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December 11, 2006

Buying Snow | New snow making equipment tops the list of off-season changes designed to give ski areas a lift

By Chris Churchill

Remember last winter? Owners of Maine ski resorts can't forget it — and it might still cause them nightmares. It was, after all, one of the warmest winters on record, a wet and sloppy mess of a season that kept many skiers and snowboarders off the slopes. Visits to Maine ski areas dropped 14%. In New Hampshire the industry witnessed a 10% decline.

The season's warmth underlined the importance of a ski area making its own snow, as resorts with inefficient systems — or none at all — suffered the most. So last spring and summer, many Maine ski areas spent to upgrade their systems, attempting to wrestle their fortunes from the whims of the weather. Take Mt. Abram: The resort in Greenwood installed 10,000 sq. ft. of pipe, replaced pumps, bought 60 tower guns and sought permission from the Department of Environmental Protection to create a new pond to supply water. "Essentially, it will double the output of our snowmaking, because these new guns are that much more efficient," says Josh Burns, owner of Mt. Abram.

With energy costs rising and concern growing about global warming, the emphasis on better and more efficient snowmaking is a national trend, leading to a boom in resort spending. The National Ski Areas Association says the nation's resorts in recent years have spent about $350 million annually in capital improvements, but predicts such spending will jump to $462 million next year, with most of the increase caused by purchases of snowmaking equipment.

Yet during this recent off-season, resorts in Maine also spent significantly on other types of upgrades. Managers at many of the state's ski areas can rattle off a list of improvements — spending made despite last season's disappointing finances. The Big Rock ski area in Mars Hill, for example, installed a snow-tubing park. Lost Valley in Auburn added bells and whistles to its terrain park (a move that comes as terrain parks are credited nationally with drawing the young to the slopes and making smaller resorts viable again). Several resorts made upgrades to their lifts, and a handful of others cut new trails, including Sunday River, which added a run to its busiest peak.

The spending underscores how competitive — and capital intensive — the ski industry is. When spring's lingering snow has melted and the focus of Maine tourism shifts from slopes to the coast, the state's resorts begin making upgrades with an eye toward the next winter. Most of those improvements, it is hoped, will have an immediate impact on this year's bottom line, by reducing costs, for example, or attracting young skiers who could also become lifelong patrons. And those in the industry say the urge to upgrade was particularly strong this year. "It was a pretty big year for investment in Maine," says Greg Sweetser, executive director of the Ski Maine Association.

The industry's dark cloud
This is an optimistic time for the ski business. It's riding a wave of unprecedented growth, buoyed by the popularity of snowboarding among the young and equipment advances that are allowing older skiers to stay on the slopes. "We've got a favorable demographic right now," Michael Berry, executive director of the National Ski Areas Association, says from his Colorado office. "What we have for the first time ever is a truly multi-generational customer."

Numbers back the claim: During the season that spanned the end of 1999 and the early months of 2000, the nation's ski resorts recorded 52.2 million visitors, a figure typical for preceding decades. Numbers were flat, according to the statistics reported to the ski association, and the industry wasn't growing. But last season, ski areas recorded a record 58.9 million visits, despite a decline of about a million visitors to resorts in the Northeast.

If there's a drag on ski optimism, it's climatic. For an industry that relies on the snow and cold, warming temperatures are the dark, rain-dropping cloud on the horizon. (A recent University of New Hampshire analysis of that state's ski industry concluded temperatures there had increased by 3.8 degrees since the 1970s, resulting in less consistent snowfall.) Last winter's warmth helped drive home the notion that ski areas need to be self-reliant. "It highlighted the importance of an effective snowmaking operation," says Josh Burns, owner of Mt. Abram. "The better the snowmaking you had, the better you did."

Burns found his snowmaking capabilities lacking and says he borrowed money for upgrades for the first time in the seven years he's owned the 46-year-old resort. He declines to specify how much the work, part of a multi-year plan, is costing.

