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V O L . X X V I N O. X I I J U N E 1 , 2 0 2 0 20 L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N / W E S T E R N M A I N E S unday, March 15 was a beauti- ful, sunny day. e snow on the ski slopes in western Maine was awesome. Hundreds of skiers at Sunday River and Sugarloaf were taking advan- tage of a perfect combination of sun, snow and longer spring days. at ended at 4 p.m. when the ski resorts ended the season early because of the pandemic. "We were watching what was hap- pening nationally over the course of that weekend," says Karolyn Castaldo, director of communications at Sunday River Resort in Newry. "Other parts of the country, like Colorado, had orders to shut down their ski areas. Our corporate owners, Boyne Resorts, had been looking at different options for us and made the decision that all of its resorts should close." "We had a full resort that week- end," says Ethan Austin, director of marketing and communications at Sugarloaf Mountain and Ski Resort, also a Boyne Resorts property. "It was sunny; our snow had been really good. We announced during the day that we would have to close the resort. People got their last runs in. We shut down all of our operations." Events were canceled, including the two biggest of the year, Reggae Fest in April and the Sugarloaf Marathon in May. "Some conferences in April and May had to be cancelled. All of our secondary businesses were closed," Austin says. e abrupt closures were in keeping with ski areas and the overall economy throughout the nation. For community ski areas such as Hermon Mountain, the early closure had little impact because many close in March anyway, says Ski Maine Association's executive director, Greg Sweetser. But for the larger resorts, which typically operate until early May, it was a loss of about six weeks of rev- enue from customers who flock to Maine for spring skiing. "Maine is a spring skiing mecca," says Sweetser. at's because March is Maine's No. 2 month for snowfall, after February. e days are longer. And with smaller New England ski areas closed by that point in the season, skiers head to Maine's larger resorts. By late spring, resorts and busi- nesses in their surrounding areas typi- cally start to gear up for the summer's onslaught of tourists looking for other recreational opportunities. "But everyone is concerned about the summer and how this carries for- ward," says Dirk Gouwens, who in May became the association's executive direc- tor when Sweetser retired. Looking ahead In recent years, ski resorts have repositioned themselves for year- round activity. Sunday River and Sugarloaf have golf courses and activities like chairlift rides, hiking and paddling. e resorts offer restau- rants, live music and other events. Sunday River's summer business is predominantly based on conferences and weddings. "Most of our spring and summer business has been canceled or postponed to later this year or to next year in those segments," says Castaldo. "Fall confer- ences, meetings and weddings are still on the books, which is encouraging." But Sunday River won't operate its Mountain Park, with activities like bun- gee trampolines, nor its Sunday River Outfitters programming. Some con- struction scheduled this summer, includ- ing an observation tower for summer and fall chairlift rides and conference space renovations, for the resort's grow- ing year-round conference and wedding business, will be postponed. Loss of revenue is significant for Sugarloaf, says Austin. "It's certainly a significant loss to lose a month and half of operation," he says. "And summer operations are still a question mark." Sugarloaf might also have construc- tion delays, like a hotel spa planned to start this summer. "We're still determining if that will go forward this summer or be pushed to 2021," he says. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Blizzard warning Ski resorts hit with early shutdown, construction delays, spring cancellations B y l a u R i e s C h R e i B e R F O C U S Karolyn Castaldo, director of communications at Sunday River in Newry, says the resort's abrupt March closure didn't have a major impact on winter revenue. But the summertime impact might be worse.

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