- Best Maine Ski Area for Families
- Best Maine Ski Area for Overall Terrain
- Best Maine Ski Area for Grooming & Snowmaking
- Best Maine Ski Area for Overall Value
- Maine Ski Area of the Year
- Saddleback Sticker Drawing Winners
Best Maine Ski Area for Families
The Winner - Black Mountain of Maine
Fun Family Fact - A cool family event happening at Black Mountain this winter is they are partnering with Gorham Bike & Ski and welcoming The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital's children, families & staff to the mountain for an entirely free day of fun. Stay tuned to the Black Mountain website for further details as they become available.
Black Mountain is open Friday - Sunday along with winter holiday and school vacation periods. In fact, we think this video sums up pretty well what Black Mountain is all about.
We encourage you to give this Rumford, Maine mountain a visit this year! And bring the Family!
Honorable Mention
We would like to recognize Lost Valley in Auburn and Mt. Abram in Greenwood as honorable mention winners in the Best Maine Ski Area for Families category. These family-friendly ski areas received strong support from our readers. Both Lost Valley and Mt. Abram do a great job providing opportunities to spend some quality time in the outdoors in Maine. Check them out with your family this winter! They are well worth the visit!
And you really can't go wrong visiting any Maine ski area with your family and build some memories. Get your family outside and enjoy all this great state has to offer!
And you really can't go wrong visiting any Maine ski area with your family and build some memories. Get your family outside and enjoy all this great state has to offer!
From the Family Skiing in Maine “Old Man” - here are his favorite trails at Sugarloaf. (Click here for Sugarloaf trail map.)
Green square - A bit off the beaten track, but lower West Mountain is an awesome beginner area. From the mid-station on down the slope is gentle and the views scenic. For something more accessible from the base lodge you can’t beat Boardwalk off the Double Runner chair. The trail is very wide and great for new skiers to learn how to turn.
Blue square - Tote Road from the summit to the base lodge is an awesome three mile intermediate run. For a less crowded blue square run, try any of the blues off of Bullwinkles Lodge - Upper Scoot, Upper Windrow and Upper Glancer. You will often find the Old Man slashing up the side gnar on any of these trails.
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| Proper "Old Man Slashing" Technique |
Glades - Sugarloaf’s Brackett Basin is a glade playground where you can spend all day and not do the same run twice. But you will usually find the Old Man in Gondi Glade - a glade on the skiers right of the Upper Gondi trail. It usually holds great snow and has just the right pitch and tree spacing to generate some great Old Man slash turns.
And we must mention the backside snowfields. Only open a few days a year but if you are an expert skier or rider, the backside is well worth the visit! Congratulations to Sugarloaf for being named by the voters as the Best Maine Ski Resort for Overall Terrain.
When planning for your Sugarloaf ski day, use our Sugarloaf Snow Report page where you can find the latest weather, ski conditions and a link to a live webcam.
Honorable Mention
Black Mountain of Maine came in a strong second in the overall terrain category as voted on by our readers. Black Mountain offers some great green and blue cruisers and the glade scene has really taken off. A volunteer group called the Angry Beavers do amazing work maintaining the glades and opening up new gladed terrain at Black. Also for cross country skiers there is a world-class nordic facility for winter fun and competition. When the snow is on you cannot go wrong at Black!
Sunday River has made a big investment in their snowmaking capabilities to make sure they are consistently one of the first areas on the East Coast, and in the nation for that matter, to open each year. In fact, they were the first ski area in Maine to bring snow guns online into mountain operations. Sunday River has a great page on their website detailing their snowmaking history and current operational technology. For the 2019-20 season, Sunday River installed four new 500-horsepower pumps which will add another 10 percent of water capacity for snowmaking.
And the Sunday River grooming fleet & drivers are masters and turning a variety of snow conditions into groomed perfection. The Sunday River blog details a night in the life of a groomer driver at Sunday River. It is not as easy as one might think! Without snowmaking and groomers, skiing would often be a pretty miserable experience. Congratulations to the Sunday River operations crew for being named Best Maine Ski Resort for Grooming / Snowmaking.
Honorable Mention
Sugarloaf came in a strong second in the Grooming / Snowmaking category. Many times over the years, we have been amazed how the groomers and snowmakers at Sugarloaf can transform the snow after a niar (bad word spelled backwards) event into a very skiable product. Sugarloaf has a big focus on energy conservation and has an impressive fleet of low-energy HKD snowguns to go along with its armada of groomers to get the mountain in tip-top shape for their skiers and riders.
Hats off to all the on-mountain operations teams across all the Maine ski resorts! Thanks for working odd hours, braving the cold and providing a great on-mountain skiing product for your guests!
Hats off to all the on-mountain operations teams across all the Maine ski resorts! Thanks for working odd hours, braving the cold and providing a great on-mountain skiing product for your guests!
For those needing to rent equipment, you can rent a full day ski or snowboard package for $35 / half day for $25. And if you feel like a tubing day you can enjoy that for $15 with no tube rental fee! Nordic season passes are $150 with a day nordic pass at $15.
Additionally, the concessions are very affordable plus the Last Run Pub offers Happy Hour 4pm to 7pm each Friday with $2 off Stevie’s Famous Chicken Wings!
Historically, Black Mountain has also offered “ski free” events sponsored by local business. Stay tuned to the Black Mountain of Maine website to keep informed of any special events this season.
A great ski area at affordable prices. Black Mountain is our Readers' Choice for best overall value in Maine!
Honorable Mention
Mt. Abram in Greenwood, Maine came in a strong second in the voting. This ski areas offers one of the most competitive adult day lift tickets in Maine with a $29 non-holiday Thursday / Friday; Saturday $49 and Sunday $39 ticket. Additionally their Westside beginner area offers tickets from $10 - $30. And to let you in on an inside tip - the terrain on this mountain is sneaky good. If you are an expert skier, check out Rocky’s Run on a powder day. It is steep and deep! Mt. Abram is well worth the visit and won’t break the bank.
Black Mountain received the highest overall vote total across the 4 categories of families, terrain, snowmaking / grooming and value (scroll up to see complete results)... taking home first place in the families and value categories.
Black Mountain has a long history in the Maine skiing scene. Black Mountain opened in its current location the early 1960's and had a ski jump facility, nordic and alpine trails. In the early 2000's Black received major capital support from the Maine Winter Sports Center. Through this partnership a fantastic base lodge was constructed and a new main triple chair was installed servicing a 1,380 foot vertical drop... which by the way is the third highest vertical drop for Maine lift serviced ski area.
In 2013, the Black Mountain was at a crossroads and facing closure. The Black Mountain community stepped up and raised an initial $125,000 to take over operating control of the mountain. Since then, this community has rallied around the mountain to keep it operating. Mountain and volunteer crews went to work expanding snowmaking, opening new trails and building a glade skiing system that is second to none. As a non-profit corporation, the Black Mountain mission statement says it best:
We are dedicated to re-establishing skiing as a lifestyle in the River Valley. We will provide a safe environment that is accessible, family orientated and devoted to making a difference in people’s lives.
This Rumford, Maine ski area offers something for everyone at very affordable prices. A true winter recreation gem in the western Maine mountains. Congratulations to Black Mountain of Maine and its fans!
Saddleback Sticker Drawing Winners
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| Congrats Katy & Michelle! |
We are pleased to name our two winners of the Saddleback sticker drawing!
- Katy from Bowdoinham, Maine
- Michelle from Gray, Maine
Congratulations to our winners and your stickers are on the way! Thanks to everyone who voted and we appreciate the fantastic support of our Facebook fans and blog readers. See you on a ski slope in Maine!
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