Utah ski resorts are on track to add more new skiable terrain than any other state for the 2026-27 season, led by a major expansion at Powder Mountain and additional acreage coming online at Deer Valley and Sundance.
Based on acreage figures published by the resorts and Ski Utah, those three projects account for at least 1,352 acres of new or newly public terrain this winter. Powder Mountain represents the vast vast majority of that total with 1,047 acres in its new DMI zone, while Deer Valley is adding 200 acres around Hail Peak and Sundance is adding another 105 acres on its back mountain.
The numbers are not perfectly apples-to-apples because resorts define new terrain differently. Some acreage has never been part of normal resort operations, while other terrain was previously reachable only by hiking or guided access. Still, the scale of Utah’s additions is well beyond what other states are bringing online this season.
Powder Mountain Leads The Expansion
Powder Mountain’s DMI project is the largest single terrain expansion we found anywhere in the country for 2026-27.
The Northern Utah resort says the new zone will add 1,047 acres of public advanced and expert terrain, including about 900 acres served by the new DMI chairlift and another 147 acres accessible by hiking. The area includes open glades, chutes and technical terrain with roughly 2,200 vertical feet.
The terrain was available in limited form through guided backcountry skiing during the 2025-26 season, but it will become part of Powder Mountain’s regular public trail network this winter. A new Skytrac fixed-grip triple will provide the first lift access into the area. Unofficial Networks previously covered the DMI expansion, which Powder Mountain says will push its publicly accessible terrain beyond 6,000 acres.
Deer Valley is also continuing its Expanded Excellence buildout with another 200 acres this winter. The new Hail Peak Express will serve seven runs on Hail Peak and bring the resort to roughly 4,500 skiable acres. The lift towers were installed by helicopter in September.
Sundance rounds out Utah’s major terrain additions with another 105 acres near Bishop’s Bowl. The terrain will be served by the new Electric Horseman Express, a high-speed quad climbing roughly 1,850 vertical feet to the resort’s back mountain.
Together, the three projects bring Utah’s total to at least 1,352 acres of new or newly public skiing for the season. If the 147 hike-to acres at Powder Mountain are removed and only terrain with direct chairlift access is counted, the total still comes to at least 1,205 acres.
Other States Are Adding Terrain But Utah Is King
Several other resorts around the country have meaningful expansions scheduled for this winter, although the acreage figures are considerably smaller.
Sun Valley is adding about 50 acres of new gladed terrain on Bald Mountain between Christin’s Silver, Leigh Lane and Upper Broadway. The project follows another 90 acres of glades that opened the previous season.
In Colorado, Purgatory Resort’s new Colorado Couloir lift will provide access to roughly 40 acres of advanced and expert terrain, including new trails and gladed skiing.
Lee Canyon in Nevada is also opening a new terrain pod with its West Bowl chairlift and five new intermediate and advanced trails. The resort has not published a definitive acreage figure for the expansion, so it is difficult to include in a direct statewide comparison.
There are other new lifts and trail projects scattered across the country, but none of the announced 2026-27 expansions we found comes close to the acreage being added in Utah.
Utah’s Biggest Terrain Expansion In Years
What makes the Utah total notable is that it is spread across three very different resorts and three different types of terrain.
Powder Mountain is opening a large advanced and expert zone that significantly changes the amount of public terrain available at the resort. Deer Valley is continuing a multi-year expansion that has already added thousands of acres around East Village, while Sundance is improving access to terrain that has historically been slower and more difficult to reach.
Skiable-acre figures are not standardized across the industry, so exact comparisons always require some qualification. Based on the figures currently published by the resorts, however, Utah is entering the 2026-27 season with more new skiable terrain than any other state, and most of that acreage will be available directly from new chairlifts.
