Utah – Utah has made a name for itself in the North American ski industry.
Major investments, heavy snowfall, and a modern airport have brought more tourists to the Wasatch Mountains. These crowds have brought traffic, but they also bring cash flow, meaning the ski resorts can reinvest in their infrastructure and expand terrain.
Last month, Ski Utah announced what’s new at the state’s ski resorts for the 2024-25 season. These changes include new lifts, terrain, and snowmaking equipment. Here’s a ranking of the best improvements coming to Utah ski resorts this winter:
Honorable Mentions: Alta has added two covered conveyor lifts and improved some of its traverses, Brian Head is adding three new trails, Nordic Valley has refurbished the Apollo Chairlift, Park City has made vast snowmaking upgrades to the Chicane and Another World trails, and Snowbasin made further improvements to its parking and road infastructure.
5. Sundance Resort: After roughly four years of major changes, Sundance has made another round of improvements this offseason.
This offseason, Sundance Resort added a new base lodge to the Jake’s Lift base area. The structure will feature a rental shop, ticket office, ski school meeting area, and the Mountain Camp Cafe. The Cafe will have something shocking: affordable food. The eatery will feature $5 breakfast sandwiches and $10 lunch specials.
Sundance also underwent a major parking expansion. 119 spots were added to Lot E this summer. Sundance has added more than 300 parking spots over the past three offseasons.
4. Brighton Resort: After monumental changes during the 2023-24 season, Brighton will continue to grow this winter.
The primary improvement is the addition of night skiing on Milly. In years past, this terrain pod typically closed at 4 p.m. However, much of Brighton is home to night skiing, including Snake Creek, which added lights a few years ago. The official trail lineup for Milly has yet to be announced.
Other upgrades include snowmaking improvements to Great Western and Snake Creek and the acquisition of a hybrid electric snowcat, electric truck, and electric snowmobile for the ski resort’s employees.
3. Snowbird Resort: For the first time in eleven years, Snowbird has added a new chairlift.
The Wilbere chairlift, which opened in 1971, has been replaced by a new fixed-grip quad chairlift. The base terminal is now located near the Creekside base area, providing easier access for guests and ski racers. This new chairlift will feature a loading conveyor, comfy seats, and an increased capacity.
Other improvements include relocating the OG Red Tram cabin to the outside of the Tram Club and purchasing eighteen new snowmaking guns. Work also began on the new Mid-Gad Restaurant, which will open during the 2025-26 season.
2. Powder Mountain: Four new chairlifts, the return of terrain parks, and art installations highlight a transformative offseason at PowMow.
Four new chairlifts have been added. They have replaced Timberline with a new Skytrac fixed-grip quad and Paradise with a detachable high-speed quad chairlift. Over on Lightning Ridge, which was previously cat skiing terrain, Powder Mountain has added a new fixed-grip quad there as well. Lastly, they added a fixed-grip quad chairlift to the Raintree terrain area.
Terrain parks are also returning. The Hidden Lake Park will feature boards, rails, jumps, and a natural halfpipe that will double as a boardercross course. The Sundown park will feature jibs and jumps.
Art installations have been added across the mountain, which include the lift towers of two of their new chairlifts.
This should probably make it the number one pick, right? Well, there are some things that people aren’t crazy about. The first is that it’s now a semi-private ski resort, with three lifts only available to homeowners. Remember that new Raintree lift we mentioned? It’s only accessible to homeowners. Paid parking is now required on weekends and holidays, even for season passholders. Lift tickets and season pass prices are also up drastically, and you can’t even purchase lift tickets on weekends in February now.
So, avid PowMow fans think these changes are several steps forward and a couple of steps back. On the bright side, at least night skiing tickets are still $19!
1. Deer Valley: It’s not every day when you hear that a ski resort is adding more than 300 acres of new terrain. And it’s not every day that they’re following that up by adding 110 runs and 2900 acres of skiable terrain the following season. Yet that’s what Deer Valley is doing right now in a project that will change Utah’s ski industry.
Opening this winter, the first phase of the Deer Valley East Village terrain expansion will add twenty trails and three new chairlifts. The marquee chairlift is the Keetley Express, a high-speed six-pack bubble chairlift. This new base village has extensive parking, with 500 new spaces for this first season.
To learn more about what’s new at other Utah ski resorts, like Eagle Point, Solitude, and Woodward Park City, click here to read the full article from Ski Utah.
Image/Video Credits: Snowbird Resort (Otto Solberg, James Niehues), Snowbasin Resort, Sundance Resort, Brighton Resort (@ak_snap), Powder Mountain, Deer Valley Resort, Ski Utah (James Niehues)
