Mt Abram Family Resort

These 5 stars for me are about the overall value of this mountain. Mt. Abram shouldn’t be compared to a Sugarloaf or Sunday River. It’s a fraction of the size and lacks the amenities of those mountains. But my experience was charming.
First, tickets on
were $ 22. This may be the cheapest all day adult lift ticket price of any mountain in Maine. We arrived on a spring Friday to a nearly empty mountain. The main lodge burned down 5 years ago in a freak lightening strike, so the current lodge is in a giant bubble. Inside is diminutive but nice, with plenty of tables to change, a small restaurant, arcade games and a really big bar. It’s a green mountain, with special flooring that aids in heating costs and a massive solar array. They plan on building a shiny new lodge in the next couple of years.
The mountain is primarily accessed by two double lifts. They’re slow, but you don’t come here for state-​of-​the-​art. The trails are wide, well groomed, and intermediate level (at most). It’s not a challenge for an experienced skier, but they’re fun trails and would be a great family destination. With 45 degree weather and sun eventually breaking through, this was some of the best spring skiing in recent years.
After a morning on the slopes, we hit the bar. I preferred the food and bar at Mt. Abram to the restaurants at Sunday River I experienced a week before. The owner of Gritty’s is a frequent customer and arranged for several Gritty’s beers to be on tap. Those are ok, but the stout specially made for Mt. Abram is absolutely fantastic! A couple of these along with excellent chili, a cheeseburger and a very personable bartender resulted in a really strong apres ski.
The 1.5 hour drive from Portland isn’t overly exciting, but that was the only disappointing part of the day. Fun (albeit easier) skiing, no lines, dirt cheap prices and a great bar make Mt. Abram a top choice.

What a great mountain. About an hour and half away from Portland, Mt. Abram offers a lot of great trails for all sorts of skiers. I am by far no Bodie Miller and it had been over 10 years since I last skied so it was nice to ease back into on a few very long green trails.
The ski lodge is small but I would rather have a small lodge and cheaper tickets than some big fancy resort that show off with huge buildings. The lift tickets were about 30 dollars and the rentals for the day are also 30. Very reasonable priced compared to a lot of places.
The loose boots lounge is also a fun spot to grab a couple of brews and the food they had was pretty standard but good. Burger and the pasta salad was filling and helped keep me keep going for a couple of more hours. I forgot how much your thighs and legs killed after a day of skiing but loved the mountain.
You should find yourself to this mountain, ride down snowplow or with French fries skis. Grab your snow pants and go!

We visited the Friday of winter break after reading a good review on the Boston Globe. We tend to stay the entire day when we day trip out to ski — otherwise it isn’t worth the time, effort or money. Unfortunately, Mt Abram does not groom their trails. And I mean not AT ALL. And I also am referring to their greens and blues — the ones that kids like my 7 year old and 9 year old ski. We arrived an hour after the resort opened and more than 4 hours after the snow had stopped — meaning plenty of time for them to have groomed thet rails. The snow was so heavy and thick on all the trails that after 2 hours of trying we finally gave up. We asked the staff who claimed it was too warm to groom (It was 34 degrees with a light drizzle). The parking lot was frozen packed ice — they don’t even attempt to sand it. Are you noticing a theme here? Basically maintenance costs money, and Mt Abrams is able to charge a lot less to ski there if they don’t have to run their trail grooming equipment or call in a plow or dump sand in their parking lot. It’s just not worth the drive or the money. Very disappointing for us and our children, who were simply in tears after trying 5 runs full of extremely thick snow. These are kids who will ski Sunapee for 8 hours nonstop, so it’s not a function of expectations. I have never been to such a poorly maintained ski resort. If they close for good anytime soon, it should be blamed on poor management and maintenance, not global warming.

