Initial Impressions: Maine Resorts

A view of the reborn Saddleback from the main lodge.

We spent the past week road tripping around the Northeast, hitting major resorts in Maine for the first time. We started in Newry, Maine where we visited Sunday River. From there, we made our way up to the town of Rangeley, from which we visited Saddleback and Sugarloaf.

Here are our initial impressions on these three compelling New England destinations.

Sunday River

Sunday River is one of the biggest mountains on the East Coast, and we’d never visited another resort quite like it. The resort’s remarkably wide footprint, spanning eight distinct mountains with well over 100 trails, made it clear the resort was playing in the big leagues. The eight peaks were comparably small on their own, but some were still big enough to be large for the East Coast and require two lifts to reach the top. The neighboring mountains increased in terms of height from east to west, and when combined offered a sizable prominence and vertical drop. While the easternmost mountains, including White Cap and Barker, didn’t offer anything overly special in the way of views, the westernmost Jordan Bowl, which was near the true resort summit, was high enough to boast fantastic vistas of the surrounding western Maine wilderness.

Sunday River claimed to have the most open acreage in the East during our visit, and terrain for all abilities was available during our trip. That being said, some key expert runs still remained closed, and certain lifts, such as Oz and the bi-directional Jordan Mountain Double, hadn’t opened yet.

We found a solid variety of terrain at Sunday River, with the wide, distinct footprint making the resort’s trails feel unique. We were impressed by the variety of runs available off each lift, with trails rated from green to double-black available off multiple peaks. The double-blacks we did weren’t the most challenging in the world—some were groomed—but we found a couple of classic narrow New England mogul runs off the Jordan lift. While few runs were particularly long, it was possible to traverse all the way from the westernmost Jordan Bowl summit to the easternmost White Cap base without taking a single lift. Going the other way was a lot more difficult, however.

Like at many other East Coast resorts, we found a mix of modern high-speed equipment and antiquated or slow lifts at Sunday River. We were impressed by the Jordan Mountain Express quad, which provided quick access to some of the most striking terrain on the mountain. We especially enjoyed full high-speed lift service from the South Ridge base up to North Peak, including from helper lifts. One of these lifts was 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 provided welcome isolation from the elements, but with only one gondola cabin for every four or so chairs, we felt the cabin ratio could have been higher. On the very cold day of our visit, the lift line to sit in the enclosed cable cars was much longer than the one to sit on the chairs.

We left feeling slightly disappointed by the remaining high-speed quad, the Barker Mountain Express. The lift was showing its age as an older-model detachable, and the running speed was rather slow for a lift of its construction. This was also by far the most crowded chair at the mountain after the morning crowds had moved out of the South Ridge base lifts.

Every other lift at Sunday River was fixed-grip. A couple only directly serviced what seemed to be minor pods, such as Locke and Spruce, while others including Aurora and the entire White Cap pod, provided service across some critical areas and felt notably behind the times in their existing setups.

We were able to visit Sunday River thanks to 7-day access on the Ikon Pass (5 days on the base pass), but advance-purchase ticket prices were about $70-$90 per weekday and $100-$130 per weekend—reasonable compared to similarly-sized Vermont mountains.

A view down from Sunday River’s Jordan Bowl, with lower peaks visible on the right.

Saddleback

Saddleback is perhaps one of the greatest ski resort comeback stories of the past five years. The resort shuttered in 2015 due to lift issues it could not afford to resolve, but it re-opened five years later with a new high-speed quad and several other improvements in the works. We were incredibly excited to visit this reborn resort—one we weren’t ever sure would ever reopen—and check out the new experience for ourselves.

The biggest change from the pre-shutdown Saddleback was the replacement of its antiquated Rangeley Double chair with a high-speed quad of the same name. The new lift completely transforms the resort experience, servicing Saddleback’s key mountain pod with a critical capacity and speed upgrade. Our rides up this lift were quick and comfortable. With its installation, we have no doubt the resort is much more enjoyable for all visitors.

However, it was clear the resort still had some work to do to fully get back on its feet. Some on-mountain facilities from the pre-shutdown days had been removed, and the Saddleback team was working to construct a new mid-mountain lodge near the top of the Rangeley chair during the time of our visit. Some zones had terrible signage, although others had contemporary, easy-to-read markings.

