Last week, Sunday River Resort in Newry, Maine released its latest construction update for the Jordan 8, a high-speed eight-pack bubble chairlift that will become one of the marquee lifts on the East Coast.
Some of the work that was done in July included Doppelmayr starting to assemble the towers in Lot 5, the completion of earthwork around the top terminal, and the pouring of the foundation and mast at the future bottom terminal. Sunday River’s new lift is an important upgrade for two reasons: its protection from wind holds and the future expansion that is planned next to the Jordan Bowl.
In the construction update video, Dana Bullen, the President of Sunday River, discussed the confusion from guests over the lift replacement strategy that was originally envisioned in Sunday River’s 2030 plan. The Barker Mountain Express lift replacement was the first priority, so many were confused that the Jordan Express is being replaced before Barker. This plan changed when wind issues continue to persist for the Jordan Express, leading to frequent downtime.
In 2018, the Chief Operating Officer of Boyne Resorts traveled to Sunday River and had to experience the Jordan Express being down due to wind. After this experience, the C.O.O. said that “we cannot have a major lift like the Jordan go down, and [it] changes the entire resort when it does.” That prioritized the Jordan replacement, and the search began for the proper lift. They are saying the bubble lift will be able to run during those windier days and make accessing the rest of the mountain easier than before.
The other major reason an eight-person bubble chairlift is going into the Jordan Bowl is a future terrain expansion that is being referred to as the Western Reserve. Not many details are known about this expansion, except that the ski resort has thousands of acres to expand into. Dave Amirault, who worked for the marketing team at Sunday River, shared some photos of the peaks that could become lift-serviced.
In a Twitter thread from last Friday, Dave detailed how the Jordan Bowl could eventually be the centerpiece of Sunday River’s trail network. They own a large amount of private land around the ski resort, so they have the potential to massively grow in the coming decades. It’ll be interesting to see how much Sunday River adds to its already massive skiable acreage.
This isn’t coming anytime soon, but here’s the terrain that will encompass the “Western Reserve” expansion at @SundayRiver.
We had some pretty extensive plans for this area and more during my time there, which was eons ago. Ha! pic.twitter.com/NuuXPQJ3Fr
— Dave Amirault 🏳️🌈 (@ozskier) August 5, 2022
But ya know, in order to do terrain expansions your skier visitation needs to grow. Build it too soon and you just end up with a larger operational footprint to support and maintain.
Then again, under the Les Otten days, Sunday River was very if you build it they will come.
— Dave Amirault 🏳️🌈 (@ozskier) August 5, 2022
Image/Video Credits: Sunday River Resort, Dave Amirault