NEWRY — The light from the rising sun is reflecting a pinkish hue from the snow as Dana Bullen takes a seat —  skis dangle from his feet — and he rides upward to check on the work his staff has done the night before.

“Look at that alpine glow,” Bullen said, watching the sun rise above the foothills and over the horizon to the east. “Perfect.”

It’s about 7:15 a.m. and unlike many of the 9,000 people who will visit the Sunday River ski resort at the height of the Christmas vacation week, which ends today, this outing is not an occasional adventure but part of a daily routine — all winter long and into the spring — good weather and bad.

Bullen is looking for what looks good and for places where there’s room for improvement or polishing. From the quality of the snow that was being made overnight to whether the snow grooming has missed any spots or done a particularly good job.

Bullen, the resort’s president and general manager for the past seven years, said it’s his chance to get out and praise his staff for the good and help them find places to improve. His eye is honed not only to the big but also to the little stuff.

Details are important, Bullen said. Getting out to check conditions ahead of the resort’s guests gives them one last chance to get it all right.

“But don’t ever get me wrong. This is a bunch of fun,” Bullen said.  “I get to do everyday what many people save up their vacation time for to do one or two weeks a year.”

And that is also one of the reasons Bullen wants it right. He wants that week or two to be memorable and one that paying customers will want to repeat.

By the time he heads back to his base lodge office, Bullen has praised his staff for the good stuff, nicely made snow topping off a smoothly groomed slope here, and pointed out a few rough spots — a patch of snow that’s a little too sticky and might grab unsuspecting skiers or snowboard riders off guard.

Bullen’s early morning ride is the unofficial start to a day that will go more than 12 hours for guests at Maine’s busiest ski resort. It’s one stop in a 24-hour effort to keep the slopes and other facilities at the resort in safe and pleasant working order.

Details, details, details

Even before Bullen hits the slopes, Steve Boulanger, Sunday River’s Ski Patrol director, has been out on his snowboard.  He has a crew that numbers more than 50 paid and volunteer staff on any given weekend or vacation weekday. They are checking trails, stocking medical equipment and making sure everything is where it should be and working.

Boulanger is carrying a stick of black-and-orange-striped bamboo used to mark hazards or place warning or direction signs on the slopes. 

He and patrol supervisor Eric White are out to further scrutinize the slopes. In the business of ski resorts, they are doing what is known as “risk management,” trying to spot problems before they happen and fix them.

It’s to prevent accidents and injury. By the time they are done, White has a list in his head that would take a full sheet of notebook paper to detail. He rattles it off to the patrollers awaiting instruction at the top of Barker Mountain.

A stick of bamboo here, a caution sign there, 50 feet of rope there, another sign here and so on. White’s list is specific and detailed.

The resort is in the process of gradually adding more trails, and the next mission for Boulanger and White is to check out the condition of the Top Gun trail. There are a few heavy wet areas that will need a little attention, but otherwise another trail will be added to the open list today.

A few trails over, a gang of Sunday River snow-makers are making their way down White Heat on foot.  They are turning off a series of snow-making guns that were on overnight, but the temperature is getting too warm, the snow too wet, and soon the conditions under ski and board will be too sticky to be fun.

The group of about six snow-makers are going as quickly as the slippery terrain allows; they hope to turn the guns off before any of the guests get there. Their mission is twofold: make sure the snow stays nice but also to save energy and money, Bill Brown, a 22-year veteran of the resort whose title is now energy manager, said.

By the end of the season, the resort will pump more than 375 million gallons of water from its snow-making guns. One of Brown’s tasks is to do that in a way that makes the most snow at the best price.

Air temperature has a lot to do with that, and while most people think colder is better, the optimum range for the most efficiently made snow is between 5 and 15 degrees, Brown said.

Colder than that and everything freezes fast when water is added, including people and equipment. Warmer than that and the amount of compressed air needed to make snow drives up electricity use and costs.

“What you were seeing this morning was it was warming up and some of those guns were getting wet,” Brown said. “We had a big group out to turn those guns off just before the guests got there. Because the best snow to ski on is the snow that was just freshly made.”

“Magical Carpet needs some love”

By 11:15 a.m. several of the resort’s top managers, including Communications Director Darcy Morse, gather in an office above a garage where snow-grooming-machine repairs are done.

They go over what’s going on where, what the demands of the day will be and where activities like ski races and other events might be going on. They update each other on what they need from grooming, chairlift operators and patrol. They talk about what trails might be ready in the next 24 hours and what ones are going to need more work.

They discuss the short- and long-range weather forecast and also hear about how many people they might expect to see at the resort in the coming 24 hours. Any messages they want to get out  to the public, including new trails or trail conditions, are vetted and shared.

Will Bastian, one of the resort’s chairlift foremen, is one of the last to speak and he’s asking for a little help.

