WEST FARMINGTON — Finally.

That was the feeling Saturday at Titcomb Mountain in West Farmington during the first weekend of family skiing this winter. The mountain received about 7 inches of snow Tuesday and opened for the year on Wednesday, Titcomb manager Megan Roberts said.

A winter wonderland is finally visible through a lodge window at Titcomb Mountain in West Farmington. Photos by Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel

Jessica Eillingwood-Simpson teaches her son Wes, 4, how to ski Saturday at Titcomb Mountain in West Farmington.

“Everyone was so happy. Everyone was so excited,” Roberts said Saturday amid a din of mostly youthful voices inside the lodge cafeteria. “Even though we opened with all the trails not open, everyone is having a great time. They’re glad to be back. It’s just like home to a lot of people.”

Two of the mountain’s 16 trails were open Saturday – The Bunny and another beginner’s trail – while other ski areas, such as Eaton Mountain in Skowhegan, Lost Valley and Saddleback, have yet to open.

The nonprofit Farmington Ski Club owns the ski area and has since 1942. The 1838 lodge, with thick wooden beams and a big brick fireplace, was moved in numbered pieces to make way for the new Farmington post office in the 1930s. It was reassembled and dedicated in 1949 to John Abbot Titcomb, Roberts said.

The mountain is run on an annual budget of about $220,000 by a 14-member board of directors. The lifts are two T-bars and a “pony lift,” Roberts said, noting the low-tech lifts are a way the club keeps expenses down and make it an affordable “mom and pop” family ski mountain.

Once the trails are all open, the cost to ski is $22 for the whole day.

The 750-foot slope with a 340-foot vertical drop offers alpine trails for all skill levels, from beginner to expert, including a terrain park for skiers and riders. Snow making covers 70 percent of Titcomb alpine trails and night skiing is available on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

“We’ll have a lot more trails open next week,” Roberts said. “We’ll be making snow Sunday night, Monday night … Tuesday …”

Nine-year-old Meredith Gagnon of Wilton, a skier since she was 4 and a member of the Titcomb ski team, said she came out Saturday with her father and her little sister Molly, 3.

“I like it,” she said. “I come here six days a week.”

With all the excitement of the first Saturday of skiing, Meredith said she had an adventurous first ride down the mountain: “I crashed,” she said.

Her father, Aaron Gagnon, a member of the Titcomb board of directors who was Volunteer of the Year a couple of years ago, said he was looking forward to that first snow like everybody else. And when the snow finally came and night temperatures were low enough to keep the snow from melting, he had just one word.

“Finally,” he said.

“We’ve been waiting. Mother Nature hasn’t cooperated for natural snow, and the temperatures really haven’t cooperated to make snow. It’s been a long wait-and-see. We struggled.”

Traditional opening day at Titcomb Mountain is Dec. 18 or 19 – the weekend before Christmas, he said.

“For me, Titcomb is a family-friendly place,” he said. “It’s member-based, community-based. Members will roll up their sleeves and pitch in and help out.”

Another veteran skier, Nick Fraser, 13, of Farmington, was largely academic about reporting his first day on the mountain.

“The conditions were pretty good – a little crusty,” said Nick, now in his sixth year on the slopes. “I was really happy when it snowed on Tuesday, but I knew Titcomb would be opening in a few days after. It’s a small mountain and there’s not a lot of people here, and they have really good conditions. I like it.”

Roberts added that it takes hundreds of volunteers and eight months of work to run the mountain.

“The people get very loyal about the Farmington Ski Club,” she said. “They have for years – since the ’50s. We ask each family to donate eight hours, and we have 500 families. Say a third of them are kids, so we have probably 300-plus volunteers to keep it all straight.”

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