“Wow. Holy shit.”– Paul Bourget.

People are starting to assess the damage from the severe rainfall across New England, and it’s not pretty.

Today, WCVB shared videos sent to them by locals Paul Bourget and Joe Smith of one of Sunday River’s roads being washed out. A portion of Summit Road, which leads up to the Grand Summit Hotel, is now impassible and will require a fix before the Maine ski resort’s busy season begins. Based on scrolling through the Sunday River Enthusiasts Facebook page, this is not the only road or area of the ski resort that is facing significant damage.

Sunday River has announced that they won’t be opening tomorrow. This is a developing story, so we’ll keep you posted on the latest developments regarding the floods across the Northeast.

Image/Video Credits: Paul Bourget, Joe Smith, WCVB

Less than one year after opening its first bubble chairlift, Sunday River will debut its second bubble chairlift on December 9th.

The Maine ski resort announced on Monday that they’ll be opening the Barker 6 on Saturday, December 9th. The opening ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m., with the first chair scheduled at 9 a.m. If you’re interested in grabbing the inaugural first chair, they’re hosting a raffle. The procceds from the $5 raffle tickets will go towards the Bethel Food Pantry.

Over the offseason, the Barker Express was replaced by a Doppelmayr D-Line high-speed detachable six-pack bubble chairlift. The Barker 6, will have heated seats with head and footrests, red-tinted bubble covers, an uphill capacity of 3250 riders per hour, and a ride time of 4.68 minutes. 

An opening date has yet to be announced for Sunday River’s other new chairlift, which will service the Merrill Hill real estate development. According to Donny Pelletier, both lifts are going to be pretty mint, bub.

Image Credits: Sunday River Resort

Maine’s ski season begins on Tuesday. Today, the Maine ski resort announced that they’ll be opening on Tuesday, November 14th. Access on Tuesday will be limited to New England Pass, Ikon Pass, and Ticket Pack holders. Public lift tickets will be available starting on Wednesday.

The Jordan 8 bubble chairlift, which opened last winter, will be the hub for Sunday River’s early-season operations. Over at Locke Mountain, they’ll have terrain open for the Gould Academy and Bates College racing programs. This means that Jordan Bowl is open to the public, while Locke will be open for private race training. The trail count has yet to be announced.

For more information about Sunday River’s opening day, check out their comprehensive early-season guide.

Image Credits: Sunday River Resort

One of the most fascinating ski areas to watch this offseason has been Big Squaw Mountain in Maine. The non-profit that runs the ski area has undergone a multitude of projects, including a new drive for their triple chairlift, renovation of the snowmaking pumphouse, repairing the mid-mountain lodge, and the restoration of the upper mountain trails.

These upper mountain runs, which were without lift service for nearly two decades, partially reopened last season thanks to a snowcat that brought skiers up to the top. A few skiers were able to hang on to ropes attached to the top of the snowcat. While this made for a cool riding experience, it’s not the easiest way to bring a lot of people up.

Last weekend, Friends of The Mountain announced that they have acquired a Bombardier 13 Passenger Cat. This snowcat will allow for a warm and smoother trip up the mountain. The only hurdle they currently face is getting it from Parshall, Colorado to Northwestern Maine. If you know of anyone who can help, reach out to them.

Extensive clearing of these upper mountain trails has been ongoing this offseason. It’s shocking how much these trails grew back to their natural state over the span of nineteen years. In spite of this challenge, it’s incredible how a group of passionate locals have reinvigorated this mighty mountain.

So if you want to do some snowcat skiing in New England this winter, you should head up to Maine. If you want to help out Friends of The Mountain with their projects, you can donate to them here.

Image Credits: Friends of The Mountain, Skimap.org

One of the early season checkpoints for the Northeast ski industry is the initial snowmaking tests, which are typically led by Killington and Sunday River. On Monday, the Maine ski resort tested a few of their snowguns.

