Resorts have the bulk of the season ahead of them.

AUGUSTA (AP) – December’s snow-melting rain and January’s bone-numbing cold put the brakes on skiing in northern New England, but resorts are looking ahead to the rest of the season with hopes of a big bounce in business.

“In reality, we have the bulk of the ski season ahead of us,” Greg Sweetser of the Ski Maine Association said Thursday from his group’s exhibit in the State House. “What we hear is that people are waiting for the big storm.”

In Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, ski areas were almost giddy with anticipation as the season started out with a winter storm that coated the region with a thick layer of snow.

“Season ticket sales were very strong, retail sales were very strong. There was a great deal of interest in skiing coming into the season,” said Alice Pearce, executive director of Ski New Hampshire.

But heavy rain soon washed away much of the snow, and then temperatures plunged in January to the subzero range, too cold for many skiers – especially children – to venture out to the slopes.

The Vermont Ski Areas Association, citing figures from the National Ski Areas Association, said the double-whammy of weather events resulted in 15 to 20 percent less business for the state’s ski resorts.

The trend was felt at the largest ski area in the Northeast, Vermont’s Killington.

“It’s a little softer than what we expected,” said Killington spokesman Steven Wright.

In New Hampshire, skier days have been down 15 to 20 percent from this point last year, said Ski New Hampshire’s Pearce.

“When it’s zero outside, people aren’t exactly excited to be outdoors. There’s not a lot that marketing can do,” Pearce said.

While Ski Maine had no figures reflecting the falloff in skier traffic, Sweetser acknowledged, “Certainly the cold weather in January slowed down business.”

But he added that January is generally the slowest month of the ski season. He said ski areas took advantage of the bitter cold by making snow every day of the month in preparation for February and March, which are historically the busiest months of the season.

“Now, it’s getting critical,” said Sweetser.

At Sugarloaf USA, spokesman Bill Swain of the Carrabassett Valley resort offered no figures on how business has been affected by the weather, but said indications are “we’re in line with the industry that’s down a little bit.”

Like Sweetser, Swain said the western Maine resort is focusing on what’s ahead, noting that less than half of season has passed. “The best part’s just getting started,” Swain said.

New Hampshire’s ski industry, which invested about $20 million in facilities prior to this season, is also looking at the remaining ski days optimistically.

“We’re hoping to see that as the temperatures rebound that the interest will rebound and we’ll make up for lost ground,” said Pearce.