Sunday River

With a location just over three hours from Boston and an hour-and-a-half from Portland, Sunday River is one of Maine’s most popular ski areas. The resort is one of the largest and most spread out on the East Coast, boasting an astounding eight peaks across 870 acres. But a few key weaknesses keep Sunday River from earning status as a top-tier East Coast mountain.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Sunday River is just how wide it extends. The ski area essentially consists of eight mountains in a row and feels like it extends indefinitely—something that’s hard to say about any other East Coast ski resort. Sunday River’s 135 trails face a variety of aspects, affording visitors striking head-on vistas of faraway mountain pods. The neighboring mountains increase in terms of height from east to west, and the higher-elevation western areas boast fantastic views of the surrounding western Maine wilderness.

Sunday River may have a 2,300-foot vertical drop—a decent although not top-tier number for the Northeast—but this rise is chiefly due to its width, rather than its height. Of the resort’s eight mountains, no individual peak rises further than 1,700 feet. That said, the resort still boasts a decent variety of terrain, with runs for various abilities and unique-feeling trails. Especially of note is the diversity of runs available off each lift, with trails rated from green to double-black available off multiple peaks.

It may be bigger than some competitors, but Sunday River is a very good choice for beginners. The primary North Peak pod is chock full of green terrain, with lots of mellow groomers for those learning, as well as a bunny hill zone served by several magic carpets. And it’s not hard to progress to the rest of the mountain either; most mountain pods include at least one green trail, and the few that don’t have fairly easy blues.

Speaking of blues, Sunday River boasts more intermediate trails than any other terrain type. Outside the immediate North Peak base vicinity, groomed blue cruisers permeate the entire resort. The best intermediate pods are arguably located on Barker Mountain and upper North Peak, although guests won’t go wrong anywhere at the resort.

Once progressing to advanced and expert terrain, it becomes clear that Sunday River is more of a family-oriented mountain than a place for a serious challenge. The resort’s black-diamond runs are fairly steep, but on the easier side. Many of these runs are groomed; some have ungroomed sections next to groomed ones, affording good environments to practice moguls.

That said, Sunday River does have a variety of difficult, ungroomed double-black trails, especially west of North Peak in the Aurora, Oz, and Jordan Bowl pods. However, the resort’s double-blacks aren’t the steepest in the world, and other East Coast mountains have much more technical runs. Some of the resort’s expert runs receive regular grooming, making for some serious bombers.

Sunday River also boasts a decent terrain park setup, although it’s geared towards less-experienced freestylers. The resort boasts five terrain parks, including three designed for beginners and families. The remaining two, both of which are directly serviced by the North Peak Express quad, feature boxes, rails, jibs, and jumps that are chiefly medium in nature.

Sunday River sees commendable East Coast snowfall totals, but they’re not quite as high as some northern Vermont and Maine competitors. There’s often enough cover to fill in ungroomed terrain naturally, but thin cover, with obstacles such as rocks and dirt, are not out of the question. But ultimately, Sunday River remains resilient thanks to excellent snowmaking; the resort has received significant upgrades in recent years, and it now boasts near 100% coverage across on-piste trails. This allows it to have some of the most reliable conditions of any East Coast resort, as well as one of the longest seasons in the region, sometimes opening by Halloween. That said, there are a few exceptional pods, most notably the expert-oriented Oz area, that rarely open until later on in the season.

Like at many other East Coast resorts, Sunday River features a mix of modern high-speed lifts and antiquated or slow chairs. The resort’s main base boasts high-speed lift service up to the key North Peak zone, including from helper lifts. One of these lifts is the resort’s signature Chondola, a unique lift—the only one on the U.S. East Coast—with a mix of gondola cabins and regular chairs. The cabins provide welcome isolation from the elements, but with only one gondola cabin for every four or so chairs, the cabin ratio could be higher. Another strong point is the Jordan Mountain Express, which provides quick access to some of the most striking terrain on the mountain; this lift is on track to become a state-of-the-art bubble eight-pack for the upcoming 2022-23 season.

However, the majority of lifts at Sunday River are fixed-grip. A couple of these triple and quad lifts only service minor trail pods such as Locke and Spruce Peaks, but others, including the Aurora chair and all the lifts in the White Cap zone, provide service across critical mountain areas and should really be upgraded.

Sunday River typically sees fewer crowds than the Vermont mountains since it doesn’t attract the large New York City metropolitan population, and it has key high-speed redundancies at its main base. But the resort still does get crowded in certain areas, partially as a consequence of its lift design. The Barker Mountain Express is the only high-speed lift outside Jordan Bowl that serves upper-mountain terrain, and it becomes a serious chokepoint during peak times. This lift is also prone to mechanical problems, which makes the problem worse. And finally, the main base lifts still see lengthy lines in the mornings, as guests disperse across the mountain; on cold days, the lift lines to sit in the Chondola’s enclosed cable cars are much longer than the queues to sit on the open chairs.

Speaking of cold days, Sunday River can become especially frigid during the peak winter months. The resort has some solid on-mountain lodges to stop in for a break, although some upper-mountain areas are a bit removed from the nearest facility. The biggest annoyance revolves around stopping in at the Jordan Bowl base; the lodge is a few hundred feet up from the lift, and it’s impossible to reach from other mountain areas without riding all the way up the Jordan Mountain Express lift first and specifically taking the Lollapalooza green trail or Blind Ambition glades—assuming one cuts out at the right place. In general, on-mountain food is somewhat pricey for what you get.

Given the magnitude of its width, Sunday River isn’t the easiest mountain to get around. But in certain regards, it’s not as bad as one might expect. The difficult part involves progressing from east to west on the mountain, which involves up to four lifts when going all the way from the White Cap base to the top of Jordan Bowl. However, going the other way around is much easier, and can be done with a single lift ride—although the trails for traversing across become flat in certain sections. Trails and lifts are well marked, aiding navigation.

Getting There

Sunday River is about 1 hour and 45 minutes from Portland and just over three hours from Boston with no traffic. The resort is also about three-and-a-half hours from Montreal, Canada. For those looking to make the trek from New York City, the drive is nearly seven hours. There is no public transportation from major cities to Sunday River, but some third parties organize charter buses for day trips to the mountain.

Lodging

Sunday River offers a variety of slopeside hotel and condo accommodations across its base areas. The two on-site hotels, the Jordan Hotel and Grand Summit Hotel, are both quite upscale with pools, hot tubs, and spas. Various slopeside condo options are available across various mountain pods. For those looking for more economical accommodations, a number of hotels and inns exist about 10-15 minutes from the resort.

Aprés-ski

Sunday River isn’t the most lively mountain on the East Coast, but the resort features a decent aprés vibe on weekends and holidays. The main and White Cap bases host bars with solid happy hour deals, while a couple of brew pubs at the end of the access road, namely Sunday River Brewing and Steam Mill, are the main venues for nightlife.

Verdict

So Sunday River’s sheer size and terrain diversity makes it a very strong regional choice. But the resort falls behind the best East Coast mountains due to outdated lifts in certain areas, relatively short trail pods, and less challenging expert terrain than competitors. Lift tickets are pricey, but they’re not egregiously so—and guests can score significant discounts with in-advance purchases.

‍