This snowmaking test is notable due to its location. The guns were tested in the Jordan Bowl, which is different from the norm. This is due to Sunday River’s early operations plan, which will have their season start over at the Jordan Bowl.

Sunday River typically starts its winter lift operations over at the Locke Mountain Triple, which is located next to Barker Mountain. With the continued construction of the new Barker 6, Sunday River decided to move early-season operations to the Jordan Bowl. A nice perk to this new setup will be the bubble covers of the Jordan 8.

Donny Pelletier broke it down in classic Mainah fashion, which you can watch below.

Image/Video Credits: Sunday River Resort, Donny Pelletier, Warner Brothers Discovery

It’s been another major summer full of construction over at Sunday River Resort in Maine, as the Barker Express is being replaced by a Doppelmayr D-Line high-speed detachable six-pack bubble chairlift.

Called the Barker 6, it will have heated seats with head and footrests, red-tinted bubble covers, an uphill capacity of 3250 riders per hour, and a ride time of 4.68 minutes. They’re also installing a new Doppelmayr fixed-grip triple chairlift over at Merrill Hill.

Last week, major progress was made on the new Barker 6. Helicopters flew the lift towers into place over the span of two days.

To conclude another week of construction, Sunday River shared a video of Donny Pelletier breaking down the latest construction developments. Donny was saying that he and his buddies were going to install it by using toe straps and some wenches, which seems like the way to go. They went with the helicopter installation instead. In spite of not listening to Donny’s advice, the Barker 6 is still looking like it’s going to be a wickid mint lift.

Image/Video Credits: Sunday River Resort

One of the biggest ski resort projects happening right now in the Northeast is the West Mountain expansion at Sugarloaf. Twelve new trails are being added, which will be of easy and intermediate difficulty. The development will also bring a large amount of new real estate developments to the ski resort.

The new chairlift, which originally served as the Swift Current 4 over at Big Sky Resort, is a Doppelmayr high-speed quad. It will have a capacity of 2400 people per hour, a vertical rise of 1,433 feet, and a ride time of just under seven minutes. The lift line for the West Mountain Double chairlift, which had a run time of around 20 minutes, is being significantly shortened for a faster journey up.

A couple of weeks ago, WSKI TV 17 Snowfields Productions traveled up to West Mountain to see how construction is going. While WSKI TV was up there, they spoke with Brent Larsen, who is the Director of Mountain Operations, and Seth Warman, the Director of Snow Surfaces. Rainfall has made work challenging, but they’re making quick progress on the new trails & lift line.

One of the key points from the video is that the projected opening date has been moved to this December. Originally, they aimed to open the new chairlift in January or February of 2024.

Image/Video Credits: Maine Drone Imaging (Featured Image), WSKI TV 17 Snowfields Productions

“BigRock is an economic engine for the area. This is all going to make the ski area sustainable for the long term.”– Aaron Damon, assistant general manager of BigRock Mountain.

BigRock Mountain in Maine is preparing to grow. Back in 2021, the Maine ski area announced its intention to add a new quad chairlift.

The Bangor Daily News reports that BigRock is nearing its $5.4 million capital campaign goal to add a new quad chairlift and drastically improve its snowmaking capacity. Originally priced at $3 million, inflation and other factors brought the chairlift price up to $4.15 million. The rest of the money will go to snowmaking and other infrastructure upgrades.

The new Doppelamyr Alpenstar fixed-grip quad chairlift will be 3,495 feet long. The new chairlift will move at 450 feet/min, which will lead to an eight-minute journey to the top. It will be a significant capacity upgrade for the ski area, with an uphill carrying capacity of 1800 people per hour.

Back in April, they signed a contract with Doppelmayr that sets the purchase price of the chairlift. They are aiming to start construction on the new lift next April and aim to open it during the 2024-25 season.

In terms of snowmaking improvements, BigRock has begun work on a new pump house. This pump house will receive water from the adjacent Rocky Brook. This move will quadruple its snowmaking capacity, leading to a longer season.

