The two biggest days for spring skiing are St Patrick’s Day and Easter, and this year they both come in March. This can be bad news for ski areas, especially in a year like this one.

Many skiers consider Easter the end of the season, even coming as it does two or three weeks ahead of the normal date. I have never had it explained to me why Easter should vary so much in its dates, but I do know that ski areas often celebrate it as the end of the season. That’s fine for ski areas that traditionally end their season around the end of March each year, but what about those that almost always go until mid April and beyond? March can be the snowiest month of the year, and the way things have gone this winter, that won’t take much.

By picking and choosing my days I have had some very good skiing this season, and I expect to have plenty more right into mid April and possibly later. Now with the sun high and any extreme cold behind us, we can look forward to skiing in comfort and retiring to the deck in the afternoon. There are also plenty of events on tap for March.

Shawnee Peak has a full schedule starting with the annual Russ Haggett Memorial race today. Other events on the schedule include Winterkids Family Day 3-4, Cardboard

Box Race 3-6, and Retro Day 3-13. A special big event at Sunday River is the annual Skiathon 3-19. This event has been raising money for Maine Adaptive Sports for over 30 years and brings in as much as $300,000 each year. You can find out about participating on Sunday River’s website. The Sugarloaf Ski Club will have their annual SnowBall on the 19th. We could add many more events, but this gives you an idea. There are charities you can help out, fun races and, of course, the annual celebration of spring skiing which starts officially on St. Patrick’s Day, which all ski areas observe in some way. My way is to make sure I ski that day. I hope you join me.

I traveled over to Loon Tuesday — a trip I make only in good weather. I don’t care about driving the Kancamagus Highway in bad weather. My reason for heading for Loon on this occasion was for a demo, primarily a chance for ski shops to check out next year’s gear.

Aside from the new skis and boots, a big fan jet snow gun was blasting snow all day just beyond the tents. Usually ski areas try to shut down their snowmaking by the end of vacation, but this year, with all the freeze thaw cycles we’ve had the snow guns are still going. While I didn’t go up reports were of the best skiing near the summit where the snow guns were also pouring out new snow. Clouds were coming in but temperatures in the teens were comfortable by mid morning. I talked with Ron and Ken Jacques from Ski Depot in Jay and Jim Myrick from Skiers Edge in Auburn. All three were busy getting on as many skis as possible. I suspect with iffy weather coming in the next day would be a boot day.

For me with limited time, I moved from tent to tent learning about the new skis and headed inside to check boots. Until I receive all the new catalogs, I can’t go into details on prices, but I can pass along that there will be plenty of good values in ski and binding combinations and the new boots will be easy to fit. These are trends that have been ongoing for a number of years, primarily technology that has allowed ski and boot companies to offer more performance for less money. You can still buy top race skis with bindings for $1,000 to $1,200 plus, but you can also buy a good ski for intermediate to advanced skiers for $300-$600 with bindings and less for novices.

The news in boots comes in two ways. First, new techniques have made boot fitting more precise than ever and a snug fit is the key to performance. Second, the new shorter, easier turning skis require less boot. For example the stiffest racing boots (130-150 flex) can range from $700 to $1000, while a 100 flex can be found for $500. Obviously, there is a wide range of models in both skis and boots. The idea is that the new equipment includes models that fit almost any ability for any budget so if you’re ready for new gear, the right stuff is out there and the price is right. Now I’ll give you some even better news.

Because of this up and down season sales have slowed down in ski shops and there are plenty of current models on hand and it’s just as good as what’s coming for next year. I have seen plenty of sales so why wait? This is a great time of year to take advantage of some real bargains.

I mentioned the Maine exhibit which I hadn’t seen at the New England Ski Museum and it’s only 15 minutes from Loon so I made a quick trip up there and was impressed with the collection of early pictures of Pleasant Mountain, Sunday, River, Sugarloaf, Saddleback and others. It will be coming to the Bethel Historical Society for the summer but if you get over to Cannon it’s well worth a visit.

I also received an email about another bit of Maine Ski History coming to TV tonight. Joel Osgood’s 1000 feet and below is a documentary on the existing small ski areas of Maine and it will be shown on MPBN tonight at 7 PM. I plan on watching. See you on the slopes.

Copy the Story Link