“The magical carpet needs a little love,” Bastian said. He’s talking about the special carpet-like surface lift, the Magic Carpet, that learning skiers stand on and ride uphill like a conveyor belt for skiers. The unloading area is pitching upward too much, making it hard for children to get off and defeating part of its purpose.

“It’s uphill at the bottom and uphill at the top,” he said. That will get fixed overnight, he’s assured.

Going with the Titantic rule

Within the hour the line of people at the Chondola, where Bullen started his day, is growing long, and the lift, which includes one eight-passenger gondola car for every five six-passenger chairs, is full, moving 200 people uphill every eight minutes or 1,500 skiers and snowboard riders an hour.

Reid Maxim, a lift operator there, is loading the gondola car side of the lift trying to get eight people into each car and the lift running at capacity. He does it with a beaming personality — part traffic cop, part comedian and gracious host.

Maxim loads skis onto the side of the car, instructs those with skis too small to go into the outside-the-car slots or snowboards, and lines up children to get in efficiently and first.

“I’m going with the Titantic rule,” Maxim quips as he loads a car. “That’s women and children first.”

The key rule for lift operators is “safety, safety, safety,” Bastian said later. “A close second is fun. We want them to be putting smiles on people’s faces and making sure they are having fun.”

Bullen said running a ski resort is a complex business. In a way it’s a combination of a manufacturing industry where you make and groom snow, a hospitality business where you take care of guests and feed them, and an amusement park where you entertain them with a fun place to play. Beyond that it includes teaching people to ski and ride, selling merchandise and fixing and maintaining that gear.

“It’s a complicated business to make a profit at and one that the weather always has a hand in,” Bullen said. “But it is a whole bunch of fun too.”

Nighttime is grooming time

As the shadows start to stretch long in the mountains by 4 p.m. a line of eight powerful snow cat grooming machines are idling, ready to hit the slopes in a well-orchestrated parade. 

Their first objective is to get to the area that will be open, under the lights, for night skiing and riding. Driving one of these tank-like tracked vehicles is Brandon Palmer, 29, who has worked on the mountain since he was 17. First he did trail work in the summer cutting tall brush. Then, when he turned 18, he made snow. He worked his way up to driving a snow cat and said he loves his job and working for the resort.

“This is my office,” Palmer said of the $200,000 machine he is driving. Paying close attention to the trail ahead and behind, he and the seven other drivers groom out more than 100 acres of skiing terrain in about an hour. As the grooming machines rumble off the last night-skiing trails and onto the rest of the resort’s slopes, waiting skiers and riders head down under the lights on a new carpet of velvety snow.

Palmer, of Bethel, said he grew up on the ski hill and his co-workers are like family to him.  But he almost lost his job once, he said.

“One night I was going out grooming and there was this little kid standing there with his dad, sticking his thumb out like he was asking for a ride,” Palmer said. “So I stopped and gave him a ride in the machine.”

He said management was not impressed, but Palmer’s boss went to bat for him and said the experience was probably so memorable the family would come back again and again to Sunday River.

“They bought it,” Palmer said with a little laugh.

But he also said a few years later a teenager approached and asked him if he remembered him. “I did know who he was,” Palmer said. “Here he is all big and grown up, but it was that same kid. He remembered me even if I didn’t recognize him.”

Winding down, winding up

At 7 p.m., the base lodge at Sunday River South Ridge is still hopping with people as skiers and riders enjoy the final hour under the lights.

Tucked in an office upstairs, the resort’s marketing chief, Nick Lambert, is at his desk. Like Bullen, Lambert starts the day off with a ski. And the resort likes to keep at least one top manager on site while the mountain is open. This night is Lambert’s turn, but he’s not idling his time away.

Instead he’s working on the marketing plan and strategy for the months ahead, the Maine school vacation weeks in February and April. Sprinkled between are the Canadian province vacation weeks.

But he also admits that he’s been at it a while and is easily lured away for a few more runs under the lights with a resort guest.

By the end of the day, more than 9,000 guests have had an experience at Sunday River, a big day for the resort. By the end of the ski season, the resort will have seen upward of 600,000 guests.

The 1,400 seasonal workers at the resort will be down to 200 full-time year-round workers at the end of the season. In the course of a year, Sunday River will pump $10 million in payroll alone into the local economy, Bullen said.

He said they consider themselves just a part of a “great community.” About 90 percent of the resort’s staff comes from within 50 miles, Bullen said.

He said vacation weeks challenge the staff, but after they are over there’s a sense of accomplishment, a sense that something big got done. This year Christmas vacation week is looking to be one of the resort’s best, he said. Their single-ticket sales record was broken twice, he said.

“Our guests love this place, and our staff love it here, too,” Bullen said. “It’s a long week for them but in a good way, in a challenging way. It’s exhilarating for them to do it well, and come Monday they will all be back out there on their skis and snowboards enjoying it, too.”

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