The Chondola at Sunday River, Maine was Boyne Resorts’ first (and arguably last) major investment after purchasing the resort from American Skiing Company in 2007. This Doppelmayr CTEC combination lift replaced two fixed grip lifts and connects the South Ridge Lodge to North Peak. The older South Ridge Express and North Peak Express run parallel enough that the latter no longer operates midweek. I would not be surprised to see this 1997 Doppelmayr detachable quad relocated within the Boyne Resorts family at some point. Big Sky perhaps?
At $7.2 million, the Chondola is one of the most expensive lifts ever built in New England. It is also one of only five combination lifts in North America, the others being at Telluride, Beaver Creek, Mont Orford and Northstar. It is one of only eleven lifts in North America with Doppelmayr’s European towers. Sixty-four six passenger chairs alternate with 16 eight passenger cabins that move a combined 2,330 passengers an hour. The chairs are Doppelmayr’s extra comfy “flying couches” from Austria. The Chondola is Sunday River’s longest lift at 6,427 feet although the vertical is a modest 1,138’.
Unfortunately for those who have to work on this machine there is no indoor cabin storage, just an outdoor rail at the (very windy) North Peak station. I’ve heard this voids Doppelmayr’s warranty on cabins and bubble chairs. Boyne Resorts’ only other gondola at Crystal Mountain has a similar rail setup in their parking lot. You can tell a lot about a resort by how well their gondola cabins are taken care of!
While the skiing off the Sunday River’s Chondola is nothing special, the lift is one of the most modern and comfortable anywhere. You can ride it all summer too!
Lift Blog 
Nice profile, however with the addition of T72 signature park and 3D becoming mostly a park trail, the North Peak Express now runs every day and is an important wind relief lift for the chondi (the open line of the chondi at the top is highly wind prone and often can be one of the first lifts to go on hold). Also, the resort has been adding a lot of gladed terrain on North Peak. So doubt that lift is going anywhere
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Thanks for the comment Matt; I corrected my post. It’s good they did some creative thinking to bring more traffic to an underutilized lift like North Peak.
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Loon mountain, another Boyne resort, has a 4-person gondola. They store their cars indoors at the base I believe. Loon has had a gondola since it opened- prior to Boyne’s acquisition
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IMO, install a FGQ on the SRX line, and sell the South ridge express/use it somewhere else in the Boyne resorts. It just seems unnecessary to have a 3,000 foot line HS when it is right next to a chondola.
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The SRX is 100% necessary to South Ridge (and really all of Sunday River). Without it, I don’t think there would be enough capacity out of South Ridge would not be enough for the amount of people that ski at Sunday River.
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I agree – my girlfriend is a big fan of the SRX. I may be getting relocated to another boyne resort but hoping they have similar lift capabilities….and she comes with me!
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Tbh the chondi is just a lift to get you over to the west side and other parts of the mountain.
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