Sweetser, from Ski Maine, says Southeast ski areas in states such as Virginia and North Carolina long ago invested in top-notch snowmaking equipment, because the climate gives resorts only a very short window of opportunity to cover its runs. Many of the region's resorts have fully automated snowmaking, with computers that launch the systems as soon as temperatures become favorable, and in some cases are able to cover their runs in 30 minutes. Meanwhile, protected by bitter winters, resorts in Maine haven't felt pressured to invest in top technology.

Until now. Ski areas here are finding that ideal snowmaking conditions — temperatures of no higher than 28 degrees, with low humidity — are increasingly infrequent and short-lived, leading them to invest in more efficient systems. And there's a second incentive for increased efficiency: Resorts are seeing their snowmaking demands increase as energy prices spike. "With energy costs being what they are," says Ed Rock, general manager at Shawnee Peak, a ski area in Bridgton that recently purchased new snow guns and installed 3,000 ft. of snowmaking pipe, "when you do have that window of opportunity, when it's cold and dry, you better be able to operate your system at full capacity."

Maine's biggest ski resorts race each fall to be the first to be the first to open. There are bragging rights — and dollars — at stake. This year the honor went to Sugarloaf/USA, in Carrabassett Valley. The reason? Twenty-five low-energy snowmaking guns installed during the off-season. The guns use less compressed air, important because the amount of air from the resort's five compressors is fixed. Sugarloaf spokesman Bill Swain says the guns allowed the resort to cover one, two-mile run in just two days, half the time of year's past, and allowed it to open in time for the financially important Thanksgiving holiday.

Good things in small packages
Recent decades weren't kind to small ski areas. Many closed as skiers decided they favored the longer, faster runs available at big-mountain resorts. The National Ski Areas Association says the number of resorts operating nationally dropped from 727 in 1985 to 478 today.

But the popularity of terrain parks — the snow equivalent of skateboarding parks — has been a boon for small-mountain ski areas. Lost Valley, in particular, has been energized by its terrain park, largely because it has helped the resort draw snowboard-loving teenagers from Lewiston and Auburn. "It's cool to go to Lost Valley again," Sweetser says.

Connie King, an owner at Lost Valley and its vice president, laughingly calls the terrain park "a pain in the butt," because of its maintenance and supervision requirements. But she says its financial benefits make it well worth the hassle. The ski area's recent success at attracting teens, however, comes with awareness that they are famously fickle and easily bored. So Lost Valley this off-season spent to expand its terrain park, adding jumps it hopes will keep teens entertained.

Sugarloaf also upgraded, cutting a trail to host a mammoth new park that is 400-feet wide and features 65-foot jumps. The park was part of $1 million in upgrades made this year by Sugarloaf, which has deeper pockets than most Maine ski hills. Like Sunday River in Newry, which spent $2 million in improvements ranging from new trails to changes to buildings at the resort's base, it is owned by American Skiing Co., a Utah company that owns eight large resorts, including Attitash in New Hampshire and Killington in Vermont.

Still, American Skiing Co. lost money last year, and Swain, the Sugarloaf spokesman, says the resort enters every season with unfulfilled items on its capital improvement wish list. So do many other ski areas.

The town-owned Camden Snow Bowl set aside $80,000 for capital expenditures this year, money used to improve snowmaking equipment, among other upgrades. Unlike those owned by the publicly traded American Skiing Co., the ski area faces little pressure to make a profit. Jeff Kuller, the bowl's manager and Camden's director of parks and recreation, says he hopes just to break even each year.

As at other small resorts, Camden Snow Bowl has seen its bottom line helped by the popularity of its terrain park. "It I had my choice, I'd expand it," Kuller says, adding that such a move would face opposition — an important concern if the town council controls your budget. "If we took away some of the open area for a larger terrain park," he says, "we'd have some unhappy people who have been skiing here for many moons."

On a magic carpet ride
Ever been carried by a magic carpet? No, not the flying carpets sung about by Steppenwolf or seen in "Aladdin." This moving carpet is the latest trend at ski areas, an innovation popular with beginners intimidated by traditional ski lifts.

