The streak for Paul Schipper has ended. Flags flew at half-staff on Tuesday at Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley, Maine in his honor.

Paul Schipper died Monday, February 16, at the Maine Veterans Home in Bangor of complications of pneumonia. He was 85. He had been hospitalized since December 2008 after breaking his hip.

Sam Sweetser of Cumblerland, Maine took first place for the U.S. after the Canadians swept the top four spots of the North American Alpine SuperG and Downhill (NorAM) series at Mammoth Mountain in California on Thursday.

The 24-year old downhill racer ended up a notch closer to the podium, when he finished the Wednesday SuperG in seventh place.

Sam, speaking on his cell phone from the finish arena on Wednesday spoke with his dad, Greg Sweetser, Executive Director of the Ski Maine Association said that he was pleased with the day's race. "This was my best race of the year and really helps my world ranking," he said.

Make plans this weekend to attend the second annual Maine Ski Heritage Classic at Sugarloaf Mountain.

Come and see some of Maine's classic skis and historic memorabilia, and watch as skiers dressed in heritage ski wear take to the slopes on Saturday.

Sugarloaf Mountain is the site for the 2nd Annual Maine Ski Heritage Classic to be held Saturday and Sunday, February 14 and 15.

The event was a big success last year, generating over $16,000 for the Ski Museum of Maine, located in Farmington.

On Saturday and Sunday, the museum's traveling display will be in the base lodge showing historical memorabilia, old photos, and equipment highlighting the industry's growth from the early 1900's to today.

Charlie Gaunce, of Waterville, carves a turn on the Windrow trail on Sunday at Sugarloaf. The mountain received more than a foot of powder at the beginning of the week. Photo by Dan Cassidy.

Skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain last Sunday was as close to skiing in some of the finest powder found anywhere out west.

It was a stark difference from the day before when temperatures plummeted to sub-zero numbers, in the -20 to -25 degree range at mid mountain, with winds gusting at 25 to 30 mph. That brought the chill factor to -40 to -45 degrees! One consolation … no black flies!

Sunday was an entirely different day. Heavy snow began just after daybreak. My friend, Charlie Gaunce of Waterville and I savored the quietness of skiing effortlessly through snow that had the consistency of a puffy cloud. It brought back memories to each of us of skiing in Utah and the High Sierra's around Lake Tahoe. We quietly danced through almost a foot of ungroomed snow! Tired at the end of the day, we each had a smile on our faces. A rare day it was to be skiing in 'champagne' powda' here in the Great State of Maine!

Seth Wescott, Olympic gold medalist cut the red ribbon on the newest ski and snowboard course Saturday at Sugarloaf. The new Sidewinder Snowboardcross course, designed by Wescott was opened to the public after he and several lucky riders took their inaugural run.

The 32-year-old Olympic athlete spent several days riding in snow cats putting the final touches on the Sidewinder course prior to his ribbon cutting run.

"Snowboardcross is definitely a growing sport," Wescott said. "For me to go out and win the first Olympic gold medal in this discipline has been the realization of a lot of years of hard work and it's really nice to be able to create the new training and competition facility for that here. It's been great fun being able to design the course from scratch, and I hope people will enjoy it."

It wasn't exactly a ski day that I would have planned, but I have made it a point to head to the mountains on January 1. It's a tradition, one that I have been doing for many years, to ski on New Year's Day.

Yesterday was a beautiful day overhead, but it was quite different if you ventured out into the cold, brisk air.

Santa Claus is working with two ski resorts, Sugarloaf and Sunday River, offering guests different gifts every day through Christmas.

How about lift tickets beginning at just $29! From kids to seniors, everyone wins during the Christmas holidays.

The promotion of events is already in progress.

Winter is here. The days are shorter and the nights colder and longer. The mountains are covered with a good blanket of snow and it's time to get out your ski and snowboard gear and head to the slopes.

Powder alert
The western mountains of Maine are supposed to get a good dump of maybe 14 to 18 inches of powder tonight and tomorrow, just in time for a great weekend of skiing and riding.

Buckle your boots and get on the boards boys and girls and get up to Sugarloaf where you can get some high altitude skiing and riding this weekend.

Over two feet of natural snow has fallen over the past eight days. And with some enhanced snowmaking, skiers and riders can get to the 4,237 foot summit to enjoy some of the season's earliest and best conditions ever in the snowfields.

Sugarloaf and Sunday River have some of the best skiing and riding conditions ever seen this early into the season in snow country, and more snow is predicted for the rest of the holiday week.

The guns continue to pump snow at Sugarloaf, with snowmaking on Sluice, Lower Narrow Gauge, Tote Road, Kings Landing, Hay Burner, Candy Side and the Terrain Park, just in time for the Thanksgiving weekend.

Temperatures have dropped, the foliage season is gone and snowmaking guns are in high gear at Sugarloaf Mountain.

The mountain plans to crank their lifts for the season on Friday with skiing and riding on Tote Road, with lift service on the SuperQuad chairlift.

"We got everything online and running this morning," Rich 'Crusher' Wilkinson, vice president of operations at Sugarloaf said in a press statement. "If all goes well we should have some excellent conditions here for opening day."