“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

The Barker 6, a state-of-the-art, high-speed 6-person chairlift, has recently been inaugurated at Sunday River, Maine. This chairlift, one of the quickest in North America, is designed by Doppelmayr and is part of the ambitious Sunday River 2030 plan. The lift boasts innovative features like heated ergonomic seats, an automatic safety bar, and protective bubbles in the distinct Sunday River Red color, enhancing comfort and weather resistance.

The Barker 6 provides a swift and comfortable journey to Barker Mountain’s summit, connecting popular areas from White Cap to North Peak. It complements the Jordan 8, another cutting-edge lift at the resort, renowned as North America’s fastest 8-person chairlift, accessing the Oz and Jordan Bowl peaks.

Furthermore, this summer, Sunday River plans to introduce a new Doppelmayr fixed grip triple lift on Merrill Hill. This addition will pave the way for future ski trails and real estate projects, marking another significant milestone in the resort’s development.

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

After a warm later half of October, temperatures began to dip on October 30th. This resulted in multiple ski resorts across the Northeast turning on their snowmaking equipment and creating some whales. With a few more days of cold weather, some ski resorts could be opening, with a Quebec ski resort already announcing that they’re opening tomorrow.

The key factor that the resorts will have to consider is a warm front that is coming through over the weekend. Conserving what they made, and making an official opening next weekend may be the best decision for some. Here are some of the mountains that have made snow this week.

Ski Ward: The first ski area to open in North America was surprisingly Ski Ward in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. They opened up their magic carpet on October 22nd for a day of shredding. They have since been closed but will be reopening for private ski & snowboard lessons today. A rail jam, which was originally scheduled for October 28th, is now scheduled for November 11th. A public opening has yet to be officially announced.

Killington: Killington is consistently a contender for first to open and last to close in the Northeast. The snowmakers at Killington began their work in the North Ridge terrain pod on Tuesday. Snowmaking is also ongoing on Superstar for the Stifel Killington Cup. They told us that they made “decent progress” yesterday. Snowmaking continues in North Ridge today, and they’re getting some natural snow as well. After we published this post, Killington announced that they’ll be opening on Friday.

Bretton Woods: One of the top contenders in New Hampshire is typically Bretton Woods, as they were the first to open in New Hampshire last winter. Bretton Woods announced that they had completed their first snowmaking shift yesterday.

Waterville Valley: A surprise early-season contender is Waterville Valley. Snowmaking has begun in the High Country, accessed by taking the Tecumseh Express and then riding the High Country T-Bar. They have made snow in this area over the past two days.

According to Matt over at Skiology Weather & News, they’re making snow this early for competitive programs to use the slopes for the middle portion of the month.

Sommet Saint-Sauveur: The first & last ski resort open in Quebec is Sommet Saint-Sauveur. Their first snowmaking push began yesterday, with more opportunities to make the white stuff in the next few days. Somme Saint-Sauveur just announced that they will be opening on November 2nd, making it likely that they will be the first to open in Canada.

Sunday River: Sunday River typically competes with Killington to be the first to open in the Northeast. Due to the construction on the Barker 6, early-season operations will be happening at the Jordan 8 chairlift. Today, Sunday River shared a post of them making snow, so we now know that their snowmaking push has begun.

Image/Video Credits: Bretton Woods (Featured Image), Killington Resort (Header Image), Ski Ward, Fahri Yavuz/Sommet Saint-Sauveur, Sunday River Resort

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

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

While New England may not have had the greatest early ski season weather, it seems like things have truly begun to turn around. The current Nor’easter slamming the eastern states has already left a major snow dump on Vermont’s resorts, but if you were to look at the live cams for Maine’s ski areas as of 2pm ET on March 14, you probably wouldn’t even be able to tell that there’s a storm coming.

Fortunately for those Maine skiers, and unfortunately for those who are sick of winter, the storm is whipping in, and it’s whipping in fast. So let’s take a quick look at snow expectations for a few of Maine’s popular ski areas, and maybe give those itching for a late April/early May East Coast ski season conclusion a bit of hardcore hope.

Sugarloaf‘s snowstorm, according to the National Weather Service, isn’t truly set to begin until around 4pm ET March 14, with some patches of snow here and there before then. Throughout the rest of this afternoon, the mountain is expected to receive 2-4 inches of new snow and, throughout tonight, an accumulation of 3-7 inches is possible. For the pessimists, that means somewhere around 5 inches throughout the storm. For the optimists, that means somewhere around a foot, especially with the possibility of some more snow Wednesday morning.

According to the National Weather Service, as of 2:15pm ET March 14, Sunday River‘s storm has already begun. According to Sunday River’s Webcam, as of 2:15pm ET, the weather is fairly cloudy, but the air remains clear. That said, Sunday River is expected to get around 2-4 inches of snow throughout the rest of the day, with another 2-4 inches during the night. A little less than Sugarloaf, but still a possibility of 4-8 inches total throughout the storm. The chance of snow falling during the day on Wednesday, March 15, is, unfortunately rather low.

Saddleback‘s snowstorm, according to the National Weather Service, is set to look quiet a bit like Sugarloaf’s, bringing a possible 2-4 inches of snowfall throughout the rest of the day, and around 3-7 inches throughout the night. One main difference, however, is that Saddleback is much more likely to get around an inch of snow on Wednesday morning. So, for those who need the math done, Saddleback is looking at around 5-12 inches throughout the next 24 hours. Definitely a worthy storm for New England.

Featured Image Credit: FACEBOOK/SADDLEBACK MAINE

Well here ya have it folks. Donny Pelletier has officially endorsed the Jordan 8 at Sunday River, ME.

Donny strikes me as more of a fixed-grip double and T-Bar guy, but I’m thinking Sunday River gave him enough cash for a few cases of Moxie and a fresh set of Fischer RC4s.

Money talks, even when you’re ‘Maine’s Finest Athlete’.

Check out the funny video below:

One of these ski resorts needs to give Donny a huge contract to join them for a season as their spokesperson/media personality.

Can you imagine a whole season worth of Donny content focused on one individual resort? That would be delightful.

Should out to Donny for being funny enough to make me laugh about a big and obnoxious 8-pack chairlift. You guys should know by now that I’m not much of a fan…