MARS HILL, Maine — A myriad of weather conditions has made skiing at Bigrock Mountain a bit challenging so far this year.
According to Bill Getman, general manager, the mountain has been closed for five days — four because of the weather and one for maintenance.
Bigrock was closed Jan. 1-2 due to arctic temperatures, as well as most of the day Jan. 11 and all of the next day because of rain/freezing rain.
“We originally opened Jan. 11 at 9 a.m. but by 9:45 a.m. it started to rain,” said Getman. “By 10 a.m. people were skiing down from the top and they were icing up; their goggles and helmets were coated with ice. By 10:30 a.m. there was enough rain and ice on the hill where everything was icy, and by 10:45 a.m. we were sending everybody home.”
Officials closed the mountain last Thursday for maintenance purposes giving crews time to get the slopes ready for Friday skiing.
“Because the weather’s been so mild, we have some bare spots and areas that need attention on ‘The Comet’ which is our main run coming from the top of the mountain,” Getman said Thursday. “Historically Thursdays are not our busiest times so this allowed us to tend to the mountain and be fully open by Friday and through the long weekend.
“Basically we’re working with the snow that we have,” he said. “Our ‘Comet’ and ‘Milky Way’ trails, as well as our triple area have coverage because we had man-made snow on those trails so there was a thicker base. Essentially we’re moving some snow around to cover up thin areas. Hopefully we’ll be making more snow in the next few days. Ideally you want to make snow when it’s 15 degrees, and that’s not projected to happen until Monday.”
Getman said the recent warm temperatures are causing the snow to melt.
“If you step outside, you can hear water running off the mountain,” he said. “It sounds like a babbling brook. Business-wise, we’d like to have 20-degree weather every day with the sun shining and two inches of fresh snow every night. That would be ideal, but we live in northern Maine.”
None of the recent weather conditions, Getman said, have been great.
“Cold weather keeps the skiers away but it keeps the mountain in tact. Rain keeps the skiers away, and then all of a sudden people see bare spots in their backyard and they equate that to the ski area whether true or not,” said Getman. “The mild conditions make pushing the snow around very tricky because you’re just pushing slush around which is hard to work with.”
Traditionally January is usually challenging weather-wise.
“We’ve seen a little bit of everything … snow, sun, rain … freezing rain. We’ve had three inches of rain in January. Imagine what that would have been like 10 degrees colder and all snow? It would be a winter wonderland,” said Getman. “December was the sixth snowiest month on record, and we had a fabulous December.
“Usually January is either bitter cold or we get these warm spells that do damage. We’re basically trying to get the hill back into condition where we can ski again and look forward to February,” he said. “February and March tend to be better months for us, so for the most part we’re in line with previous years, but I would say there have been more extremes this year than there have been in the past.”
