Sunday River
Sunday River Ski Resort is a ski area located in the state of Maine in USA. The resort is in the town of Bethel, ME.
We recently ranked all of Maine's ski resorts, so you can see where Sunday River stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!
Season Passes
Sunday River is a part of the Ikon Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one lift pass, and ski at all or most of the Ikon-sponsored slopes with it throughout the year, depending on the type of pass you bought.
Lodging Options
There are numerous options to stay at Sunday River around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.
Sunday River Mountain Resort Terrain Overview
Sunday River has a total of 139 ski trails, which are serviced by 18 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 884 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 358 hectares, 1.4 square miles, or 3.6 square kilometers.
Sunday River's slopes see on average 167 inches (4.2 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 13 feet every year!
Total Runs
139
Lifts
18
Skiable Acres
884(4 km2)
Annual Snowfall
167"(424 cm)
Sunday River Ski Resort Elevation
Sunday River Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 3,140 feet, or 957 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 800 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 2,340 feet (713 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.
Sunday River's summit elevation is about average. There are a lot of ski slopes that are quite a bit higher, but also many that are much, much smaller.
Summit Elevation
3,140'(957 m)
Vertical Drop
2,340'(713 m)
Base Elevation
800'(244 m)
Sunday River Ski Resort Difficulty Level
Difficulty Score™
56.6out of 100
DID YOU KNOW?
At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.
Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.
Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level
Sunday River has 884 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.
Sunday River's difficulty level is higher than average, which is because 36% of its ski trails are rated as intermediate, and another 34% as expert.
Beginner
30%(265 acres)
Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.
Intermediate
36%(318 acres)
Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.
Expert
34%(301 acres)
Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.
Is Sunday River Ski Resort good for beginners?
Sunday River is above average in its difficulty level, so... probably not? It will depend on which trails you take since only 66% of its trails rated for either beginner or intermediate skill levels.
Sunday River Ski Resort Location
Sunday River Ski Resort is located in the state of Maine, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Bethel, ME.
Address:
Bethel, ME 04217 USA
View on Google Maps
Website:
sundayriver.com
GPS Coordinates:
44.46000, -70.80000
Getting to Sunday River Mountain Resort
By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Sunday River Ski Resort), its coordinates of 44.46000, -70.80000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Bethel, ME to get close.
By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.
A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Sunday River Ski Resort.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portland International Jetport | PWM | Portland, ME | 61 mi |
| Logan International Airport | BOS | Boston, MA | 145 mi |
| Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport | YUL | Montréal, QC | 160 mi |
A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Sunday River.
| Name | Code | City | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta State Airport | AUG | Augusta, ME | 50 mi |
| Lebanon Municipal Airport | LEB | Lebanon, NH | 94 mi |
| Portsmouth International at Pease Airport | PSM | Portsmouth, NH | 95 mi |
There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Sunday River Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.
Other Nearby Ski Resorts
Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Sunday River Ski Resort.
| Name | Location | Summit | Difficulty Score™ | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mt. Abram | Greenwood, ME | 2,001 ft | 39% | 7 mi |
| Wildcat Mountain | Gorham, NH | 4,062 ft | 57% | 24 mi |
| Black Mountain | Jackson, NH | 2,350 ft | 45% | 24 mi |
| Shawnee Peak | Bridgton, ME | 1,700 ft | 44% | 28 mi |
| Whaleback Mountain | Enfield, NH | 1,800 ft | 40% | 28 mi |
| Cranmore Mountain | North Conway, NH | 2,000 ft | 41% | 32 mi |
| Attitash | Bartlett, NH | 2,350 ft | 53% | 33 mi |
| Titcomb Mountain | Farmington, ME | 750 ft | 34% | 34 mi |
| Bretton Woods | Bretton Woods, NH | 3,100 ft | 54% | 35 mi |
| Lost Valley | Auburn, ME | 495 ft | 40% | 35 mi |
| Rangeley Lakes Trail Center | Rangeley, ME | 0 ft | 0% | 36 mi |
| King Pine Ski Area | Madison, NH | 850 ft | 17% | 43 mi |
| Loon Mountain | Lincoln, NH | 3,050 ft | 51% | 47 mi |
| Cannon Mountain | Franconia, NH | 4,080 ft | 59% | 49 mi |
| Waterville Valley | Waterville Valley, NH | 4,004 ft | 50% | 49 mi |
| Black Mountain | Rumford, ME | 2,150 ft | 45% | 50 mi |
| Burke Mountain | East Burke, VT | 3,267 ft | 62% | 55 mi |
| New Hermon | Herman, ME | 450 ft | 32% | 63 mi |
| J0T 2N0 | Marston, QC | 1,509 ft | 29% | 78 mi |
| Mont Hatley (Montjoye) | Canton de Hatley, QC | 1,200 ft | 0% | 80 mi |
| Camden Snow Bowl | Camden, ME | 1,093 ft | 39% | 83 mi |
| Mont Bellevue | Sherbrooke, QC | 1,089 ft | 11% | 84 mi |
| Owl's Head | Mansonville, QC | 2,480 ft | 47% | 85 mi |
| Ragged Mountain | Andover, NH | 2,250 ft | 44% | 85 mi |
| Mad River Glen | Morrisville, VT | 3,637 ft | 61% | 87 mi |
| Saskadena Six | South Pomfret, VT | 1,200 ft | 37% | 87 mi |
| Jay Peak | Jay, VT | 3,968 ft | 60% | 89 mi |
| Mont Orford | Orford, QC | 2,800 ft | 42% | 91 mi |
| Dartmouth Skiway | Concord, NH | 1,943 ft | 41% | 95 mi |
| Pats Peak | Henniker, NH | 1,400 ft | 33% | 95 mi |
| Mont Sutton | Sutton, QC | 3,175 ft | 42% | 97 mi |
| Smuggler's Notch | Jeffersonville, VT | 3,640 ft | 61% | 98 mi |
| Mount Sunapee | Newbury, NH | 2,743 ft | 45% | 99 mi |
Sunday River Ski Resort Mountain Stats
| Name | Statistic |
|---|---|
| Summit Elevation | 3,140 ft |
| Base Elevation | 800 ft |
| Vertical Drop | 2,340 ft |
| Trails | 139 (30% Beginner, 36% Intermediate, 34% Expert) |
| Lifts | 18 |
| Skiable Acres | 884 |
| Avg. Annual Snowfall | 167 inches |