Deer Valley and Park City Mountain resorts have been busy this summer and fall with some substantial upgrades for the upcoming skiing/boarding season. It would be an understatement that all of us on the Wasatch Back are hoping for some October snow to kick start winter optimism and douse the Yellow Lake Fire.
Deer Valley announced recently that they will open a portion of their expansion formerly known as Mayflower and now we should refer to it as the Deer Valley East Village. It’s a multiyear development project that more than doubles the size of the resort and stretches Deer Valley into Wasatch County with 3,700-plus acres of new terrain, perhaps the largest ski resort expansion on the planet.
The headline for 2024-25 is that construction crews are scrambling to open three new lifts behind the Grand Hyatt Hotel, which is that big building you can see from U.S. 40, by opening day Dec. 7.
Two of those lifts, Hoodoo Express and Aurora, will serve the new beginner ski area recently named as Prospect. The third lift, Keetley Express, will carry passengers in a six-pack bubble chair to Keetley Point just below the bottom of the existing Sultan Express lift on Bald Mountain.
This will provide skiers who park at the new 500-space parking lot in the East Village the means to connect with the more familiar side of Deer Valley. The new East Village runs at the base will be the largest and most wide-open greenies at Deer Valley and likely a great spot for newbies. This new expansion does not change Deer Valley as a skier’s-only resort, however.
If you do venture to the East Village this season, you will find that it will be a construction zone and a work in progress for at least the next three years.
In addition to all of the skiing infrastructure being built, there are hotels, condos, plazas, private homes, new roads — all underway. Parking shuttles like those in service at the Snow Park Base will carry you from the new parking lot at East Village to the new lifts, where there will also be a temporary building for lockers, tickets, ski school offices and restrooms for 2024-25. Dining options will be limited to the Grand Hyatt for this season at East Village.
There won’t be a connection from the East Village base to the existing Jordanelle Gondola. Parking and access at this lift will be unchanged, except for a new hotel they’re squeezing into the open property just south of the gondola.
The new runs at Deer Valley East Village will have the latest snowmaking technology providing their team the ability to remote control and customize each snow gun on the mountain to maximize coverage. An operator in a command center will monitor remote sensors collecting data on the snow condition, the weather and the snow depth across all of Deer Valley.
Garrett Lang, director of mountain operations, explained that Deer Valley will add 150 additional employees this season to ramp up for the 2025-26 season, when they plan to open an additional 2,900 acres, 700 more parking spaces, nine new chairlifts, one new gondola and 110 new runs.
With all of this growth on the horizon, Lang said, they’re receiving seven new snowcats this fall. The new hires will be across many operational positions, including lifties, patrollers, groomers and lift maintenance technicians.
Lang also mentioned that if the snow gods provide enough natural snow coverage this winter, they’ll consider opening a bit more terrain on the East Village side.
At Park City Mountain, the big project underway this off-season is the all-new snowmaking system on the blue run at Canyons Village, known as Another World. Park City Mountain has been planning to replace the aging steel pipes and snow guns for several years, and this summer it finally started.
Chad Avery, snowmaking manager at Canyons Village, explained that they replaced 3,600 feet of outdated steel pipe, which is now headed for recycling, and they added an additional 5,000 feet of new pipe for water and air delivery. All of it is buried from the top to bottom of the Tombstone Express Lift.
They want to offer more rideable terrain early on in the ski season and give skiers and boarders an opportunity to better spread out.
The technology is similar to other recent snowmaking installations at Park City Mountain for which operators at a command center will be able to dial in precise snowmaking settings for each of the 46 new snow guns along Another World.
Avery said it should allow them to more wisely use water and energy. He expects to start making snow in late October. They’ve said opening day will be Friday, Nov. 22, conditions permitting.
Construction on the new Sunrise Gondola began this summer at Canyons Village. This summer’s work included regrading and installing underground infrastructure at Pendry Plaza where the new base terminal will be located. The lift is scheduled to be operational for the 2025-26 season.
Also new to Park City Mountain and Vail resorts this upcoming season is the My Epic Gear membership pass, which offers members ski and snowboard rental packages with free slope-side pick-up and delivery. The cost of the membership is $50 a season with a $55 daily-use fee for adults and $45 for kids 3-12.
According to Open Snow, the NOAA long-range forecast for Utah is for below normal precipitation. However, the meteorologists at Open Snow also point out that these long-range forecasts are “rarely accurate.”
