Twenty inches of snow will always draw a crowd of skiers, and a week ago Friday at Saddleback, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the number of cars.

I arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon, too late in the day to ski but early for the birthday party scheduled for 4:30. The parking lots were nearly full, although enough skiers had left early for me to park near the lodge. It was an unusually big crowd for a mid-week day, with the base lodge full and very few seats available at the Swig N’ Smelt lounge upstairs.

At 4:30 we all made our way down to the large room at the east end of the lodge where things were set up by the big fireplace to pay homage to a skier who is very special to Saddleback.

We were all there to celebrate Roger Page’s 90th birthday. The room was filled with long time Saddleback skiers and well-wishers who wanted to recognize and pay tribute to someone who had played a key role in the very beginning of Saddleback’s development.

In the mid-1950s, Page had come to Maine from Stowe to Sugarloaf to continue his career as a ski instructor. He was already a veteran instructor and an examiner for PSIA, and could have taught anywhere. When he was invited to take a look at a mountain where some local Rangeley folks were considering a ski area, he drove over to Saddleback to take a look. He liked what he saw, a broad expanse of terrain with a 4,000-foot peak, a high base elevation and views of lakes and mountains.

Roger Page got involved, but not just as a vocal supporter. He hit the road, traveling from Rangeley to Farmington and beyond, calling on individuals and businesses. He was selling stock in the new company. He made it happen.

When Saddleback opened, it featured the Roger Page Ski School. One after another, skiers got up and told how Roger Page had been their mentor, had taught them to ski, or prepared them for certification after they became instructors. Others told of their experience dealing with him in the ski shop he had in the base lodge and on Main Street in Rangeley village. The first two or three generations of Saddleback skiers got their start under Roger Page and today they and many of their children are still loyal to the big mountain in Rangeley.

Up until two years ago Roger could be seen skiing the trails at Saddleback on sunny days. The last two years he has passed up the skiing using those good winter days to drive to Farmington to visit his wife Patsy, who is confined to a nursing home there. Those visits tell us of the devotion Roger Page and Patsy have had for each other for a life-long marriage. The same devotion to the people of Rangeley and Saddleback skiers is why so many were on hand to repay that devotion. It was fitting that the big day followed a major snowfall to fill the area with skiers.

I also had a chance to talk with owner Bill Berry about he resort and how he had it up for sale. After rescuing Saddleback about seven years ago, rebuilding the base lodge, adding two quad chairs, beefing up snowmaking and grooming and setting the resort on the path to success, Bill is ready to pass the torch.

There are two major needs; more beds and a quad to replace the two-seat Rangeley chair, the major lift. Addressing them one at a time is tough. Add the beds first and lift lines on the double would be too long. Add the new lift without the beds and the resort would have to pay for the lift without being able to house the skiers needed to increase the revenue.

When Saddleback was first developed, the ski area was needed to fill local beds. Over the years the increase in snowmobiling has filled those local beds and the ski area has to develop its own. It should also be noted that skiers are looking for on-mountain beds, which Maine’s two biggest ski resorts have in abundance.

Bill Berry and his family have done a great job bringing Saddleback along. The skiing experience is excellent with the new snowmaking and grooming, and the base lodge not only fills the needs of the skiers, but is busy through the summer with weddings and other events. Let’s hope that a buyer can be found who will continue what the Berry’s have started so well.

The Saturday, before Roger’s birthday, we visited another Maine ski area for the first time in a number of years. Camden Snowbowl was being visited by Julie Parisien and her family as part their quest to answer Ski Maine’s Peak to Peak Challenge. It was also the day for their annual cardboard box race, in which Julie and the kids took part.

First they explored the mountain in the morning skiing trails with views of the ocean. At one o’clock they joined a long line of entrants hauling all shapes of cardboard creations to the top of the tubing hill for the big race. There were cardboard Batmobiles, Bat planes, various boat designs and some sharks. All were built from who knows how many cardboard cartons and many miles of duct tape. Julie and the kids were in the first box and rode a few more. Cars filled the parking lot and spilled out onto the road.

It was family fun, but the big news was scheduled to come the day after the season ended. Crews with chain saws were ready to hit the area, the first phase of an on mountain expansion. This year it will be new trails, a triple chairlift and snowmaking, followed next year by a new base lodge. Volunteers raised $4 million and the town added $2 million showing what a dedicated community can do. It will be fun to watch.

See you on the slopes.

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