Mt. Abram installed a magic carpet in the off-season, while Shawnee Peak added length to one it installed a year before. The carpets, which typically cost about $55,000, essentially are conveyor belts that carry skiers up the hill without lifting them from the ground. "It's been hugely successful," says Rock at Shawnee Peak. "One of the most successful things we have done here in recent years."

The carpets have families and small skiers lining up, another reason many in the ski industry feel optimistic about the future. Get customers when they're young, those in the industry say, and you're likely to have them sliding down your slopes when they're in their twenties — or even fifties.

But for ski area operators in Maine at the end of November, the supposedly bright future of the industry was overshadowed by a worrisome present. Meteorologists say the month that just passed likely was the warmest November on record — hardly an encouraging sign for ski areas hoping to rebound from last year's dismal season.

Indeed, few Maine resorts were able to start the ski season in November. The ones that did, such as Sunday River and Sugarloaf, opened later than planned. Now, the industry is hoping for a winter cold enough to put that new snowmaking equipment to ample and productive use.

Fresh tracks

Lost Valley, Auburn
• Expanded terrain park
• Remodeled and enlarged ski and snowboard shop
• Upgraded water lines to improve snowmaking on the Chipmunk Trail Camden Snow Bowl, Camden
• Regrading of the terrain park slope and the top of the tubing hill
• New snowmaking lines on the tubing hill, and additional snowmaking hydrants and new snowmaking spur lines elsewhere at the ski area

Mt. Abram, Greenwood
• Replaced/rebuilt three pumps in pump house to improve snowmaking
• Installed 10,000 ft. of snowmaking pipe
• Purchased 60 new tower guns for snowmaking
• Purchased new "magic carpet" ski lift

Sugarloaf/USA, Carrabassett Valley
• Purchased 25 tower guns for snowmaking
• Built new terrain park

Sunday River, Newry
• Cut new intermediate train on Barker Mountain
• Upgraded base facilities Shawnee Peak, Bridgton
• Extended an existing "magic carpet" ski lift by 15%
• Purchased 4,000 ft. of snowmaking pipe
• Plans to replace safety bars on summit triple chair lift Sources: Ski Maine Association and the resorts

The long view

Investment in Maine's ski industry goes beyond improvements to trails, snowmaking, terrain parks and ski lifts. The state's industry is experiencing a wave of expansion and residential construction, signaling that confidence in the future of Maine skiing is strong.

In Bridgton, for example, 32 condominiums were built alongside Shawnee Peak. And planning an expansion to the west side of the mountain, the ski area this off-season purchased a chair lift from New Hampshire's Loon Mountain. "It was a huge expense," says Shawnee spokesperson Melissa Rock, estimating that the lift cost the resort at least $100,000. "It was the big capital improvement expense this year."

The exact "where, yet, how and all the other variables" of the ski area's expansion aren't yet known, says Ed Rock, Shawnee's general manager. But the resort, Melissa Rock says, is concerned about crowding at its base lodge and believes a second base is needed. Shawnee Peak has been working to acquire the land needed for the expansion, she says.

Meanwhile, the Saddleback Mountain ski area near Rangeley recently submitted a 10-year plan to the state's Land Use Regulation Commission that includes at least $150 million in investment over the period. John Cannizzaro, in charge of planning and development at Saddleback, says the application includes plans for 24 condominium units a year over the next 10 years, as well as the addition of 24 timeshares and 24 house lots each year; a snow-tubing park; a 40-room inn; "four or five" new ski lifts; the cutting of two or three new trails per year; an amenity center; and an RV park, among other construction.

Saddleback submitted the application in July, but LURC rejected the application as incomplete. Saddleback's location in unorganized territory is unusual among Maine ski resorts, forcing it to seek state, rather than town, approval for construction plans. And the state, Cannizzaro says, forces the resort to plan in decade-long increments. "Whereas Sugarloaf and other resorts worry about this year and next year," he says, "we have to worry about 10 years out."
Chris Churchill

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