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Sunday River Ski Resort

Home / Ski Resorts / Sunday River Ski Resort

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 135 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 870 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 352 hectares, 1.4 square miles, or 3.5 square kilometers.

Sunday River's slopes see on average 167 inches (5.1 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 13 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
135
Ski Lift
Lifts
18
Skier
Skiable Acres
870(4 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
167"(5,090 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.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
3,140'(957 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
2,340'(713 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
800'(244 m)

Sunday River Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
54.9out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Sunday River can be beginner-friendly, but it depends on the ski trails you ride. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 70% of its trails rated at or above intermediate ski level.

 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 870 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Sunday River is mostly a beginner-friendly ski area, with about 30% of its trails as easy. However, it also has its fair share of more difficult runs - which account for the remaining 70%.
Green Circle
Beginner
30%(261 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.

Blue Square
Intermediate
36%(313 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%.

Black Diamond
Expert
34%(296 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 can be beginner-friendly, depending on the runs you take. While it ranks in the lower half of all North American ski areas in terms of overall difficulty, it still has 70% of its trails rated at or above intermediate.

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.

NameCodeCityDistance
Portland International JetportPWMPortland, ME61 mi
Logan International AirportBOSBoston, MA145 mi
Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International AirportYULMontréal, QC160 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.

NameCodeCityDistance
Augusta State AirportAUGAugusta, ME50 mi
Lebanon Municipal AirportLEBLebanon, NH94 mi
Portsmouth International at Pease AirportPSMPortsmouth, NH95 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.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Mt. AbramGreenwood, ME2,001 ft38%7 mi
Wildcat MountainGorham, NH4,062 ft55%24 mi
Black MountainJackson, NH2,350 ft43%24 mi
Shawnee PeakBridgton, ME1,700 ft42%28 mi
Whaleback MountainEnfield, NH1,800 ft38%28 mi
Cranmore MountainNorth Conway, NH2,000 ft39%32 mi
AttitashBartlett, NH2,350 ft51%33 mi
Titcomb MountainFarmington, ME750 ft32%34 mi
Bretton WoodsBretton Woods, NH3,100 ft52%35 mi
Lost ValleyAuburn, ME495 ft39%35 mi
King Pine Ski AreaMadison, NH850 ft17%43 mi
Loon MountainLincoln, NH3,050 ft50%47 mi
Cannon MountainFranconia, NH4,080 ft57%49 mi
Waterville ValleyWaterville Valley, NH4,004 ft49%49 mi
Black MountainRumford, ME2,150 ft44%50 mi
Burke MountainEast Burke, VT3,267 ft60%55 mi
New HermonHerman, ME450 ft30%63 mi
J0T 2N0Marston, QC1,509 ft28%78 mi
Mont Hatley (Montjoye), QC0 ft0%80 mi
Camden Snow BowlCamden, ME1,093 ft38%83 mi
Mont BellevueSherbrooke, QC1,089 ft11%84 mi
Owl's HeadMansonville, QC2,480 ft46%85 mi
Ragged MountainAndover, NH2,250 ft42%85 mi
Mad River GlenMorrisville, VT3,637 ft59%87 mi
Suicide SixSouth Pomfret, VT1,200 ft36%87 mi
Jay PeakJay, VT3,968 ft50%89 mi
Mont OrfordOrford, QC2,800 ft40%91 mi
Dartmouth SkiwayConcord, NH1,943 ft39%95 mi
Pats PeakHenniker, NH1,400 ft32%95 mi
Mont SuttonSutton, QC3,175 ft41%97 mi
Smuggler's NotchJeffersonville, VT3,640 ft59%98 mi
Mount SunapeeNewbury, NH2,743 ft44%99 mi

Sunday River Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation3,140 ft
Base Elevation800 ft
Vertical Drop2,340 ft
Trails135
(30% Beginner,  36% Intermediate,  34% Expert)
Lifts18
Skiable Acres870
Avg. Annual Snowfall167 inches
Sunday River Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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