Eaton Mountain
A Sense of Belonging at Eaton Mountain | November 2018
By Maria Landry
When Dave Beers purchased Skowhegan ski area Eaton Mountain in 2008, it was the realization of a dream 25 years in the making.
Beers grew up in western New York state, where he learned to ski and saw a lot of the smaller ski areas disappearing. When he was still a young teenager, a dream took root.
“I really had this passion to get a small area that would need a hands-on owner-operator,” he said recently. After years of “maneuvering and saving money and getting hands-on training,” he started looking at ski areas all over the country and in Canada.
“I was looking for a certain profile in terms of size, demographics, market, layout,” he said. “Something that had a full range of terrain that would still be compact enough that you didn’t have to run three or four ski lifts in order to access it all. Eaton Mountain had been on my radar. From everything I could gather about it, it seemed pretty ideal.”
Beers says Eaton Mountain was in rough shape when he bought it, and he’s been trying to fix it up and improve its image ever since. Despite some setbacks, he’s steadily making progress.
The ski area has a warming lodge with a full-service snack bar and a rental shop offering skis, snowboards, and helmets. In addition to skiing, the mountain offers snow tubing and some slides and jumps for snowboarding.
“We’ve been doing snow tubing since 2010,” Beers noted. “They were doing it before I bought the place, but we’ve totally redone the snow tubing.”
With lights on the snow tubing hill, Beers would like to see more night tubing this season. He’s hoping Eaton Mountain can organize a series of what he’s termed “town nights” in January and February. As an example, he mentioned that Skowhegan Parks & Rec has occasionally purchased a session and then sold tickets for a nominal amount.
“It acts as a win-win ’cause it gets us some more business and provides a way for people on tight budgets to get out and snow tube,” Beers noted.
As for skiing, Beers has put in two tows for the lower third of the hill, known as the Lower Bowl. “That is a really ideal setup for learning to ski, practicing,” he said. “It’s inexpensive, convenient, family affordable.”
He hasn’t been able to offer skiing off the top of the hill, as the chair lift needs major work. “We’re trying to get a plan together to try to get that fixed,” he said. “We actually have some pretty creative financing ideas that we’re going to try to put together to either fix the chair lift or to get another one.”
In the meantime, Beers recently purchased a small snowcat with bench seats so he can take groups of about eight people at a time to the top of the hill.
“If we get enough natural snow, we’re going to offer that,” Beers said. “That will be a by-reservation kind of thing because of capacity. The plan is to be able to offer the taste of skiing off the top of the hill to those who are into that.”
He’s also planning a big push on a four-visit learn-to-ski program, which was piloted last year.
“For example, somebody would come every Saturday in January from noon to four and basically they would get to ski at the bottom of the hill, get a lesson each day and rental equipment each time,” he explained. “That’s enough to get somebody from being a first-time skier to being a low-intermediate level where they can be confident going out and exploring some of the bigger areas.”
He added that Eaton Mountain also offers a one-time, first-timer special. A brand-new skier can get a lift pass, beginner lesson, and equipment rental for just $30.
“We try to keep the pricing as low as possible by being efficient and real careful with how we spend money up there,” he said.
“It’s a crazy kind of business,” Beers said. “Extremely tough. A lot of things can go wrong. I haven’t made a dollar. Basically, through what little savings I’ve had, I’ve been keeping the place going. There is money out there, but with this kind of business taking out a big mortgage is a death sentence.”
“Most people say I should quit and give up,” he continued, “but I’m too stubborn and driven to do that, so the show goes on. I’ve put everything financially, physically, mentally, and then some that I’ve got into it. I firmly believe the potential’s there. Just need to bring the right team together to execute it.”
To that end, Beers recently hired a new manager, local Mike Kresge.
“I’m expecting he’s going to bring strong community connections and strong leadership to the hill,” Beers said.
Because Beers’ son is in Ohio, Beers says he hasn’t “been able to be that guy on the ground in Skowhegan meeting everybody and driving this” the way he’d like to.
“I really like the Skowhegan area,” he said. “It’s kind of a real middle-of-the road, heart-of-America, blue-collar type town. Keeping in line with that, we’re not going to be the biggest or fanciest, but we keep it simple, we do it right. Make it fun, make ’em want to come back. We want people to be glad they chose to spend their time and money with us.”
Beers says the allure of Eaton Mountain is hard to put into words, but he gave it a try.
“It’s like the authentic Maine experience in a way,” he said. “Certain aspects are kind of quaint and a little bit rough around the edges. The number one thing is our customer service… how personable our staff is… the guys working on the hill chatting with the customers while they’re there. There’s just something about the setting and atmosphere there at the hill. I don’t know if it’s the woodstove in the lodge, the drive in… It’s not like we’re some operation that’s stuck right next the highway. It’s a whole down-home kind of thing. People feel like they belong.”
Eaton Mountain is slated to open Dec. 26, with sessions on Saturdays and Sundays as well as during Christmas and February vacations. Tubing will include two sessions per day, 12-2:30 p.m. and 3:30-6 p.m., while skiing will be available noon to 4 p.m.
For more info visit Eaton Mountain’s website or Facebook page.
