Ski resorts in northern New England say the rainy weather this holiday week wasn’t exactly what they had hoped for, yet they anticipate business will be anything but a wash.

This week traditionally is a big one for ski resorts, setting the tone for the season.

“We’ve been making snow like crazy,” said Tom Caughey, of Wildcat Mountain Ski Area near Jackson, N.H. “We’ve made about 80 percent of the snow we normally make in a season to this point. Almost every single trail at this mountain is covered.”

Man-made snow is resilient and can stand up to rain much better than natural snow, Caughey said. Colder air was expected to pour in on Friday through the weekend, allowing the resorts to keep the snowmaking equipment going.

Ski areas had the snow guns going at full-blast over the past two weeks since the weather turned cold. Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway, N.H., has been working to build up its base. About 10 trails and three lifts are open, and several more trails are expected to open in the next few days.

At Sunday River, Maine’s most expansive ski area, the snow guns had been running for 12 consecutive days before a downpour Wednesday. With Friday’s cold weather, 135 snow guns were making additional snow.

“Fortunately, we had made so much snow that we’re still in good shape,” said spokeswoman Susan DuPlessis, in Newry, Maine.

Shawnee Peak, a smaller ski area 45 minutes from Portland, planned to reopen after the Christmas holiday with strong reservations in ski school, day care and lodging, all pointing toward a busy period.

With cold weather, the ski area will be making snow throughout the week, raising optimism that the holiday week could be better than last year’s, said Ed Rock, general manager of the ski area in Bridgton, Maine.

Ski officials said the biggest problem the rain creates may be psychological – people forget that it’s colder in the north and the mountains.

“We’ve been getting rave reviews,” said Ben Wilcox, general manager at Cranmore. “I think everyone’s spirits are pretty high around here.”

Still, the ski season is a limited one.

“There are basically 21 days out of a whole season that determine whether a ski area has a good season,” said David Dillon, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association. “Those 21 days are critical if a ski area is to have a profitable season.

“And really 14 of those days come in the Christmas/New Year’s weeks,” he said.

The other big draws are Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidents’ Day weekends.

“We are hopeful that this Christmas season will be good,” Dillon said. “With the cold weather forecast to return this weekend, the ski areas are ready to resume their snowmaking as soon as it does.”

Lodges and snowmobile clubs are a little more cautious. Temperatures had been low, but soared Tuesday into the 40s up north, setting back grooming schedules, especially in Colebrook, N.H.

AP-ES-12-24-04 1352EST