By ALAN CROWELL
Staff Writer Monday, February 26, 2007

BAKER MOUNTAIN
WATCH A SLIDESHOW of Baker Mountain activities.

enlarge Staff photos by Jeff Pouland

Baker Mountain volunteer Cindy Belanger adjusts a pair of skis for 7-year-old Durgin Sweet of Concord.

enlarge Staff photos by Jeff Pouland

Jack Hilmer looks at a line of skiers at Baker Mountain in Bingham on Friday. Hilmer has been volunteering at the ski mountain for 20 years.

enlarge Staff photos by Jeff Pouland

Staff photo by Jeff Pouland WARMING UP: Tyler Pinkham, 14, sits by a wood stove while taking a break with friends Seth Stevens and Josh Beane (left to right) inside Baker Mountain ski lodge in Bingham on Friday.

enlarge Staff photo by Jeff Pouland

Teenagers ride the T-bar lift up Baker Mountain in Bingham on Friday. The T-bar is the only way up the ski mountain, which has been in operation since 1937.

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The 10-year-old Bingham boy was learning to ski under the tutelage of Aindrea Casey, 28, who grew up in Bingham, where Baker Mountain has been the place to be during winter vacations and weekends since 1937.

"It was very exciting. That was the highlight of winter, coming to Baker Mountain," said Casey, who learned how to ski at the free clinics offered at the mountain and was returning that favor Wednesday.

Messer said he probably would be at home playing a game on his PlayStation if he weren't on the slopes.

The small Baker Mountain lodge had the ambiance of a day-care center, with a group of young children watching a cartoon video in one corner while teens sat around a wood stove at the rear of the lodge.

On a wall near the television was a sign that proclaimed "Baker Mt. Est. 1937." Next to it another sign promised "All Men Over 93 Free." The word "people" had been added under "men."

Jake Tremblay, 15, of Moscow was sitting on a bench near a window with some friends after snowboarding.

Pretty much all of his friends come to Baker Mountain, Tremblay said.

"You never hang out with as many friends as you do here, except for school," said Tremblay.

He said his classmates look forward to coming to the mountain every year.

Robert Henderson, president of the Baker Mountain Ski Tow Club Inc., which operates the ski area, said it is one of the oldest ski slopes in Maine, going pretty much continuously since 1937, when there is snow -- the mountain has no snowmaking equipment.

After snow, the second most important ingredient is volunteer labor -- there were 10 working on Wednesday, with about 50 skiers, mostly teens or younger.

Henderson already had put in about seven or eight hours by late Wednesday afternoon and estimated he might put in another six or seven by the time the night session was over.

As president of the club, Henderson was in a supervisory role, but other volunteers worked at the snack counter, helped children with rental skis and boots or worked on the lift.

"We have always tried to keep skiing economical for the kids in the area. The kids really use it," said Henderson.

During vacation week, the slope is open during the day and then again from 5-9 p.m., on most nights that do not precede a school day.

The mountain has one wide slope down the center and four trails on the sides that vary from easy to fairly difficult, he said.

A lift ticket is $6 and another $6 rents skis -- a small fraction of the cost at bigger mountains. A family can buy a season pass for $100.

The Quimby family, which ran the Quimby veneer mill until it closed in the 1970s, started the ski area after an inspirational trip to a Vermont ski area.

Henderson said the mountain operation was pretty basic at first, with a motor at the top powering the slope's tow rope.

The lodge came in 1968 and a few improvements have been made through the years, usually with the help of larger ski areas that have donated equipment, such as a groomer and rental skis.

Like everything else on the mountain, Henderson said that equipment is kept going with the help of people who volunteer their time and skills.

"People volunteer who don't even ski because they recognize the value to the area," he said.

Inside the lodge, Wes Baker watched the slopes where his six children learned to ski.

"It is the best family slope in the state," said Baker.

Penny Flannery, who was volunteering, said she knew her own children were safe when she dropped them off at the mountain years ago.

"I felt comfortable for the simple fact that I knew everybody who worked here," she said.

Now all of her children volunteer as well.

She said that sense of commitment, passed down from generation to generation, is what keeps the mountain going.

Alan Crowell -- 474-9534, Ext. 342

acrowell@centralmaine.com