Mt. Abram began renting Sno-Max sleds this month. Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn rents Cresta Sleds, which look like the luges that are raced in the Winter Olympics. At the least, though, the sleds are giving Mt. Abram and Lost Valley new tools to attract customers at a time when the ski industry has been in the doldrums. They can ride the sleds at speeds of 30 mph or more, and cut back and forth because they have handlebars. The sleds are easy to master, and Dube and Williams are doing 360-degree spins and turns after just a few runs.
Some people say the ride is like driving a go-cart down a mountain.
Randy Dunican, owner of Mt. Abram, thinks the Sno-Max could be the biggest thing to hit the ski industry since the snowboard. With skier visits down both nationally and in the Northeast, ski resorts could use something for a jump start. In the Northeast, there were 12.2 million skier visits last year, the lowest in four years and the third-lowest since 1985. So when Dunican saw the Sno-Max at a ski trade show last year, he decided to give the sled a chance. Barry Oberpriller, who invented the sled, and Craig Asch, his business partner, brought 30 of the sleds to Mt. Abram last weekend to test them out.