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Learn a Snow Sport Month Means Cool Deals for Mainers

December 07, 2009 - AUGUSTA -- Maine will join 32 states this year in making January "Learn a Snow Sport Month," ramping up the movement to get Americans out on the slopes. But the momentum here won't stop with a cool catchphrase.

This year, Maine has more deals for beginners and more to come for the January celebration.

"It's just a start," said Greg Sweetser, executive director of Ski Maine, who is at the forefront of rallying Maine's ski areas to offer lessons and discounts.

Some of the January deals already rolled out include:

• The Maine Learn to Ski and Ride card, a collaboration among Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley, Sunday River in Newry, Camden Snow Bowl in Camden and Titcomb Mountain in Farmington. For just $89, a new skier or snowboarder gets three lift tickets plus rentals and one lesson.

• At Lost Valley, anyone who takes a learn to ski or ride lesson will get a free lift ticket and a half-price voucher for their return trip, good until Feb. 12.

• And Titcomb Mountain in Farmington will give a $5 coupon to anyone who returns to take a lesson or buys a lift ticket.

Since the governor's proclamation was passed just last week, Sweetser said he foresees more January deals being added in the month ahead.

And, in truth, there already are other discounted deals around alpine sports that are not as popular as they could be, Sweetser said.

The "Bring a Friend" program at Sugarloaf and Sunday River gives a free lift ticket to anyone who brings a friend to take a lesson and enjoy the snow. What was once a national campaign now gets little buzz.

"That deal is as old as the hills. The Bring a Friend campaign was a national campaign way back. The whole Midwest still uses it," Sweetser said. "Bring a Friend is such a powerful campaign, because typically most who learn go with someone who knows how to ski or ride."

Sweetser wants to make Maine the home of this national push to recruit new snow sport fans, and that makes sense. Getting people to embrace the pull of gravity in the winter is a part of our storied history.

"Maine may have had the longest history in skiing in the Northeast, since the Swedes came in 1870 to New Sweden," Sweetser said.

In 1905, Portland cabinetmaker and English immigrant Theodore Johnsen began making skis after his Swedish wife introduced him to the sport. He designed and built a line of skis, and put out an instructional manual to help teach early Mainers how to use them.

Johnsen was a pioneer in every sense of the word, which is to say, he knew nothing about skiing before he met his wife, Hilda Ek, who turned him into an instant fan of the sport.

"Theo Johnsen was a cabinetmaker. He was too far ahead of his time. He distributed his skis in hardware stores across the country. They were so high-end that first year he sold no skis," Sweetser said. "They were so expensive, he didn't sell many skis. He only made them for a couple of years. But the cool thing was, he was a pioneer."

Johnsen also wrote a book that, according to Maine ski historian Glenn Parkinson in his book "First Tracks," was considered "the first ever published in English on the sport."

The nostalgia around Maine's alpine history is one reason Sweetser hopes more mountains jump into the national movement to promote snow sports. He believes more incentives like the five-mountain, three-day deal will be offered in the future.

"In Maine, there has been such leadership in the ski industry," Sweetser said. "And the (National Ski Area Association) is hopeful that next year, with more states signed on, it will get a federal proclamation. There are 40 ski states in the country; this year, 32 are involved. Next year, we want to take it to the next level."


CHECK 'EM OUT
JANUARY IS Learn a Snow Sport Month in Maine.
MAINE HAS JOINED 32 states in helping persuade non-winter
types to try an alpine sport. Here are a few of the deals offered in
January to rally the cause:
• Bring a Friend at Sugarloaf or Sunday River.
• Maine Learn to Ski and Ride card, good at Sugarloaf, Sunday River, Titcomb Mountain, Camden Snow Bowl and Lost Valley.
• Lost Valley has a special Learn to Ski and Ride program.
• Titcomb Mountain is giving a $5 coupon for returning snow sport rookies.
FOR MORE special deals, go to Ski Maine at www.skimaine.com.

DEIRDRE FLEMING, Portland Press Herald, December 2, 2009


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