BRUNSWICK — Molly O’Connor pulled a blue L.L.Bean pullover from a plastic bin and consulted her list.

An extra-small fleece? Check.

Four sleeping bags? Check.

“Might as well throw in some extra socks,” she said, adding thick woolen pairs to the pile.

O’Connor was packing an order at Maine GearShare, a nonprofit that rents outdoor equipment for all seasons. Their cold-weather stock has been in high demand this year.

“We are seeing that gear get used a lot,” Assistant Director Emily Mackeown said.

So far, this winter has been frigid and snowy. Outdoor enthusiasts have seen enough bare trails and thin ice in recent years to know they should take advantage of the season while it lasts. And more powder means more business for many: Maine GearShare filled more reservations in January than in all of 2024; ski resorts have seen more visitors hitting the slopes; and snowmobilers have more trail options.

“You can’t go wrong right now,” Jefferson Tucker, director of the Quarry Road Trails in Waterville, said. “It’s the best of everything at the moment.”

UPTICK AT SKI RESORTS

Ethan Austin, director of marketing at Saddleback Mountain in Rangeley, attributes this year’s successful season in part to what he calls “the backyard effect,” the idea that people are more likely to go skiing if they see snow in their own backyards.

“When people see the snow, they start thinking about winter,” Austin said.

Saddleback saw 20% more visitors during the long weekend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day than the same weekend the previous year, and it was the biggest three-day stretch the resort has ever seen, Austin said.

At Mt. Abram in Greenwood, marketing director Allie Masten said weekend ticket sales are up 30% from last winter and packages for people who want to take a lesson are up slightly, as well.

Masten said more than 300 people have been hitting the slopes on Thursdays when Mt. Abram offers a steep discount on lift tickets, more than three times as many as when the mountain ran that promotion in the past.

Masten described a snowstorm in late January that dumped one-to-two feet across the state as “once in 20 years.”

“We don’t get dry, fluffy snow like that on the East Coast,” Masten said. “Shoveling it wasn’t bad, and skiing it was really great.”

Inland Woods and Trails in Bethel has more than 400 season pass holders who come for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and fat tire biking. For leaner years, the nonprofit invested in a special groomer that works with much less snow on the ground.

“You have to be real creative sometimes,” Operations Director Eric Boyle-Wight said. “But we like it when we get a good dumping of snow.”

FROZEN LANDSCAPES

A long stretch of freezing temperatures has meant ideal conditions for ice skating and smelting.

For Noah Kleiner, the ice is looking up — literally.

He is the founder and owner of Equinox Guiding Service in Camden and spends much of the winter ice climbing. Kleiner said a dry fall meant some spots haven’t frozen as usual, especially routes that face south, but he’s still finding plenty of spots to climb in Acadia National Park, Baxter State Park and Grafton Notch State Park.

Kleiner said he used to be anxious about how changes in the weather would impact his business, but has learned to adapt.

“It’s just a matter of managing the risks around the conditions,” he said. “People that want to go outside want to go outside.”

SNOWY TRAILS

On a recent drive over the short span between Waterville to Augusta, Al Swett spotted at least eight vehicles carrying snowmobiles in the northbound lanes.

“Trailer after trailer headed up that way,” he said.

Swett is the operations director for the Maine Snowmobile Association, and he’s already been riding across the state this winter. Aroostook County is always a bucket-list destination, he said, but snowmobiles are also out on trails in places that don’t always see as much snowfall.

“We have snow in Freeport,” Swett said. “People are riding in Yarmouth.”

The snow isn’t just a boon for riders. Businesses — from motels to diners to gas stations — rely on snowmobilers this time of year and a sparse winter can hurt mom-and-pop shops.

“They count on us to make it through to the springtime, to the fishermen and the four-wheelers,” Swett said. “We have known some businesses that have gone out of business because of it. It’s night and day when we have snow.”

A SHARED RESOURCE

Last year, Maine GearShare in Brunswick used $70,000 in grant funding to expand its winter stock, including snowshoes, skis, warm jackets and mittens.

“We have, start to finish, everything people might need,” Mackeown, the assistant director, said.

In January, Maine GearShare filled 82 reservations — more than in all of 2024, Mackeown said.

The nonprofit started in 2022 and opened to the public in 2023, with users ranging from school groups to advanced mountaineers. Gear libraries have been growing in popularity in recent years, and Mackeown said unpredictable winters might continue to support that trend.

“Do you really want to own skis,” Mackeown said, “or do you just want to use them when the snow is good?”