Pleasant Mountain Got Easier to Ski After Work This Winter

What does a $669 pass get a Bridgton skier this winter that it didn't get last winter? The answer is Pleasant Mountain. For the 2026/27 season, the New England Pass Afternoon product includes unlimited access to the mountain in Bridgton. Last season the same product covered only Sunday River, Sugarloaf, and Loon.

There's no new chairlift this year, and no new lodge or trail pod has been announced. Pleasant Mountain's news for 2026/27 is about access. More pass products now cover the mountain, and the mountain's best feature is its lights. That makes the new access an after-work story more than a weekend one.

Last Winter, One Pass Included Pleasant. This Winter, Four Do.

In 2025/26, Gold was the only New England Pass with unlimited Pleasant Mountain skiing. Gold added Pleasant that season. Sunday River's buyer's guide described the new Afternoon Pass as noon-start access "at all three resorts." It listed Nitro Unlimited and College Unlimited as good at Sunday River, Sugarloaf, and Loon.

On the current New England Pass benefits page, Pleasant Mountain unlimited access is listed under Gold, Nitro Unlimited, College Unlimited, and Afternoon. The College and Afternoon entries are marked "NEW." The Nitro Unlimited entry has no tag. Even so, it now includes a mountain the 2025/26 guide left off.

The March 12, 2026 launch announcement was less specific. It said "Gold and two other" New England Pass products would include Pleasant Mountain. The live benefits page lists three besides Gold. The live page is the more detailed and more recent of the two, so this post follows it. Check with the resort before you buy.

Here is how the passes that include Pleasant Mountain compare at the prices shown on the resort pages as of early October 2026. These are live prices with no update date on them, so they can change.

The table shows a price inversion. At those prices, the Afternoon pass costs $310 less than the Pleasant Mountain season pass. It also covers Sunday River, Sugarloaf, and Loon from noon on.

Why a Noon-Start Pass Fits This Mountain

At most big resorts, an afternoon product buys the back half of a short winter day. At Pleasant Mountain, the back half of the day keeps going under the lights. The resort runs night skiing Monday through Saturday, plus holiday Sundays, from 3:30 p.m. to close. It says it lights 20 trails and runs four lifts at night, and it calls this the most night skiing in New England. That ranking is the resort's own claim. No outside source has verified it.

There's one caveat. The benefits page lists the Afternoon pass as daily access starting at 12 PM, with no blackout dates. It doesn't say whether the pass also covers the night session. Before you build your winter around Tuesday-night laps, confirm with the resort.

The Summit Express also helps a short evening session. It's a detachable quad that replaced the Summit Triple and cut the ride to the top to about 4.5 minutes. It isn't new this season. It first carried the public on December 21, 2024, and this will be its second full winter. The resort's night-skiing page points to the high-speed summit lift as the reason an evening at Pleasant can hold more runs than usual. It also names the usual stop afterward, Blizzards Pub, and Race with the Moon, which runs two nights a week.

Monday Night Madness is the cheapest single night on the schedule. The resort lists it at $26 for unlimited laps, and the events calendar shows it running 3:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Dates for the 2026/27 Season

These are the dates the sources support, in order. Each one is marked as confirmed or projected.

1. December 4, 2026: projected opening. OnTheSnow lists December 4 for Pleasant Mountain, but it notes that its projected dates aren't official or final. The resort's events calendar lists the first night of night skiing but doesn't give an opening day.
2. December 26, 2026: first night of night skiing. The resort's events calendar lists it from 3:30 to 8:00 p.m.
3. December 28, 2026 to January 1, 2027: Local Midweek blackout.
4. January 18, 2027: Local Midweek blackout.
5. February 15 to February 19, 2027: Local Midweek blackout.

The holiday weeks are the dates where the passes differ most. Blackout dates don't apply to the Afternoon pass, and the benefits page lists it as valid every day of the season. During those same weeks, the adult Locals Pass doesn't work.

Off Old County Road, a Barn for the Snowcats

The one building project tied to the mountain this year is a maintenance barn. On September 1, 2026, Bridgton's Planning Board tentatively approved a 4,800-square-foot barn on Old County Road, connected to the Rabbit Run Road parcel. Engineer Bill Gerrish of Sebago Technics presented it for the applicant. He described it as a shop for the mountain's four snowcats and for light maintenance on its own vehicles. General Manager Ralph Lewis also attended.

The approval comes with conditions. It depends on review by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, an updated spill-prevention plan, and other documents. It doesn't mean the barn has been built. At an earlier August 4 meeting, the board asked for more detail on grading, noise, drainage, how the building would look, vehicle activity, and other items. Neighbors raised concerns about the size of the parking area, how close it sits to their wells, and upkeep of the private road.

For the 2026/27 season, the changes skiers will notice are the noon-start pass, the 3:30 p.m. lights, and the December 26 first night.

Winter in the Lakes Region shapes a lot of the questions we hear, from how close a home sits to the mountain road to what a family's weeknights look like from December through March. If Pleasant Mountain is part of how you think about where you live or where you might live next, the team at Bailey Pate is glad to talk it through with the same local detail. Get in Touch.