Basecamp podcast: The attraction and importance of Maine’s Saddleback Mountain

Saddleback offers 68 named trails and glade areas, two terrain parks, and 2,000 feet of vertical. (Saddleback Mountain)

Now heading into its third season since its welcome resurrection, Saddleback Mountain is getting bigger and better. 

New lifts, employee housing, and the mid-mountain lodge are all slated to debut this year in Rangeley, Maine, where Saddleback has, once again, injected itself as an integral part of the community. 

“This is a magical place, to be honest,” said Saddleback chief revenue officer P.J. McSparran, who joined hosts Mike Specian and Eric Wilbur on the latest Basecamp podcast. 

“Having spent so much time up there, there is a community and a family there that makes Saddleback just a gem,” Specian said. “It’s one of those spots that all of our listeners ought to make a plan to get to this year.” 

Listen: 

Highlights from this edition of the Basecamp podcast

On the size and scope of Saddleback Mountain:  

Specian: It is big-mountain skiing here in the East. It doesn’t have the big back bowls of Vail or any of the Western resorts, but it has some true big-mountain feel to it. The views are unbelievable. Rangeley Lake is just a gem. It is a summertime mecca. People have been going there forever.

On returning to normal learning programs following the pandemic: 

McSparran: We’re really excited this year finally to be able to offer some of our season-long programs. We weren’t able to do that the first two seasons. Probably one of the biggest reasons was, as we opened up in the middle of a pandemic, staffing became quite an issue and a challenge for us, so we weren’t able to get back to where we were with a lot of our very successful seasonal programs. So we’re excited to have that going again for this year…Come on up, learn to ski, hone your skills, and we’ll take care of things from there.

The podcast can be streamed at skijournal.com/podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon.