DALLAS PLANTATION – Five years after Saddleback changed ownership and after a winter flush with snow, the 8,000 acre mountain resort is back in the black.

As Maine’s biggest ski area operators wrap up their winter seasons this weekend and next, they can only look back with grand smiles on a near-record breaking winter for snow, snowboard and skier visits, with business as good as it’s been in a decade.

As big as the smiles are, few will be as big as the one stretching across the face of Saddleback owner, Archie “Bill” Berry Jr.

With his family, Berry, a retired University of Maine at Farmington geology professor, purchased the resort five years ago, saving the mountain from a complete shut-down.

A condominium owner at the resort, Berry who started skiing more than 30 years ago, was one of many condo owners who received a letter from the resort’s general manager in 2003 alerting owners to Saddleback’s imminent closure.

In June of that year, a deal between then-owner Donald Breen and a Pennsylvania company had fallen through, and Breen – after decades of battling with the federal government over a protection corridor for the Appalachian Trail – had decided to close the resort.

Breen’s decision to close came after he reached a settlement with the National Park Service, selling the government an easement that prevented him from pursuing a long-held dream to develop ski trails on the other side of the AT. He had lost his desire to fight on, said Saddleback’s general manager – then and now – Tom McAllister.

Breen had instructed McAllister to lay off the staff and to notify those who owned property at the resort that Saddleback would not open that winter.

Saddleback closing?

McAllister and the resort’s Gal Friday at the time, now lodge and ticket sales manager Terri Thompson, were in the process of writing and mailing letters announcing the pending closure. McAllister fielded plenty of calls from angry and frustrated property owners, mad their ski vacation homes would be slopeside to a closed ski hill.

“I had people blaming me for it and asking me what they were supposed to do with a ski chalet on a mountain – make it a hunting camp?”, McAllister said. “Terri and I were the last two working here; the ski area was closed until we could find a buyer.”

It was one of the most grim points of his career, said McAllister, who first went to work for the resort as a ski patroller in 1967. “We were essentially holding down the fort, closing things up. My wife and I were making plans to leave the area,” he said.

“We were dead in the water,” he said, sitting at his large wooden desk, a remnant of the Portland Press Herald and Guy Gannett Publishing, which also once owned Saddleback.

In all, McAllister has seen five different owners or owner groups, including Casco Bank, which owned the resort for a short period after the publishing company and before Breen.

When Berry first called McAllister to talk about buying Saddleback, the general manager figured Berry was another angry condo owner and returned the call with some trepidation, he said. But soon Berry was sitting in McAllister’s office and a meeting with Breen was being arranged so Berry could make an offer on the mountain, which was on the market for $4 million.

Berry didn’t want any middlemen, McAllister said. He wanted a direct meeting with Breen.

“When Bill left my office he said, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to do it, we’re going to make this work,'” McAllister recalled.

That’s just what happened and Berry, who won’t disclose how much he paid for the resort, said he negotiated with Breen and bought the resort, including more than 8,000 acres of land and 60 percent of the shoreland of Saddleback Lake.

A Maine investment

Almost as quickly as the property was transferred, Berry and his family began investing in the property. In the first year of ownership they pumped $23 million into the resort, adding a new base lodge and a new four-passenger chairlift serving a newly added learn-to-ski area – one of the largest and most varied in New England. Snowmaking and existing trails were also upgraded, and development of new condominiums began. “Saddleback is back!” promotional slogans and bumper stickers shouted.

But Berry also knew it would take amped up marketing if Saddleback were to capture a bigger share of the ski and snowboard market in Maine. To that end, the resort has promoted Maine days, women’s days, men’s days, days for tele-mark skiers and seniors. They also made sure their regular, non-discounted, tickets are what Berry terms, “affordable for Maine families.”

At Saddleback, ticket prices can be $30 to $40 lower than its in-state competitors.

JoAnne Taylor, the ski mountain’s marketing director, said the efforts have paid off but it hasn’t been easy. Staff mountain-wide have joined in turning the ski hill around in the marketplace. “We’ve been working very hard to make sure we have the opportunity to succeed,” Taylor said.

Making Saddleback successful is both a business venture and a passion for the mountain and the sport, Berry said. For the first year since his family bought the resort, the business is in the black financially. Skier and rider visits were just 13,000 the year they took ownership, this year they will reach 65,000 to 70,000.

“We are hoping that when 2008 is over we will move into the black,” Berry said.

Unspoiled mountain

Those visiting the ski area come from all over the region, many because they appreciate the pricing and the more low-key experience.

Scott Doughty of Berwick was skiing with his 3-year-old son Luke recently. Doughty, a Jay native, said he grew up skiing at Saddleback and what he likes most about skiing there today is that his son gets to enjoy the same uncrowded, unspoiled mountain he remembers.

Mark Robie, the resort’s ski school director, said new development on the mountain has been carefully planned, with interests of the environment and the ski experience in mind. He said the owners have a deep commitment to guaranteeing that multi-generational families will be able to enjoy the resort.

“These folks are serious environmentalists,” Robie said, emphasizing the word “serious.”

A new lift to being installed this summer as part of $2.5 million in upgrades in 2008, and will run in the same line as an old t-bar that is being replaced. Trail development off the new lift will allow all levels of skiers access to tree line terrain near the mountain’s top.

The addition of several new advanced trails and glades creates, a “self-contained area” for advanced skiers and riders that will be the largest of it’s kind in the Northeast when complete, Taylor said.

In 2007, Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission approved a 10-year plan for development at the resort.

The plan tentatively endorses several new lifts, trails, lodges, a hotel, house lot and condominium development. The approval was a watershed moment for the resort as previous owners were often in disharmony with state and federal regulators.

And while relationships have improved Berry said the resort still faces regulatory frustration at times. Being in one of Maine’s unorganized territories and adjacent to the National Park Service’s Appalachian Trail adds layers of state and federal oversight, layers that ski areas in organized towns don’t usually face, Berry said.

But Berry also said that development at Saddleback will be done in a way that retains the character and atmosphere skiers like Doughty find value in. Narrower trails versus long-straight boulevards will continue to be more the norm than the exception at Saddleback, Berry said.

“We want to make this a different place,” he said. That includes further integrating Saddleback’s offerings into the four-season activities available in Rangeley.

“The only area in the country that sort of competes with the Rangeley Area is the Lake Tahoe area. There are few areas of the country that are that way,” said Berry. “To keep the idea of relatively narrow trails, winding down through the woods, to me is a heckuva lot more fun than skiing on a super highway, skiing on a football field on an incline.”

That and atmosphere where families feel safe and welcomed is paramount to the resort’s continued success, Berry said.

As to whether the mountain is a passion or a legitimate business venture Berry said, “It’s a combination. We hope to make money, but nobody buys a ski slope to make money in general. But the family felt this was an adventure as well as a venture.”

Saddleback is scheduled to close today and will re-open Dec. 13.