But Cook is wise enough to keep updating, investing heavily in snowmaking and grooming. There are new glades and trails, including a new beginner area with its own fixed quad and gentle trails that make even wobbly-kneed first-timers feel like champs. The enlarged and modernized base lodge now has a huge stone fireplace, ideal for warming chilled bones and drying wet mittens, and a java joint, allowing those who ski the intermediate trails on the mountain’s core to sip a latte while riding the pokey Rangeley double chair. Last season, the summit T was replaced by a quad, a gift to experts who frequent the steep trails and glades.
Opposites attract at two Maine resorts
Sugarloaf and Saddleback take different paths
(Page 3 of 3)
Operations manager Jim Quimby is excited about the new Casablanca Glade being cut on the upper mountain between Muleskinner and Black Beauty. “It eventually will be about 60 acres,’’ he says, and it will include some “natural tree islands, uncut woods within the glade.’’ And before heading up the summit quad for another run, skiers can rest and refuel with soups, sandwiches, and drinks at a yurt, equipped with heat, power, and composting toilets. “Now people will be able to stay up on the upper mountain all day if they want to,’’ Quimby says.
Yet, for all these improvements, Saddleback has no flash and little splash, except during the end-of-season pond-skimming contest. Fashion is more about function than appearance; think Labonville and Columbia, not North Face and Spyder. And it’s not rare to spy a pair of Rossi Strato 210s or Olin Mark IVs in the rack outside the lodge. When lifts close, there might be a few diehards tossing back beers in the Swig ‘n’ Smelt Pub, the lodge’s upstairs lounge-restaurant, but there’s no village, just the lodge and a handful of condos.
“We’re all hicks here,’’ Quimby says. “We’re Maine country small-time charm. We keep it real.’’
Hilary Nangle can be reached at www.HilaryNangle.com.
Advertisement
Advertisement