GREENWOOD – With last winter’s warm, rainy nightmare still fresh in the minds of ski area operators, this winter looked just as bleak until Valentine’s Day when Mother Nature grew a heart.

On that make-or-break week, up to 2 feet of powder snow fell on the state, attracting skiers and snowboarders in droves, resort operators said by phone Tuesday afternoon.

“We were saved by 22 inches on Valentine’s Day,” Mt. Abram Family Ski Resort owner Josh Burns said in Portland. “If we hadn’t have had that snow, it would have been an unmitigated disaster. With it, our February vacation matched any previous records we had. We did a lot of business.”

Likewise, said Diane Moreau, co-owner of Lost Valley Ski Resort, in Auburn.

“When that snowstorm hit just before February vacation, we were ecstatic,” she said. “It was a turning point for us as a small ski area. … it was critical. I think it also boosted employee morale.”

At Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford, spokesman Craig Zurhorst said this winter wasn’t as bad overall as last winter.

“At the beginning of the season, we did pretty well, because we had snow locally before any of the other community ski areas did,” he said. It was enough to pull off several Nordic events that couldn’t be held elsewhere due to the lack of snow.

However, when snow tapered off, they were soon leapfrogged by ski areas like Mt. Abram with its more advanced snowmaking equipment, until the Feb. 14 equalizer.

“Without that February storm, it would have been dismal,” he said. “When the snow finally came, we did great. And this March storm certainly made it better.”

Shawnee Peak sales and marketing spokesman Josh Harrington in Bridgton said snowmaking gave Shawnee top-to-bottom skiing in December. Like Mt. Abram, it also got 22 inches on Valentine’s Day, allowing for a 100 percent opening.

Since Feb. 14, he said, they’ve been getting the intermittent inch or two a day until 18 inches fell two weeks after Valentine’s Day, then 16 inches dropped on St. Patrick’s Day.

“We have some of the best ski conditions right now,” Harrington said. “During February vacation, it was crazy busy here. Then, this past weekend, Saturday wasn’t as good as it could have been, because of driving conditions, but Sunday was awesome.”

Closing dates were also pushed back a week or more, like at Lost Valley, which typically closes on March 11.

“In L/A, we’re certainly not in the mountains, and when the sun gets as high as it is, it beats down and pokes holes in the snow pretty clearly. But with that last snow dump on the 17th, it stimulated things again and people responded. So, we’re going out with a bang on March 25 with a large rodeo bash and chili cook-off,” Moreau said.

Assuming there’s no big warm spell, Burns said Mt. Abram would close on April 8 or 9. Black Mountain will close this weekend and Shawnee Peak is scheduled to, however, Harrington said Saturday’s storm may have pushed it to April Fools Day.

“We’re absolutely jamming,” he said.