RUTLAND, Vt. – In Vermont, ski resorts are hoping early snow and cool temperatures mean a banner season is coming. In Maine, some ski resorts are doing more than hoping as they offer special deals to get more bodies on the state’s slopes.

The ski industry is hoping to bounce back from last season when a stretch of bitterly cold weather in January kept many skiers at home.

Jeff Weis, communications director for Vermont’s Stowe Mountain Resort, is optimistic, saying early snow, cool temperatures and season pass sales are all pointing to a good year.

“It’s dumping snow as we speak, but even more important than the little nor’easter we got [Friday] is the snow-making window is wide open for the next 10 days,” Weis said. “The trend over the past couple of years has been unfavorable. We’ve seen a slight decrease in ski visits, but we’re not discouraged.”

In Maine, total skier visits during the past decade have been flat for the most part, following a national trend. Hoping to nudge sales upward, some ski areas have been offering deep-discount preseason ski passes.

American Skiing Co. offered a $349 season pass to Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine and four of its other resorts in New Hampshire and Vermont.

“You don’t have to ski much to get $349 back,” said Joe Groff of Cape Elizabeth, who bought one of the passes. Other forms of discounts such as the Ski Maine Passbook are also being offered.

Stowe Mountain’s Weis said the dip in business last year was related to the unusually cold weather, something he said isn’t likely to strike again with such severity this year.

It’s not just the weather that has Weis excited. Stowe invested “tens of millions of dollars” this summer on improvements including the first new lifts in seven years.

He said the new lifts, expanded instructional programs and an increased snow-making capacity should make it possible for Stowe to host more people this winter than ever before.

“We have earlier open dates projected for more trails, our half-pipe and terrain park,” Weis said. “The earliest indications, the season pass sales and frequent-skier passes, all of those are meeting expectations.”

Stowe is hoping to open Nov. 19. The Killington ski area is hoping to open Tuesday, which would carry on its tradition of being the first resort to open in the East.

Statewide, about 200,000 fewer people took to the slopes in the winter of 2003 to 2004 than the year before, according to Heather Atwell of the Vermont Ski Areas Association. But with many mountains making significant capital improvements adding snow-making machines, lifts and terrain, Atwell said the mountains are looking forward to a good year.