| Eaton Mountain is a friendly survivor from an earlier era when mom-and-pop ski areas dotted town after town in the northern New England countryside.
The ski hill's current owners rescued it from bankruptcy a decade ago, nursed the business back to health, and then lost their newly built repair barn, plus part of the base lodge, to fire a couple seasons ago.
And yet each year when the weather turns cold, central Maine skiers know that Gene Kent will be up on his mountain, fiddling with snow guns and readying his mountain for another season of skiing and riding.
Maine's Eaton Mountain: Classic, narrow New England trails.
What draws these locals is a surprisingly varied and challenging hill.
Eaton is a place of classic narrow New England trails that fan out logically from the top of a diesel-powered double chairlift. Easier trails wind around the outer edges. Tougher stuff drops down the middle. This includes a nice race trail (Lynx) plus several trails too narrow and steep to groom or cover with manmade snow.
Eaton is open for skiing after dark each night, but it really shines on a sunny weekend day with a bit (or a lot) of fresh snow. | 
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