| Sunday River Ski Resort | |
| Pushpin Map: | USA#USA Maine |
| Pushpin Relief: | 1 |
| Coordinates: | 44.4734°N -70.8569°W |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| Status: | Operating |
| Owner: | Boyne Resorts |
| Location: | Newry, Maine, United States |
| Nearest City: | Portland, ME |
| Top Elevation: | 3140feet |
| Base Elevation: | 800feet |
| Skiable Area: | 870acres |
| Number Trails: | 135 33% Beginner 36% Intermediate 19% Advanced 12% Expert |
| Snowmaking: | Yes, 95% |
| Nightskiing: | Yes |
| Longest Run: | Lollapalooza 3miles |
| Liftsystem: | 20 (16 Chairlifts): • 1 High-Speed 8-Pack • 1 High-Speed 6-Pack • 1 Chondola • 2 High-Speed Quads • 5 Quads • 5 Triples • 1 Double • 1 T-Bar • 3 Surface Lifts |
| Snowfall: | 155inches per year |
| External Link: | www.sundayriver.com |
Sunday River is a ski resort located in Newry, Maine, in the United States. It is one of Maine's largest and most visited ski resorts. Its vertical drop of 2340feet is the second largest in Maine (after Sugarloaf) and the sixth largest in New England. Sunday River has the most terrain among the East Coast skiing destinations, including eight different peaks.[1] The resort features 135 trails across eight interconnected mountain peaks, and is serviced by a network of 18 lifts.
Sunday River and its sister resort Sugarloaf have been operated by Boyne Resorts since being sold by American Skiing Company in 2007 for a combined $77 million.[2] The resort's land has been owned by CNL Lifestyle, then Och-Ziff Capital Management, and leased back to Boyne.[3]
In 2018, Boyne Resorts completed the purchase of all leased ski areas in New England[4] from CNL Lifestyle, allowing Boyne to "accelerate and fine tune" investment in those areas (Loon, Sugarloaf, and Sunday River). In direct correlation with this event, Boyne announced a list of improvements for all three mountains, to be spread out over a span of 10 years.[5]
Vertical Descent of the mountain, as well as the vertical descent from the chairlifts.
The following describes the different mountains of Sunday River (From left to right):
Out of these "peaks," only one actually has a topographic prominence great enough to be an actual peak. White Cap, Locke Mountain, and Barker Mountain are, technically, all part of a mountain called Barker Mountain. Barker Mountain's peak (el. 2594feet), inaccurately, is the peak that the ski area calls "Locke Mountain." North Peak, Spruce Peak, Aurora Peak, OZ, and Jordan Bowl are technically all part of Black Mountain (el. 3162feet). The highest point of the ski area is what the resort calls OZ, which is technically on Black Mountain (el. 3140feet). Although OZ is the highest point of the Sunday River ski area, it is not Black Mountain's summit.
Sunday River has 16 chairlifts,[6] and 4 surface lifts.
| Number | Name | Type | Builder | Built | Vertical | Length | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barker 6 | 2023 | 1319 | 4848 | D-Line chairlift with red bubbles, heated seats, auto-locking safety bars, and automated loading ramp.[7] First lift at the resort to have contour loading. | ||||
| ! style="width:06%; background:blue; color:white;" | 2 | South Ridge Express | High Speed Quad | 1992 | 505 | 3074 | Services the South Ridge area. | ||
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 3 | Quantum Leap | Triple | 1992 | 1453 | Travels up the backside of North Peak to Lift #6 summit, and has some Poma sheaves. | |||
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 4 | Locke Mountain Triple | Triple | 1984 | 1394 | 4768 | Has a mid-station for early season use. Upper station replaced by Doppelmayr in 2017 following structural failure on the original Spruce Peak lift. Additional towers added in 2019 to accommodate the Alera Group Competition T-Bar. | ||
| 5 | Alera Group Competition Lift | 2019 | 864 | 2885 | This lift was funded by the Alera Group, and used by Gould Academy for ski racing and training. Not open to the public. | ||||
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 6 | North Peak Express | High Speed Quad | 1996 | 980 | 4153 | 1 of 2 lifts that serve North Peak, the other being Lift #7. | ||
| ! style="width:06%; background:blue; color:white;" | 7 | Chondola | 2009 | 1138 | 6427 | High-Speed six pack chair / eight passenger gondola, with one gondola cabin per every four chairs. Runs to the top of North Peak. | |||
| 8 | Spruce Peak | Triple | 2017 | 1207 | 4366 | Has a loading carpet. Replaced a Borvig triple chairlift that suffered a structural failure in 2016. | |||
| 9 | White Cap | Fixed Grip Quad | Yan | 1987 | 898 | 3725 | First of 3 White Cap lifts, also known as the “Tempest” quad. | ||
| 10 | White Heat | 1988 | 1294 | 3665 | Main lift to White Cap summit. | ||||
| 11 | Little White Cap | 1988 | 602 | 3135 | Runs adjacent to the Grand Summit Hotel, and brings riders over to Lift #10. | ||||
| 12 | Aurora Peak | 1991 | 1095 | 3483 | Main lift out of Aurora basin. | ||||
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 13 | Jordan Mountain Double | Double | 1994 | 342 | 1735 | A transfer lift between the base areas of Jordan Bowl and Aurora. | ||
| 14 | Jordan 8 | High Speed 8 | Doppelmayr USA | 2022 | 1325 | 4760 | D-Line chairlift with red bubbles, heated seats, and an automated loading ramp. | ||
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 15 | Oz | Fixed Grip Quad | Doppelmayr USA | 1995 | 1051 | 2954 | Highest lift on the mountain, and operates from 10am to 2pm. | |
| 16 | Lower Sundance | Sunkid | 2019 | Located on the Sundance beginner trail, near the South Ridge base area. | |||||
| 17 | Middle Sundance | ||||||||
| 18 | Upper Sundance | ||||||||
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 19 | Merrill Hill | Triple | Doppelmayr USA | 2021 | 494 | 2037 | Services 4 trails and provides access to Merrill Hill real estate properties. | |
| ! style="width:06%; background:red; color:white;" | 20 | Merrill Hill II | Triple | Doppelmayr USA | 2023 | 750 | 3992 | Runs on the backside of Merrill Hill, starts near the Monkey Brook Road.[8] |
highlight indicates lifts that are open for night skiing.
