Amos Winter

The requirements for a successful undertaking, vision and the ability to get things done are rarely combined within a single individual, but Amos Winter, a Kingfield storekeeper, who loved to ski, had both. As he grew up with his broth¬ers, hunting, fishing, trapping, exploring and skiing in the Western Maine Mountains in the 1940's, he and his friends developed an appetite for skiing. Additionally spurred by trips to Tuckerman Ravine, they turned to near¬by Bigelow Mountain for adventure.

Amos, with the help of some local skiers, mostly school kids, cut a ski trail on Maine's 4th highest mountain. He and the "Bigelow Boys" made it an annu¬al ritual to climb and ski their new run.

When the building of Long Falls Dam on Dead River created Flagstaff Lake and cut off their access to the back side of Bigelow, they looked across the valley to the snowfields of Sugarloaf. In 1948 they bushwhacked their way and climbed to the top, scoping out a ski trail as they went.

The Bigelow Boys cut a single run from the base of the snowfields, later named Winter's Way, this was the birth of Sugarloaf. Knowing more people were needed to turn the dream of a sin¬gle trail into a full-fledged ski area, Amos helped launch the Sugarloaf Ski Club in 1950 and became the de-facto general manager of a still-unrealized dream of a ski area.

At the same time Maine skiers, through the Maine Ski Council, were looking for a Maine mountain with the potential for a race trail that would rival Nosedive at Stowe and the Taft at Cannon. With help from those Maine skiers, the first trail was built and soon races were being held. Those early races brought participants and publicity to the area calling attention to its abundant snowfall.

When the attention created by the races demanded the first T-Bar lift, Amos sold his store and devoted the rest of his life to the realization of his dream. While others dealt with the media and the bankers, Amos did what he had always done best.

He made things happen on the ground. He oversaw the construction of the early lifts, base lodge expansion and growth of a ski area that was soon rec¬ognized as one of the finest ski moun¬tains in the East.

Along with his loving wife Alice, Amos guided Sugarloaf through its infan¬cy and adolescence. Together they sold tickets and greeted skiers, she assuring the skiers' return with a smile no skier forgot.

Someone once said, "Before they made Amos Winter they threw away the mold."

He was truly one-of-a-kind. The ski industry became populated with people whose most important lessons about not only the business of skiing but life were learned at Amos' side on the slopes of Sugarloaf during the halcyon days of ski area development in Maine.