I learned to ski here at some point in the early 1980’s and it’s probably been about 20 years since my last visit. I had fond memories of the place as being affordable, never crowded, good snow and impressive trail diversity. Just as they were in 1991, those things are still true today. Fridays were «carload» day where $ 75 buys lift tickets for everybody in the car — for us, that meant a $ 25 lift ticket.
The rickety double chairlift that seemed ancient when I was a kid is still there, and it runs just fine. Though high-​speed quads at some mountains have spoiled me a bit, the trip to the top is worth the wait.
I’d call myself an upper intermediate skier, spending most of my day on blue square and black diamond trails. Mt. Abram has a handful of long cruisers that are the quintessential New England ski run — full of curves, twists, narrow turns and wide flats. When you factor in the myriads of cut-​throughs and detours, there’s probably dozens of unique ways down.
There are two wide black diamonds that run most of the length of the mountain, Boris Badenov and Fearless Leader. Both have some challenging steeps but are manageable for most borderline black diamond skiers. If you want a real challenge, head for Rocky’s Run, a steep, ungroomed natural snow only trail. A couple of new trails have been cut since my last visit, including several black diamonds near and under the main lift. A new glade, called «The Zone», starts and ends peacefully but includes one steep section not visible from the lift. A new trail under the lift near the top is appropriately named «The Cliff» — it appears to be popular with snowboarders and daredevil kids.
As was the case 20 years ago, they still do a great job grooming here, though some of the narrower cut-​through trails don’t appear wide enough to get a snow cat through. A few days after a big storm and there were still patches of virgin powder on some trails.
Another thing I remember from my youth — the food here being excellent. The choices are pretty limited, but I highly recommend the chicken tenders. At most mountains you’d pay $ 8 for frozen fingers out of a bag, but here they’re freshly breaded, home made and delicious.
Though there are bigger mountains nearby, you can’t beat Mt. Abram for a classic New England ski experience and a more laid-​back day on the slopes free of crowds and yahoos.

i’ve never been to a ski resort with such a friendly staff! Seriously, every single person I interacted with was as sweet as a sugar sack.
I hadn’t been skiing in years and this was a great place to re-​familiarize myself!
Very much a family environment and insanely unpretentious. Got a great deal on ticket prices (liftopia) and really enjoyed my day here!
The Loose Boots Lounge is great for a beer and a quick bite after as well.
NOTE– CHECK the website for open trails. the one major bummer was that only 3 major trails were open. there are something like 22, but not all are groomed.
rentals are on site for about $ 30 for everything all day.

Capsule summary: A better (and cheaper) option than Sunday River for families and people who are trying to learn to ski or snowboard.
We are year-​round weekenders & have a place in West Bethel, close to Sunday River but we prefer to snowboard at Mt. Abram as boarding beginners. Abram is much cheaper and much less crowded than Sunday River and the overall atmosphere is more laid back and casual.
Last year I was riding up the chairlift with a man who seemed to be waving and shouting greetings at a somewhat larger than normal number of people skiing by underneath us. After a nice conversation he mentioned that «…he had bought the mountain last year». He was one of the new owners and most of his family & children were on the slopes that day. It’s that kind of (chill) place.
Since we are new to boarding we just get half or full-​day passes for the Westside part of the mountain. It’s still 20 bucks for a half-​day pass to Westside although we did get passes this year (2010).
My review would be different if I were an expert boarder or someone who really wanted a large mountain experience — the attraction to Abram is the friendly atmosphere and lack of crowds.

We have a condo in walking distance to Mt. Abram and have lots of friends and family that ski there. The mountain is well groomed and very family friendly. It’s small so good for beginners or experts looking for a relaxing day of skiing. It’s relatively inexpesive as well.
Since the mountain was sold to new owners, it’s really been revitalized. There are lots of events and the owners mingle with everyone and try to get to know them.
The Loose Boots Lounge is a nice apres ski place if you want to stay close by, it’s always crowded after skiing and the bar has pretty much everything you’d want. The food is decent pub grub too.
Only complaint is that the wine is all TERRIBLE. I’d love to see a nicer wine or two make its way into the rotation.
Sunday River is about 20 minutes away if you’re looking for harder trails or more nightlife options. Definitely visit Mt. Abram if you’re in the area!