Longest Ski Season in the East - Maine

“If you’re not first, you’re last.” That’s our Burke family mantra. It’s a competitive clan, for sure, but things get done. I think Stephen Kircher would fit right in at our family reunions.
 
Kircher, President of Boyne USA, told me in his first year as management company of Sugarloaf and Sunday River, “We want to be first. We don’t like to lose.” Since taking the helm in 2007, he has backed that statement up. Sunday River has opened first in the East for Boyne’s three consecutive years since. With sister resort Sugarloaf taking last to close honors in May, Maine now has the longest ski season East of the Rockies.

Greg Sweetser, Executive Director of Ski Maine said, “With Sunday River’s early October opening, the Farmer’s Almanac, and Sugarloaf's spring skiing, people are feeling optimistic about Maine skiing.”

According to Sweetser, Maine's ski areas had their second-best season ever 2009, logging more than 1.3 million visits in a challenging economy. While the winter of 2007-08 remains the best season on record, with about 1.4 million visits,  Maine visits only dropped 2.5%. Conversely, neighboring New Hampshire saw a 3.3% drop from their previous year, and Vermont was down than 6% in skier visits.

Sweetser said that thanks to the efforts of the Maine Tourism Office, Nancy Marshall Communications, and Maine ski resort s, Maine has received significant media coverage and increased its share of the Northern New England market by 1%. "We don’t have the marketing budget that Vermont has by comparison, but the fact that Maine is gaining market share in the competitive Northeast is a very positive sign," said Sweetser.

Big capital improvement , Sunday River’s $7.5 million Chondola and Saddleback’s summit quad anf Sugarloaf's Skyline quad, contributed to their success. Smaller community ski hills also had good seasons due to innovative programs designed to introduce new skiers to the sport. Partnerships like the one between Shawnee Peak and Powderhouse Hill in Berwick, and Sugarloaf working with Mt Jefferson, have brought a spirit of cooperation between the bigger resorts with their greater resources and the smaller hills with local people who have either never skied or have quit the sport.

Sweetser said, “It benefits the community and generates excitement when Big Rock, for example, holds a free ski night sponsored by a local business. New people come out to ski. The larger resorts will benefit when the new skiers improve and move up to their mountains. And these skiers will never forget where they learned to ski so they will always show support to their local ski area.”

I hope to see you out on the slopes, because if you’re not first, well you’re not first.