Saddleback really struck us with its local feel and natural beauty. With direct views of a series of frozen lakes and very little sign of civilization, it felt like we were in a national park. While not the biggest mountain out there, Saddleback itself felt pleasantly remote, especially in upper-mountain areas. There were absolutely no lift lines during our visit, although it was a weekday. The resort felt considerably more high-alpine than the other two resorts thanks to the frozen trees up there.

Saddleback’s terrain impressed us for its size, especially in its natural insulation for skiers of different abilities. The beginner South Branch pod was below the base lodge, and it was nearly impossible to end up there unless you tried to. The Rangeley chair had terrain of all difficulties, but it chiefly suited intermediates, and some black-diamond runs there really should have been blues. The Kennebago chair, which went to the resort summit, mainly served blacks and double-blacks. We didn’t find Saddleback the toughest mountain in New England, but we really enjoyed the resort’s advanced and expert glades—they were quite the adventure to spend time in.

Saddleback offers two days on the Indy Pass, and we redeemed our access through this product. However, we had to pay $5 for an RFID card to get on the slopes, so the access wasn’t technically free.

A frosty day at Saddleback with the frozen Rangeley and Saddleback Lakes in the background.

Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf is the second-biggest resort on the East Coast by skiable acreage, and we went in with high expectations. But at least during this early-season visit, we came away a bit disappointed.

The resort measures in at 1,230 acres—the second largest footprint in the East. But during our visit, the mountain felt much smaller than that. We came to find that more than half of the footprint was comprised of the sidecountry Bracket Basin and Burnt Mountain areas, which weren’t open and needed a lot more snowfall to get there. Without that terrain, the resort felt about the same size as Vermont resorts like Stratton and Sugarbush. On the plus side, the resort clearly offered a decent vertical drop, and we had to take two lifts to get from the base to upper-mountain areas.

We were somewhat underwhelmed by the feel of the terrain that was open. At least on the main face, trails felt indistinctive, with nearly all offering similar views of the valley below. The mountain’s conical shape was a partial culprit; unlike other resorts of this size with some variety of contrast, Sugarloaf’s footprint was too round to offer distinct topography (with the exception of the Snowfields at the top). The trails were also incredibly close together, and it felt like the resort was trying to squeeze every inch of trail possible out of the mountain. That being said, we did find some really solid glade terrain in the King Pine area.

The conical footprint did have some advantages, however. The resort was pretty easy to get around, and it was possible to traverse from one side to the other without much thought. There were a bunch of lifts in seemingly random places, likely for crowd relief on busy weekends and holidays.

Sugarloaf’s lifts were okay but not overly impressive. The resort had two high-speed quads, which may have been enough ten years ago but now feels a bit behind the curve. Both were on the older side, and Whiffletree SuperQuad was showing its age in terms of speed. All other lifts were slow, meaning long rides to get to some key areas. Upper-mountain lifts were on wind hold for a significant portion of last week.

A Sugarloaf claim to fame is its high-alpine Snowfields area, comprising some of the only above-treeline terrain on the East Coast. However, this area was nowhere near ready to open when we visited. Seeing the Snowfields in person was kind of cool, but at least at this point in the season, they looked more like uncovered rocks than western-style bowls. Also, they were very short.

We see the potential for Sugarloaf to be great when everything is open. But with the Snowfields, Brackett Basin, and Burnt Mountain closed, it didn’t really seem worth the drive versus its more conveniently-located competitors.

We were able to visit Sugarloaf thanks to 7-day access on the Ikon Pass (5 days on the base pass), but advance-purchase ticket prices were about $60-$100 per weekday and $100-$110 per weekend—very reasonable compared to similarly-sized Vermont mountains, and slightly undercutting Sunday River.

A view of Sugarloaf’s King Pine area, including the rocky Snowfields at the top.

We quite enjoyed our visit to Maine for some classic but frigid New England skiing. We found Saddleback to have the most unique feel, Sunday River to offer consistent terrain, and Sugarloaf to look very promising when fully open. It is entirely possible that one or all of these mountains will end up in the upper echelon of our East Coast rankings when all is said and done.

Before publishing full reviews, we plan comprehensive talks with locals to ensure each review contains fully accurate content. We may also return later this winter to explore terrain that was closed during our visit.