Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401260008
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEVE SILK The Hartford Courant
DATELINE: BETHEL, MAINE LENGTH: Long
It's the snow.
This ski area at the edge of the Mahoosuc mountains in western Maine, just a holler from the icy peak of Mount Washington, has quite a reputation for it. No other ski area has achieved such perfection in the science of snow-making. Sunday River's shot-from-guns snow is known throughout New England for both quality and quantity.
This vaguely futuristic resort, where everything looks fresh out of the box, has something for everyone, from an innovative ski school to expert terrain hot enough to make a ski smoke. Away from the slopes, there are dog-sled rides, cross-country ski trails and an ice rink in the middle of a classic New England small town. And, luckily, there's a river. If there weren't, we never would have heard of Sunday River.
The thousands of gallons churning through Sunday River each minute, and a vast underground aquifer, provide snow-makers at the ski area of the same name with enough water to make all the snow they want. And they want lots. Early last season, the staff figured it already had made enough snow to turn Connecticut into a snow fort, surrounding its borders with a wall of snow a foot wide and 4 feet high. There was even enough snow left over for, say, a million snowballs.
And there's nothing better than a dependable abundance of fluffy snow for a ski area. That wealth of snow is something you'll especially appreciate from the top of one of the resort's vaunted expert trails. Sunday River has some of the steepest, meanest runs with the most moguls (ridge of packed snow) you'll ever set ski to. Knowing there's good snow underfoot provides the extra tweak of confidence you'll need before launching into White Heat's super-steep half-mile gantlet of mega-moguls, or free-falling down the elevator-shaftlike section of Airglow that's been renamed Black Hole.
Good snow is not for experts only. Beginners will find skiing easier to learn if battling ice isn't part of the bargain. Intermediate-level skiers will find that velvety surfaces enhance their developing techniques. No matter how well or poorly you ski, the sport is more fun when the snow is good.
For years, this western Maine resort has been topping out in ski magazine reader polls in the best snow-making category.
And it has just gotten even better: A $3.1 million snow-making upgrade in the summer gives the resort what it claims is the world's largest high-pressure snow-making system. Now Sunday River will be able to recover even faster from the bane of ski areas - those warm, rainy days that sometimes erupt from the New England winter.
But all the snow in the world wouldn't be worth a whit if there weren't a good place for it to fall. Sunday River's terrain and trails have as much variety as any ski area in the East. And those natural endowments are used to their best advantage.
Sunday River won the top Snow Country magazine National Ski Area Design Award last year for its trail design, which the magazine said ``represents today's state of the art in trail layout.''
Sunday River does not have abundant vertical - several New England areas boast more than its 2,011 feet - but its trails ski long, twisting and turning down the mountain like a gaggle of slithering snakes. Changes in pitch and plenty of built-in dips and rolls keep things, shall we say, interesting.
This season, Sunday River unveils 50 acres of new skiable terrain, much of it gladed. Lovers of skiing challenge will find all they can handle while flying through these new tree-studded runs.
Although Sunday River's black diamond trails have garnered the lion's share of attention, its intermediate runs are worth talking about, too. Skiers ambling down Lazy River whoosh through spruce and birch trees while yoyoing up and down a series of skier-friendly speed bumps and over endless snowy hummocks.
The run called 3-D is the perfect proving ground for budding mogul skiers. Cruisers flock to runs such as Three Mile Trail, Escapade and Sunday Punch. Beginners have an area to call their own, too - South Ridge runs are all easy-going green.
The resort's distinctive daily ski report reveals the day's best bets for powder runs, cruising trails and other skier delights.
And though Sunday River is spread across six mountains, from wild and woolly White Cap to awesome Aurora Peak, an intelligent and well-marked layout makes it easy to find your way about.
The six mountains and their interlocking trail networks are linked by one of the East's most up-to-date lift systems. Waits are rarely more than 10 minutes even at the more popular lifts.
The uncrowded feel of the lift lines extends into the base lodges. As ski areas go, Sunday River is decentralized, with parking lots, condos and base areas spread out along a lazy valley twisting through Maine's Mahoosuc range.
Even the ski school is innovative. Sunday River's Perfect Turn clinic packs plenty of instruction into an easily digestible 75 minutes. You can take a lesson and still have most of the day to make tracks on your own.
Some folks like to call Sunday River an overnight success 20 years in the making. The resort's growth has been so phenomenal that the Harvard Business School has selected it for a case study in success. In the past 10 years, skier visits have gone from fewer than 100,000 a year to more than 500,000. Resort execs are grousing about a mere 5 percent growth last season, when much of New England's economy was mired in recession.
Sunday River couldn't have looked as promising to Les Otten when he arrived from Killington about 20 years ago to oversee the Vermont resort's new subsidiary. Like the locals who founded Sunday River in 1958, the Sherburne Corp. (owners of Killington) recognized the area's tremendous potential as a first-rank ski area and snapped the place up in 1972. But the company chose to focus its resources in Vermont.
Sunday River languished until Otten bought it outright in 1980. The place was in such sorry shape that, to make ends meet, Otten had to sell off the old lifts, grooming machines and such as scrap metal.
Instead of dumping his limited resources into a flashy base lodge or high end hotel, Otten decided to take advantage of all the water at his disposal. Snow quality and skiing would be the cornerstone upon which he would build Sunday River. To give skiers a place to bed down at his rather out-of-the-way resort, Otten built 600 condos (after convincing his friends to invest in them).
Since then, the resort has realized an unbroken streak of record ski seasons. Last year, Sunday River's booming popularity enabled it to knock Killington out of its perennial position as the front-runner in ski magazine reader polls of the best resort in New England. (Killington is back in the top slot this year.)
The future looks particularly rosy for Sunday River. The massive maw of its 700-plus snowguns gobbles only 10 percent of the water at the resort's disposal. And Sunday River already has a pocketful of permits for new lifts and development of yet more mountains.
Next year it might move into Jordan Bowl, a promising-looking parcel next to Aurora Peak, which itself opened only two seasons ago.
And why not? The river has barely been tapped.
by CNB