RUMFORD – OK, who left the refrigerator door wide open?
Two straight days of unseasonable warmth has forced some cross-country ski businesses in western Maine to close due to lack of snow.
Others, still open Friday and sporting meager base depths, are worrying about Saturday’s gloom-and-doom forecast, wondering just how much rain will fall and eat up their remaining white gold.
“Tomorrow will continue to wash away what snow we do have,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Mansfield in Gray said late Friday afternoon.
“It’s going to be mild temperatures and rain. There’s no escaping it. The only thing that will help some of these places are the ones with bigger snow packs,” he added.
Like Rangeley Lakes X-C Ski Trails in Rangeley, Sugarloaf/USA Outdoor Center in Carrabassett Valley, and Carter’s XC Ski Center in Bethel.
Peter Christensen, who manages the Rangeley business, said Friday they’ve got a 4- to 6-inch base topped with more than a foot of snow in the woods.
“As long as it doesn’t rain too much, we’ll be OK, but regardless of what happens, we’ll be open,” he said.
Sugarloaf Outdoor Center manager Sue Foster said Friday that they’ve got a base depth of 10 inches with 60 kilometers of groomed trails open.
“We still have good coverage, and a snow pack that’s hanging tough,” she said.
They need it.
On Saturday, 300 skiers are to compete in the first of two TD Banknorth Eastern Cup Nordic Junior Olympic qualifier races for the New England Nordic Ski Association.
The second event is to be held Sunday morning at Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford, which had a prerain base depth of 6 inches, spokesman Craig Zurhorst said early Friday afternoon.
“The NENSA representative was here looking over the course and gave it the thumbs up,” Zurhorst said.
Open or closed?
Like other Nordic ski centers contacted Friday, Christensen said he’s expecting rain, and then changeover to 6 to 12 inches of snow. But that’s after receiving half an inch to 2 inches of rain.
“For the mountains in this type of situation, I wouldn’t rule out any of those figures,” Mansfield said.
The weather service issued a flood watch, however, for most of Maine, stating in a 3:16 p.m. bulletin that between 1 and 2 inches of rain is expected to fall across western Maine, possibly more in the headwater regions at higher elevations.
Anne Carter, manager of Carter’s XC Ski Center in Oxford, said skiing there “is at a standstill.”
They closed, but their business in Bethel had plenty of snow and was open Friday, but expected to be closed Saturday if it rains, then back open Sunday.
Sara Dickinson at The Bethel Inn Nordic Center in Bethel said they’ve got coverage everywhere and are open, but taking a day-by-day approach.
Tom Gyger, owner of Five Fields Farm in Bridgton, declined two offered cross-country races.
“Our trail system has coverage, but it is woefully thin,” he said.
Susan Isham, manager of Sunday River Cross Country Ski Center in Newry, said they have 24 kilometers open with base depths ranging from 1 to 6 inches.
Titcomb Mountain spokesman Jim Sawyer in Farmington said they have a 3-inch base and were going day by day.
Jodi Cooper at Lost Valley in Auburn said they’ve got hardly any snow, and Pineland Farms Outdoor Center spokesman Scott Bevins in New Gloucester said they closed Thursday.
“Oh, we’re just having a blast,” he said sarcastically, adding, “We were off to the best winter we’ve ever had.”
Stay off the ice
The rain also is bad news for Maine’s ice pack.
“It’s already treacherous in some areas, but, with this rain, come tomorrow, it’s going to get worse,” Maine Warden Service spokesman Mark Latti said late Friday afternoon.
People should avoid any places with a current because the ice will be really thin. Snowmobilers should stick to the trails if there is any snow left, he said.
He advised anyone venturing out on the ice in the rain or after, to check the depth in several places while heading out.
“A lot of places have 8, 10, 12 inches now. The thaw doesn’t affect it as much as the rain does, because it takes a long time for ice to thaw, but when you have water or a current moving against it, it can break up easily,” Latti said.
There is light at the end of the soggy tunnel, though. Mansfield said temperatures and wind chills are going to plunge below zero in the mountains by Monday night.
After this thaw, “it will be so dramatically different, we’re not going to be ready for it,” he said.
Nordic ski centers, however, will be more than ready for it.
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