Using Lewiston-Auburn as a starting point, skiers can be skiing at Lost Valley in a few minutes and at some of New England’s biggest resorts in an hour to an hour and a half.

Located within Auburn’s city limits, Lost Valley is where the kids are dropped off after school and special programs have been turning out skiers for decades, night and day.

Lost Valley’s impact has gone far beyond the ski area and the state of Maine. In the sixties, Otto Wallingford invented the “Powdermaker” here and it revolutionized grooming around the world.

The two biggest resorts are under the same corporate roof. Sugarloaf, with its towering snowfields, has the most vertical drop of any ski mountain in Maine or New Hampshire. The lengthy runs and challenges frequently attract the U.S. Ski Team for its National Championships. The Narrow Gauge is one of only two trails in the entire Northeast long enough and steep enough to host a World cup Downhill. But don’t be intimidated by the tough runs. There are plenty of runs for every ability, even from the summit, and the compact base village with its multiple restaurants and shops is perfect for a week long skiing vacation.

Sister resort Sunday River, also operated by Boyne out of Michigan, sprawls over eight mountain peaks, with hotels at both ends, three separate base lodges and an on mountain lodge on North Peak with food and ski clinics. This winter a new Chondola will carry skiers quickly out of the South Ridge base to North Peak, opening up the possibility of evening dining on the mountain. The new lift, a high speed detachable, will combine chairs and gondola cars making it easy for riding with or without skis.

Both Sugarloaf and Sunday River have extensive shuttle services connecting the condos and base lodges, and Sunday River also has a shuttle connecting the town of Bethel with the ski area. The two areas have interchangeable season passes.

Skiers looking for a quiet family experience can stay in Bethel and travel a short distance to Mt. Abram. With 1000 feet of vertical drop, this mountain has a great variety of novice and intermediate terrain from the summit and an isolated gently pitched learning area at West Mountain. Better skiers can find challenge at this low key area.

Another resort offering true big mountain skiing is Saddleback. This mountain in Rangeley is one of Maine’s 4000-footers and until recently has been a sleepy area, skied mostly by diehards looking to escape the bustle of larger resorts. That changed a few years ago when new owners came in and began to upgrade and expand. The ski trails were already there, but now they have more snowmaking, better grooming and lifts are being added and upgraded. The base lodge has been tripled in size, but maintains the same homey atmosphere of natural pine and a stone fireplace that covers an entire wall. New this year is a quad chair replacing the upper mountain T-bar giving low intermediates easier access to the summit. Saddleback is a mountain on the move with more trails, lifts and lodging on the way.

When you sum it up, Central and Western Maine have three full destination ski resorts and some great day skiing all nearby. For details on these and other Maine ski areas, go to www.skimaine.com.