highlight indicates secondary lifts that only run on weekends and holidays, with adjusted opening and closing schedules.
| Number | Name | Type | Builder | Years Active | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barker Mountain Double | Double | Pullman-Berry | 1971 - 1987 | First chairlift built at Sunday River, therefore labeled as Lift #1. Replaced by the Barker Mountain Express. |
| 1 | Barker Mountain Express | 1987 - 2023 | First detachable at Sunday River. Terminals retrofitted by Poma in 1998, and chairs replaced in 2004. Replaced by a D-Line high speed six pack. | ||
| 2 | Cascades T-Bar | T-Bar | 1959 - 1990 | First lift built on the mountain at Sunday River. Ran up length of Monday Mourning trail, and removed for ski racing. | |
| 3 | South Ridge | Double | 1981 - 1992 | Ran in-between Lift #7 and #5, replaced by the South Ridge Express in 1992. Relocated to Aurora Basin and retained #3 number, and was expanded from a double to a triple. | |
| 5 | Fall Line | Double | 1985 - 2008 | Lift ran the length of the Double Dipper trail. Replaced by the Chondola along with the South Ridge triple in 2008. | |
| 6 | North Peak | Triple | 1985 - 1996 | Replaced by the North Peak Express. | |
| 7 | South Ridge Triple | 1986 - 2008 | Replaced by the Chondola. | ||
| 8 | Spruce Peak | 1986 - 2016 | Return station collapsed in the summer of 2016. Replaced by Doppelmayr triple with identical uphill capacity in 2017. | ||
| 14 | Jordan Bowl Express | High Speed Quad | Doppelmayr USA | 1994 - 2022 | Replaced with a D-Line eight-pack in 2022.[9] Relocated to Pleasant Mountain in 2024. |
In the summer months, Sunday River is a summer resort with activities including golf, disk golf, geocache tours, hiking, and scenic lift rides. There is also a series of annual music festivals from late July to August, located at the south ridge lodge. Weddings are also a frequent occurrence at Sunday River, mostly at the summit of North Peak, but also the Grand Summit and the Jordan Hotels.
In 2019, the Bike Park at Sunday River was discontinued, after 13 years of operation. According to resort officials, "Topography and other factors contributed to the decision to close. Riding areas and lessons for beginner riders are a large part of a successful bike park and Sunday River was unable to provide this to their resort users without a substantial monetary investment."[10]
The Sunday River Golf Club is a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design and has been ranked as the '#1 course in Maine' by Golfweek magazine and one of the 'Top Ten Best New Courses in the World' by Travel + Leisure Golf.
The 7130yd course offers dramatic elevation changes. The club also features a large log and stone clubhouse with a pro shop and grill, as well as a mountainside practice facility. While the course is open to the public, memberships are also available from Harris Golf, who operates the golf club in partnership with Sunday River.
Sunday River is home to the Gould Academy Competition Program for skiing. The program is for junior skiers in Alpine skiing (slalom, giant slalom, super G and downhill), Freestyle skiing (moguls and freeride), and Snowboarding (halfpipe, slopestyle, Slalom, Giant Slalom and boardercross), and runs from mid November through March.[11]
Sunday River is home to the Dumont Cup created by Simon Dumont.
In 2009, Simon Dumont wanted to create an opportunity for young and rising skiers to gain exposure and decided to host it at his home mountain, Sunday River in Newry, Maine. Six Dumont Cups later, the success stories of amateur skiers like Nick Geopper and Gus Kenworthy winning the Dumont Cup and stepping into the pro scene has help achieve Simon's vision. The event was eventually officially discontinued in 2016, and the last competition held in March 2015 on the T72 terrain park.
See main article: Frozen Rush. In early 2014, the first Frozen Rush race was held on the slopes.[12] It was the first off-road race of its type on snow. The event featured a match race of the United States' top short course off-road racing drivers racing their trophy trucks. Ricky Johnson beat Johnny Greaves to win the inaugural event.
The Bust 'N' Burn was an annual mogul skiing competition held in mid-April. The event was open to all skiers willing to participate, and was held in various locations year-to-year around the mountain. It was held annually from 1987 to 2009, and was brought back after a decade-long hiatus in 2024.[13] The re-branded event in 2024 was held on the White Heat trail, and was well received by many skiers and riders. The event also saw multiple Olympic athletes attend the event, including Troy Murphy, competing under the persona of "Donnie Pelletier", Troy's stereotype of the Maine way of life.[14]