While many outdoor enthusiasts have been impatiently waiting for winter to arrive, operators of a pair of ski areas have been quietly going about their business.

Both Big Rock Ski Area in Mars Hill and New Hermon Mountain in Hermon have been open for quite some time … but representatives of both admit they could stand a blizzard or two to build up the snow base.

“We’ve had our beginner area open since Dec. 16,” said Ryan Guerrette, Big Rock’s operations manager. “We’ve obviously had to go back and touch it up here and there. And we’ve had our snow tubing area open since Dec. 26.”

This week, finally, winter weather began arriving in earnest in Aroostook County. On Friday alone, Guerrette said, the area received much more snow than had been forecast, and snowmaking efforts will continue.

“It’s surprising,” Guerrette said. “They’re saying we were going to get an inch or so, but we got about four inches today. We probably got about six inches right here on the mountain [this week] and I think that’s more than we’ve gotten all season, the way it’s gone.”

Over at New Hermon Mountain, owner Bill Whitcomb has stuck to a tactic he adopted three years ago: He’s not hopping around the mountain from trail to trail with snow guns. Instead, he’s putting down a thick blanket of artificial snow, eventually moving on to another trail after he’s satisfied that the base layer can withstand any warming trend.

“We’ll have a minimum depth on a trail of three feet when we open it, and that’s worked out very well for us the last three years,” Whitcomb said.

A few highlights of each area’s offerings at this point:

. At Big Rock, which features 28 trails and a 980-foot vertical drop, three trails have been open and another, Comet, will open today.

In addition, Big Rock will stage its first snowmobile hill climb of the season at 7 tonight, and will hold the first installment of the five-week Jeep Terrain Park Challenge on Friday at 6 p.m.

Starting on Wednesday, and running each Wednesday night for the rest of the winter, Big Rock will offer free lift tickets, free rentals, and free half-hour lessons to all who visit.

“I think [the free Wednesday program] is going to be an excellent thing for us,” Guerrette said.

And finally, Big Rock’s new snow tubing park is fully operational and its new lounge opened for the first time on Friday.

Ticket prices for Big Rock, which was purchased by the Maine Winter Sports Center in 2000: $25 per day for adults, $18 for juniors ages 6 to 17, and free for those under 6 and older than 75. Tickets for the tubing park cost $10.

. At New Hermon Mountain (vertical drop: 350 feet), Whitcomb has opened three of his 20 trails – intermediate run Scenic, along with beginner options Slow Poke and Lazy Lane. He’s halfway done putting down a base on Lakeview, which is where the snowboarders like to play.

It won’t take long for him to transform that trail into suitable snowboarding terrain as soon as the base layer is down, Whitcomb said.

Also, the popular tubing run is open and ready for action.

After a warm and snow-free winter around Bangor, Whitcomb is looking forward to some cooler weather but said he has been able to get by thus far by narrowing his focus and piling up that artificial snow when possible.

“Let’s just say that we’ve been able to pay the bills, and that’s very important when you’re going through a year like this, and you’ve just had one like the year before,” Whitcomb said.

New Hermon Mountain’s ticket prices: $20 for adults and $15 for juniors under 12, while children younger than 4 and adults older than 70 ski for free. Tubing costs $10 for a three-hour session.

Kiwanis visit enjoyable

On Friday morning, at the invitation of Fred Banks, I rose early to join the Kiwanis Club of Dexter-Sunrise for their weekly breakfast meeting at the cozy Dexter Cafe.

The throng patiently sat through my thoughts on writing an outdoor column and the not-so-glamorous life of a sportswriter, including an unforgettable flight on a plane my co-workers and I still call the “vomit comet.” I know … it doesn’t sound like a perfect breakfast-table tale, but over the years I’ve learned to tell it while sidestepping the gross parts (much to the chagrin of the state’s third-grade pupils, I assume).

After 15 minutes or so, we got to my favorite part of these meetings: the question-and-answer session.

With more than 20 club members in attendance, the questions were varied and thought-provoking and covered everything from moose hunting to the newspaper industry as a whole. Hopefully, everyone left with suitable answers to the questions they asked … even the proud New York Yankees fan who took the opportunity to lobby for more extensive coverage for his favorite team.

Thanks to all of the Kiwanians who took the time to stop and chat. And for those who chose to laugh at a few threadbare tales from the Maine woods, I sincerely appreciate your hospitality.

Web site can help ice anglers

If you’re one of those beached ice anglers who are itching to head onto your nearby lake, there’s probably nothing I can tell you that will make you feel better.

But if you’re one of those whose idea of a perfect day on the ice involves significant travel to a lake or pond miles from your home, I might be able to help.

No, I can’t make the ice form any faster. But I may be able to save you the gas you’d have burned on the way to a pond that locals could have told you was far from safe.

I’d guess that too many anglers put themselves in untenable positions for an avoidable reason: They figure that after driving for an hour or three, they’ve got too much time invested to simply head home without fishing … even if the ice is borderline.

Over the past few years I’ve taken to monitoring a Web site – www.iceshanty.com – that serves as a clearinghouse of information about fishing the hard water.

Of particular interest is the site’s forum board, which is broken down into state-by-state message boards.

On Maine’s board alone, 2,010 topics have been addressed, with Internet users posting 22,176 responses.

Among the Ice Shanty regulars are plenty of anglers who spend as much time on the ice as possible.

What does that mean to you? Well, if you live in Bangor and want an ice report in the Rangeley Lakes region, the posters at Ice Shanty can probably help. Or if you’re wondering whether you should head to Long Lake or East Grand, those same anglers can tell you what they think.

A word of warning: Don’t take what you learn at any Web site as the gospel truth. Instead, just to be safe, treat the information as a guideline.

If Internet posters tell you there’s 6 inches of solid ice on a certain pond, feel free to load up the truck and investigate.

But remember: You’re ultimately responsible for your own safety. Check the ice early and often.

Then, after a productive day of fishing, check back in at Ice Shanty, tell the regulars all about your day, and post a photo or two.

Who knows? You may even end up making a few new fishing buddies.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.