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
