CAMDEN — The three-to-five or more inches of snow that graced the Camden Snow Bowl Saturday night added just enough new cover to transform Ragged Mountain into outstanding Sunday and Monday skiing, drawing crowds to the trails for some of the best of the season. So good, in fact, that the Snow Bowl had a record-breaker Sunday, bringing in $30,000 that day in tickets and rental receipts. 

The crowd was so large that the parking lot filled to capacity, and maintenance crews deployed to the football field to plow additional space, a redux of Toboggan Nationals, just one weekend prior.

By midday Monday, the cash registers were ringing again, and the chairs on the ski lifts were filled all day long. 

And everyone was grinning, even as they tumbled through the fresh powder on Sunday and the softening conditions on Monday. Mainers had not seen the sunlight sparkling on fresh snow in many weeks, making for perfect days to kick off winter vacation for public schools. 

While temperatures began to rise on Monday — some teens were out in their T-shirts, the harbinger of spring skiing —  the parking lot again filled to capacity. This time, however, the field was too mushy to accommodate cars.

Where did they go?

“They creatively parked,” said Snow Bowl Manager Beth Ward.

Many skiers filtered in from all over Maine, and some arrived from out-of-state. There were old-timers to the Snow Bowl, and a variety of first-timers — “a number of people who had not been here before,” said Ward.

Beginner skiers had fun on the Magic Carpet, before graduating to the double chairlift, and finally up the top of Ragged Mountain on the triple chairlift. 

“Lots of lessons,” said Ward.

And, there were a handful of skinners, the adventurers who walk up the sides of the trails on their skis to the top. There, they take a long pause, gathering their breath before zipping down the hill, often to turn around and do it all again. It’s a lot cardio.

While the weather has treated the Snow Bowl well over the weekend, there are few illusions that this week’s warming temperatures will erode the snowpack.

Ward and her crews are watching the weather, as well as the bottom line of the municipally-owned ski mountain.

The mountain was just $20,000 shy of breaking even for the season by early February and this week is traditionally counted on for plumping up the purse.

“Management is watching the budget and the weather closely,” said Ward. 

If the winter’s snow at the Snow Bowl begin to peter out and skiing interest wanes, the mountain may scale back to weekends only. Stay tuned, she said.

The frigid cold of late December, and then last weekend’s 50-degree weather, plus fog, put a dent in the overall traffic at the Snow Bowl. 

Still, the Feb. 19 and 20 conditions couldn’t have been more uplifting for everyone at the mountain. They were the kind of days when people kick back on the deck, faces to the suns. Toddlers roll in the snow, and everyone keeps an eye on the terrain park to watch the those leaping high into the sky. The kind of Snow Bowl days everyone remembers.

The Snow Bowl is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the rest of February vacation week. Visit camdensnowbowl.com for more information.

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657