For the first time in its 86 year history, Maine’s Pleasant Mountain will feature a high speed lift next season. The new Summit Express will run 1,220 vertical feet from the base of the mountain to the top in just 4.5 minutes. The detachable quad will contain some new parts from Doppelmayr along with many refurbished components from the former Jordan Bowl Express at Sunday River. Like with the new Bucksaw Express at Sugarloaf, Pleasant Mountain is working with Doppelmayr to make the lift look and feel like a completely new machine. The existing Summit Triple, which was down for a period this season with mechanical issues, will be removed.
“We’re taking our guest experience to new heights with a faster, more efficient detachable quad from Doppelmayr,” the resort said, noting the new lift will carry 2,400 skiers per hour at 1,000 feet per minute. “We can’t wait to introduce Pleasant Mountain guests to the new lift experience.”
The Summit Express is the fifth new lift project announced by Boyne Resorts for the 24-25 season. Big Sky and The Summit at Snoqualmie also plan to debut new lifts for next winter.
Lift Blog 
Here’s a real life approximation of what the terminals will look like:
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I will note these pictures were taken before the permanent undercovers were added. Jordan will also undergo a more in depth refurbishment than Shedhorn did. The new Summit Express will look a lot more like Seven Brothers and Bucksaw (aside from the grips of course)
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Considering the old Jordan Bowl Express was an older UNI, the lift in real life won’t look exactly like the animation. Its gonna have older terminal masts.
Overall, I think this is a great thing for Pleasant Mountain and is gonna be a great improvement overall.
Also the announcement was gonna be sooner rather than later.
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Finally, the loudest whisper in Maine skiing gets confirmed.
Boyne has put a good amount of love into little old Pleasant, even though it’s the outlier of their New England portfolio, and this is really going to make the mountain feel a lot different. Currently Pleasant still has a nice little Indy vibe and un-busy feel compared to SR or the Loaf, so I hope that doesn’t change. (Maybe that’s why Boyne still leaves it off their New England Pass product.) It is already probably the best option for daytrippers from Portland, and I think there’s a real opportunity to draw more crowds over from North Conway and the Mt. Washington Valley, too.
I hope the refurb holds up, this year has been pretty rough with the triple’s problems… as Jordan Bowl this lift had a lot of hours, and it won’t be an easy retirement life for it now that it’ll have to spin for some of the busiest night-skiing sessions around.
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I find it really funny how Boyne Resorts waited so long to officially announce this project despite everyone and there mother knowing that the Jordan Bowl equipment was literally in Pleasant Mountain’s parking lot.
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Same with Sugarloaf replacing Timberline with a 6-Pack. The locals from the Sugarloaf Facebook page already posted photos of the Six-Shooter chair (from Big Sky) dismantled in one of the parking lots of the resort. Boyne will probably wait until presidents day of 2025 to make an announcement about the project, but I find it hilarious that almost everyone knew what was happening and where it was going to be on the mountain.
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looking at the renderings again — looks like the alignment will be repositioned to the west, such that the lift will run skiers’ right of the Main Slope instead of the triple lift line. Is that correct?
I really like the quiet, hidden away liftline through the woods that the triple uses, but I suppose that would’ve had to be widened so much for a quad that they may as well just build it on a much wider, already clear slope to save the trouble.
I imagine that there will need to be some trees cut closer to the top regardless.
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congrats to them!
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I’m gonna assume the new Summit Express will not have the Sunday River logos on the backrests like the Jordan Bowl Express did. Based on the renderings, it looks like the seat paddings will be the color beige to match the Pleasant Mountain color scheme.
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Pleasant Mountain has come a long way since I first skied there in about 1970. A fixed grip double (can’t recall whose) where the “safety bar” was a piece of 1″ cotton webbing with a snaphook that clipped to a D ring.
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This one has been driving me crazy for a long time now! I knew it was there and it was being hidden in the maintenance lot while they were refurbishing it.
1-) https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=982307863937988&set=pcb.982308520604589
2-) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12F3rckcjP3/
3-) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15P9FeyR52/
4-) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14XsNdBJZ1/–
5-) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15eJQgbjWq/
I look forward to seeing more photos/videos from future lift riders and when they do the official opening of it. Which shouldn’t be too far away I would presume since load tests are nearing completion.
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