NEWRY — Ski areas across Maine got off to a fast start to the winter season thanks to strong holiday sales and a timely snowstorm Dec. 27 that dumped up to two feet or more of snow.

Several days of nice weather then followed.

“Business boomed at Sunday River during the course of the holiday period, which translated to the resort’s total revenue being up 15 percent over the same time last year,” Darcy Morse, the Newry ski resort’s spokeswoman, said Monday afternoon.

Sunday River offered skiing and snowboarding on 95 trails across 512 acres, leading Maine and New Hampshire, Greg Sweetser, Ski Maine Association spokesman, said Monday evening.

Nineteen inches of new snow kicked off the holiday week, and by Friday, Sunday River had two of its best days in skier visits since 2008, Morse said.

“The success stories to come out of last week include lodging, lift tickets, food and beverage, as well as rental and retail revenue,” resort President Dana Bullen said.

“However, in our business, snow is king and Monday’s snowstorm was perfectly timed.”

Additionally, going into New Year’s Eve, guests were clearly in the mood to celebrate, Morse said.

“That night, the resort’s Foggy Goggle bar and restaurant reported its best day of revenue ever in the history of the resort,” she said.

“It was a tremendous week for Sunday River’s business and puts us exactly where we want to be moving into the New Year,” Bullen said.

Business was equally big for Saddleback Ski Resort in Rangeley, which received 38 inches of snow in the storm, Marketing DirectorJoAnne Taylor said early Tuesday afternoon.

Their skier visits were up 28 percent for Christmas week and 23 percent season-to-date over last year, while ski resort revenues for the week were up 36 percent and 24 percent season-to-date, she said.

“We attribute that to the holiday period, and also to the wonderful snow conditions that we had,” Taylor said.

Business was so good that Saddleback set a new record for attendance on New Year’s Eve.

“Attendance on Friday was the highest that we have ever had during a holiday period,” she said.

Numbers were also up at Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley where the blizzard dumped 22 inches, which helped the resort offer more than 100 trails, spokesman Ethan Austin said.

“For holiday week business, we ended up 21 percent ahead in lodging for the week and 15.4 percent ahead over last year in skier visits for the whole week,” Austin said of the week of Dec. 26-31.

“A lot of that was prebooked business,” he said. “We were anticipating a very busy week. Not all of it was prebooked, but a large chunk of it was.”

Austin also said it was too early to tell if the Spillway East Chairlift accident on Dec. 28 had any impact on business.

Five chairs fell that morning when the lift derailed, sending eight people to hospitals and stranding about 150 people on the crippled lift for more than an hour.

“If it did (have an impact), we haven’t noticed it in the numbers yet,” Austin said.

“It’s still a week out. For last week, there were a lot of people up here on vacation and a lot of those people were committed to the whole week, so it’s really hard to say at this point if that had any effect or not.”

Keven Rosenberg, marketing director at Mount Abram Family Ski Resort in Greenwood, and Melissa Rock at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton, both said “the new snow was followed by three days of beautiful weather which resulted in our busiest holiday in years.”

Rosenberg said Mt. Abram received 18 inches from the storm.

“We had a great week,” Rosenberg said. “The warm weather after the fresh snow really seemed to get people out and enthused for it.”

He said business was better than it’s been for the past five years for Christmas vacation week.

Even Spruce Mountain Ski Slope in Jay had a good week, Sweetser said.

“I talked with Kenny Jacques, who is the president of the Spruce Mountain Ski Club, and he said it was a fantastic week. ‘One of the best Christmas weeks ever,’” Sweetser said.

Business was so good at Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn that co-owner Connie King said attendance and revenue records were set after they got 12 to 14 inches of new snow to start the week, which was another record in itself.

“I don’t know if it was a record for forever obviously, but in the past six years that I’ve been an owner, this was a record season for us, so we’re happy,” King said.

She said the resort opened right on schedule on Dec. 17. Ten days later, the storm hit.

“It was perfect timing,” King said. “That just never happens for us, because on Sunday, we opened the second chair.”

“We don’t always get both of our chairlifts open on Christmas vacation. It was beautiful weather.”

[email protected]