Sunday River ski resort has added 50 acres of new terrain for the upcoming season. As part of a $5 million off-season capital investment, the New England resort has incorporated four glades into its terrain. The newly cut trails are expert-only runs, scattered throughout Sunday River’s various peaks. Along with the trail expansion, the resort’s off-season investments have also improved its snowmaking and chairlift systems. For more information, see the press release below.

Press Release provided by Sunday River:

Newry Maine—As part of Sunday River’s $5 million capital investment plan for the 2014-15 season, Sunday River Resort is adding 50 acres of new expert terrain: four glades and a double black diamond beneath the Spruce Peak Triple lift.

Hollywood will be 10 acres of steep, deep, double-diamond glade between the Agony and Top Gun trails on Barker Mountain. Yetiville, so named for its proximity to Eddy the Yeti’s house on North Peak, is the largest of this season’s new glades at 30 acres. It’s not as aggressive as Hollywood, but since skiers run the risk of having a run-in with a yeti, this trail will be expert-only, with a single black diamond rating. Starstruck and Starwood, both single diamonds, will be cut on Little White Cap.

Gnarnia, a new double diamond beneath the Spruce Peak Triple lift, will ask skiers to navigate a cliff in the upper section before crossing Three Mile Trail and passing into a wider section with glading on skier’s right. This trail will allow access to the Last Tango glade from Spruce Peak.

Incidentally, the Spruce Peak Triple will be upgraded this season with a conveyor loading system at its base, which will reduce stop time and increase speed by 20 percent.

Sunday River’s Competition Programs are integral to the resort’s identity, so capital is also being invested in enhancing Monday Mourning, Sunday River’s dedicated race trail. Come winter, Monday Mourning skiers will notice a wider entry point from T2, which will reduce race events’ impact on neighboring trail Cascades.

In addition to the new terrain, $1.1 million of this season’s capital investment package, along with an Efficiency Maine grant, helped the resort procure 172 new, energy-efficient snowguns: 117 HKD Impulse Tower Guns, 50 HKD Method Park Guns, and five Snow Logic Tower Guns. The resort now owns and operates a total of 1,900 snowguns, which allow it to cover 95 percent of its non-gladed terrain with the highest quality snow.

The T72 and 3D terrain park trails will both be covered, top to bottom, by the new HKD Park Guns, which produce greater volumes of snow—a necessity for building medium and large park features.

For added efficiency, Sunday River also fitted all of its water pumps with new, controllable pressure valves.

Of course, making snow is one thing, but grooming it to perfection is an entirely different animal. As such, Sunday River allotted part of the capital package for the purchase of two new PistenBully snowcats, a 400 and 400 Park. This means that Sunday River’s Terrain Parks Crew will have another cat at its disposal to maintain the resort’s six terrain parks.

Last year, Sunday River received $5.7 million from parent company Boyne Resorts—part of which funded 75 new acres of terrain, including 60 acres of gladed area and the new home of The Dumont Cup, T72 (15 acres). With this season’s investments, Boyne will have given the Newry, Maine resort more than $40 million since 2007.

For more information on Sunday River’s new terrain and capital improvements for the 2014/15 season, please visit sundayriver.com or email [email protected].