlift for opening day.
Susan Sharon/MPBN

The season's first snow storm has outdoor enthusiasts anxiously checking trail conditions for skiing and snowmobiling.

Though the snow is a boon to alpine skiers and snowmobilers, the sleet puts a potential damper on Nordic skiers' prospects, depending on location.

The sight of snowflakes falling out of the sky Tuesday morning made Scott Shanaman of Lost Valley ski area in Auburn.

"Thrilled," says Shanaman. "It's better than 70 degrees on Christmas day."

The unseasonably warm weather has pushed back projected opening dates for Lost Valley this season. The first date was December 18.

"The Saturday before Christmas, so we would kind of have a soft opening week," he says.

Then it was December 26th.

"The day after Christmas, and that didn't happen," he says.

But third time's a charm. Lost Valley is opening Wednesday. Shanaman says the ski area started making snow around the clock in the pre-dawn hours Monday when temperatures finally dropped below freezing. Though the sleet on Tuesday put a stop to snow making, he says even the ice serves a purpose.

"One thing that will do is make the natural snow heavier and keep it from blowing away in the wind and help us pack it out," he says.

Titcomb Mountain in Farmington is also opening Wednesday. Manager Megan Roberts says the extra snow means better conditions and more open trails.
 

A snow-making gun at Lost Valley Ski Area.
Credit Susan Sharon/MPBN
A snow-making gun sits idle now that the snow has arrived at Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn.

"We are so excited," Roberts says. "This has made all the difference. I mean, people have been waiting to ski."

That includes Nordic skiers, who may have to travel to find open trails. At Pineland Farms Outdoor Center in New Gloucester, Director Matt Sabasteanski says the amount of rain that falls Tuesday afternoon and evening will determine whether he can open ski trails that are covered with a dusting of snow.

"We only have about for inches on the ground," says Sabasteanski. "Maybe even a little less in the woods, so it didn't give us what we were hoping for."

It's a similar situation at Carter's Cross Country Ski Center in Oxford, where manager Jesse Hill says he hopes to at least open trails on Wednesday for snowshoeing. But a few dozen miles north in Bethel where Carter's operates a second and larger ski center, Hill says ski trails will be open. He says it's not unusual to have to wait until January for cross country ski season to get underway, but there's always hope for an earlier start.

"We do a lot of snow dancing and a lot of fingers crossed, for sure," says Hill.

Though the conditions are a mixed bag around the state, the executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association Bob Meyers says the important thing is that there's at least some snow on the ground almost everywhere. It'll help alleviate what he calls "backyard syndrome."

"You look out in your backyard and you don't see any snow, and so the immediate assumption is there's no snow anywhere," Meyers says.

Even when there may be plenty of snow further north.

"So this gets people into the right mindset that it's winter, it's time to go snowmobiling, it's time to have some fun," says Meyers.

Meyers says he's unsure what the trail conditions will be like for snowmobiling in southern Maine after the storm. But he he expects good riding this weekend in the north. Meyers does have a note of caution: no ponds or lakes are safe to cross at this point, he says. They'll need time to build a thick layer of ice after this warm December.