What a difference a year makes.

Operators of central Maine ski areas were breathing easier Monday compared to this time last year, when sparse snowfalls followed by rain and warmer temperatures made for a disappointing season.

Mother Nature has been more generous with the white stuff while delivering consistently freezing temperatures that have allowed for ample snowmaking.

“We’re off to a booming start, definitely,” Black Mountain General Manager Jim Carter said.

The Rumford ski area opened its downhill slopes Monday to a good number of skiers, he said.

Conditions are “awesome” on 16 trails, with up to 2 feet of packed powder, he said. Cold temperatures have been optimal for snowmaking over the past couple of weeks, he said.

Lost Valley Ski Area owner Scott Shanaman said his slopes have seen more natural snow so far this year than the entire snowfall last season, when temperatures in Auburn hovered in the 50s on Christmas Eve and reached 60 degrees on Christmas Day.

The area opened on Dec. 30, 2015, with only two trails. The snow guns were blowing in December for a couple of days, but rains and warm temperatures melted it just as quickly.

This year, snowmaking started the second week of December and the area opened its doors on Dec. 16. Five trails are open with snow depths ranging from 8 inches to 3 feet.

“It’s a big-time contrast — that’s for sure,” he said.

The cooperative weather is especially meaningful to Shanaman, who bought the business a couple of years ago. Last season was a struggle, but he is heartened by this year’s encouraging start.

The crowds have been “decent,” he said, but some former season pass holders are still waiting, wary from last season’s meager snowfalls.

At Mount Abram in Greenwood, 20 trails are open compared to six at this time last year, manager Dave Scanlan said Monday.

“It’s been a much better start to the season,” he said.

Ski conditions are “great,” he said, with a bountiful combination of natural and man-made snow at twice the depth compared to this time last season on both the main mountain and west side.

New and revolutionary airless snow guns from Italy and a new water-pumping system have boosted the mountain’s snow-making potential threefold with greater efficiency, he said.

“That was a complete game-changer for us,” he said.

Crowds are up around 15 percent over last year, Scanlan said, but Tuesday should see a spike in skiers who have finished with holiday festivities and are ready to recreate.

Cross-country skiers also are happier with this year’s snow cover.

At Carter’s X-C Ski Center in Oxford on Monday, Manager Jesse Hill reported a similar experience in 2015.

“We had nowhere near the amount of snow we have now,” Hill said. “And business was definitely very slow because of that.”

At this time in 2015, his business could only offer “a little bit of snowshoeing” to his customers, he said.

Because there was little or no snow on the ground at people’s homes farther south, few made to the trip to Oxford or Bethel, the business’ other location.

“There is definitely a big difference between the two years, for sure,” Hill said.

Snow repeatedly followed by rain turned the trails to solid ice last year, he said. The few times it’s rained this year, there’s been enough snow beneath to groom it back into a great skiing surface, he said.

A glance at his books showed zero rentals this time last year and only a few of skiers.

This year, dozens of rentals have gone out the door so far, as well as dozens of skiers, he said.

Hill said this has been an even better than normal start because the snowfalls came earlier than usual. The Oxford location usually doesn’t open until January, when its 20 kilometers of cross-country trails are covered with snow.

“It’s come a little early for us, which is great,” he said.

The rest of the season remains to be seen.

While optimistic, ski area operators tend also to be skeptics.

“At least so far, it’s not a repeat of last year,” Lost Valley’s Shanaman said.

Next month will help tell more of the story.

The Christmas and New Year’s holiday is important “to get some cash flow going through the place early season,” Shanaman said. “If you miss it like we did last year . . . you start off on your heels.” 

January is a “hit or miss month” with weather ranging from subzero temperatures to warm rains.

“There seems to be no in between in January,” he said. “In either case, people don’t come out.”

Lost Valley’s “bread and butter” business comes largely from school and community race and recreational groups, which start the first week of January, Shanaman said. And February school vacation is a lucrative week for ski areas, so they’ll be watching that weather forecast closely.

Most Maine ski areas had to close earlier than projected last season, cutting short potential spring skiing revenues.

“I’ve gotten my hopes crushed too many times,” Carter, of Black Mountain, said.

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