RANGELEY, Maine - Owners of the Saddleback Mountain ski area in Rangeley say unless they can get $3 million in financing needed to replace its aging Rangeley Double Chair, the family-owned resort will not open for the 2015-2016 ski season.
The 51-year-old double chair lift serves as the main access from the base lodge to the top of Saddleback Mountain. Owner Mark Berry says a new four-person lift will more than double the number of skiers per hour that can transported up the mountain.
Berry says Saddleback has been looking to put the new lift in for a couple of years and is working very hard on the project this year.
"We need to order the lift by, basically, the beginning of August in order to have it installed for the winter," Berry says, "and the options don't seem to be coming in as quickly as we would like. And so we just made this decision."
Berry says one consequence of shutting down for the coming season would be the loss of a lot of the mountain's loyal customers, which could hurt the ski resort in subsequent seasons.