In terms of why they’re doing this, BigRock views these moves as the next step to grow its visitation. With BigRock currently averaging around 21,000 visitors, they project a 30% increase to 27,000 guests per year. This new chairlift will also give them the ability to add scenic fall chairlift rides, so all the leaf peepers can say “ooh, ahh” every time they see a red or yellow leaf (disclaimer: I, unfortunately, think that I’m a part of this fanbase). These moves will also allow BigRock to add eleven new employees.

Last August, they got a $2.5 million Economic Development Administration tourism grant, which will help with the new lift, snowmaking upgrades, and infrastructure improvements. In addition, they got $150,000 in American Rescue Plan funds and a $380,000 forgivable loan. As a 501c(3) nonprofit, they’ve raised more than $250,000 from businesses and private donations.

Donations for these projects are still ongoing. You can learn more about the projects and donate to BigRock here.

Image Credits: BigRock Mountain

Sunday River Resort is in the midst of a hectic offseason, with two new chairlifts on the way, and various snowmaking projects being done to make their snow quality even better. On Thursday, the Maine ski resort provided a construction update on the projects they’re working on this offseason.

The biggest project is the replacement of the Barker Mountain Express with a Doppelmayr D-Line detachable high-speed six-pack bubble chairlift. Called the Barker 6, it will have heated seats with head and footrests, red-tinted bubble covers, an uphill capacity of 3250 riders per hour, and a ride time of 4.68 minutes.

So far, the chairs, haul rope, terminals, and lift towers have been removed, concrete has been poured in the future location of the base terminal, and blasting has been completed. The Agony trail has been widened to accommodate the expanded lift width, but the pitch and fall line have not been altered.

The other lift project is a new chairlift over at Merrill Hill. A Doppelmayr fixed-grip triple will be the second chairlift over at Merrill Hill, which serves mostly as a real estate development. The update from Sunday River, pictured below, was minimal, with some tree clearing being done so far. Doppelmayr crews have arrived to begin work on the project.

The other major addition for this offseason is three separate snowmaking projects. The first project will connect the North Peak booster pump house to the top of Jordan, tripling their snowmaking output. Over at Barker, they’re enhancing the power over at the Snowflake factory, which is the resort’s major hub for snowmaking. Meanwhile, at South Ridge, they’ll be adding fully automated fan guns on the Broadway trail.

The video update from Sunday River Resort is below.

Image/Video Credits: Sunday River Resort

The ski areas of Maine were less than 55,000 visits away from breaking their all-time record.

Ski Area Management reports that Maine alpine ski areas saw 1,372,128 skier visits during the 2022-23 season. Historically, this is the second most ever for Maine ski areas, only being beaten out by the snowy 2007-08 season, which saw 1,426,543 visits. This major tally was one of the reasons why the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) reported an all-time record of 64.7 million skier visits during the 2022-23 season.

This news was announced by the Ski Maine Association, which represents 16 alpine ski areas and 21 Nordic centers in the state. Dirk Gouwens, who is the Executive Director of the Ski Maine Association, said the following about the 2022-23 season:

“Despite less-than-ideal winter weather across much of the state, skiers came out in droves to enjoy what Maine ski areas have to offer. We are seeing continued capital improvements at our ski areas this summer and are confident that with a little help from Mother Nature, we will continue to see more and more visitors to our ski areas in the future.”

While the late-season snow likely helped with visitation, continued investments also probably factored in. Offseason improvements before the 2022-23 season included a new chairlift over at Saddleback, a new t-bar at Sugarloaf, and the introduction of the Jordan 8 bubble chairlift at Sunday River. Investments going into the 2023-24 season will include a terrain and lift expansion over at Sugarloaf and replacing the Barker Express with a bubble chairlift at Sunday River.

Image Credits: Sunday River Resort (Featured image), Saddleback Mountain (Header Image),  Ski Maine Association