Yesterday's abundance of snow and sun provided a stark contrast with the handful of people at Sunday River.

It was certainly an outstanding day of spring skiing, with 130 runs open, including the glades and some of the lesser-known traditional trails such as Upper Cut and Crossbow.

Numbers-wise, most of the people at the River yesterday were groups of British teens on school holiday. It's fortunate so many of them come to New England -- they're all over Bretton Woods and other New Hampshire mountains too -- because the resorts need them to justify staying open these last few weeks of the season.

Groups of British teens were all over Sunday River yesterday, such as this gathering at the top of the Barker Mountain quad.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

A group of British kids negotiate their way down Lower Punch.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

There were a few families plus a respectable representation of hard-core River Rats like myself.

A family group heads down Grand Rapids yesterday at Sunday River. Note all the empty chairs on the North Peak quad.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

On Downdraft I met a friend from the Maine Outdoor Adventure Club, Craig Hansen. He was one of the MOAC members who participated in the Ski Maine Peak-to-Peak Challenge over Martin Luther King weekend, skiing all 17 member mountains in a three-day period. And covering about a thousand miles.

Craig Hansen, whom I know through the Maine Outdoor Adventure Club, poses on the Downdraft trail at Sunday River yesterday.
SCOTT ANDREWS PHOTO

We talked about passes for next year. I think that Maine's most serious skiers will opt for the Boyne New England Pass, which includes Sunday River, Sugarloaf and Loon Mountain in New Hampshire.

Craig seemed happy with his choice of the Ski Maine statewide passbook.

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