CAMDEN — If you are looking for Carter Jones on a given Wednesday-Sunday, December through March, morning, we know just where he is. The teen will have already geared up in boots, jacket and helmet, and will be standing at the base of Ragged Mountain, chatting with a lift attendant and getting — as goes industry lingo – “first chair.”

That’s the ceremonial first ride of the day up the hill, and signifies a perfect early-bird start to the morning, when conditions are at their prime, just after mountain staff have completed their 5 a.m. grooming routine, leaving in their tracks sublime corduroy.

Carter, who is 13 and in seventh grade, is a quiet kind of young man, but he is determined. Getting first chair is part of the daily schedule for him, and his mother, Anne Edmands, makes sure they get in the car early enough and make the drive from Owls Head to Camden in good time. It represents the motivation to get outside, and get going, no matter the circumstances.

The temperature could be a biting minus 10 Fahrenheit, or a balmy 42; the weather could be rain sopping the snow. Carter doesn’t care. His skis are ready to go.

Three years ago, I took a photo of Carter and his brother, Ben, grabbing first chair, part of their daily routine back then, as well. 

These days, Ben Jones doesn’t shoot for first chair, anymore. He has other responsibilities as the Terrain Park Ranger at the Snow Bowl, which means he has to oversee and maintain the elements – the boxes, waterfall rails, bonks and jumps, where children and teenagers congregate every day the mountain is open, to practice and play.

Carter is taciturn about his now legendary morning post at the base.

“Carter, several years ago I took your photo, as first in line at the triple, for the lift,” I said to him.

“Yup,” he replied.

“You haven’t quit your post to this day!”

“No, I haven’t.”

He is like his father, Jeff Jones, who passed away last fall after battling cancer. Carter loves the snow, loves the mountain. Jeff had been a patroller and a lobsterman, and spent a lot of time in the outdoors with his sons, teaching them about making the most of the Maine winter.

“My brother sometimes catches first chair but he is always working so when he isn’t working he does catch it with me,” said Carter.

“I like the Snow Bowl, the ski patrol, lifties, and the stewards and the whole staff there because they are always so nice and helpful and they put a smile on your face, always,” he said.

And while he is standing in line for first chair Carter helps out, putting up the lines and ropes, setting our the slow signs. Sometimes, he heads up the mountain even before the public is allowed on the lift, traveling with patrol to make sure the trails are OK to ski.

The new lift attendants come to know Carter quickly, and they are soon fast friends. Wouldn’t be a regular morning without Carter, in his bright green pants, waiting patiently for motors to turn.

He likes the double chairlift — the older one on the mountain — because, “they are more poofy and comfy,” he said.

“The triples seats are just boards and after a while your butt hurts because they are boards,” he said.

When spring comes, Carter will put away his boots, and get ready for swimming at the family’s summer camp in Swanville. He’ll go mountain biking, take out the dirt bikes and four wheeler, and jump on the trampoline. But for now, he’s got the morning watch on Ragged Mountain. You’ll find him there.