“I love everything about this proposal. This is exactly why we were created and is exactly our purpose.”-Mike Ostermiller, Utah Military Installation Development Authority board member.

It sounds like Sundance Mountain Resort will be getting a new hotel.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Sundance Mountain Resort plans to build a sixty-five-room inn. They applied for funding from Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), which helps with the development of land that benefits military members.

Yesterday, MIDA approved this proposal, meaning tax-payer money will be used to build the hotel, albeit not the whole $35 million price tag. The MIDA funds will be going towards “the hard costs associated with Sundance Inn construction.” As part of the deal, Sundance will be adding benefits to veterans. The lodging will be free for wounded veterans, and the building will be ADA-accessible. Sundance will also be creating a veteran’s program, allowing those who served a place to unwind and heal.

This isn’t the first time that the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) has been involved with a ski resort development. They’re developing the base village around what was known as Mayflower Resort. The terrain around this development will ultimately become part of Deer Valley Resort.

The $35 million hotel is a joint partnership between Sundance Mountain Resort and Utah County. This move is Sundance’s next step in becoming Utah’s next destination ski resort. Since Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners bought the ski resort from Robert Redford in 2020, they have spent millions to modernize the ski resort. This has included adding new chairlifts, a terrain expansion geared toward beginner and intermediate guests, and more.

The $35 million hotel will still need private investment to move forward, although that seems more likely with this news.

Image Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

In this week’s edition of imbeciles burglarizing a ski resort, a group of teenagers have been put in the spotlight by a County Sheriff’s Office.

This week, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office released a video showing a bizarre incident at Sundance Mountain Resort. Back on June 9th, ten individuals traveled to the mid-station of the Outlaw Express chairlift. While there, they decided to touch the lift’s control buttons and destroyed two fire extinguishers. To conclude this round of dumbassery, they drew racist graffiti inside one of the lift’s structures. According to ABC4 Utah, they drew a swastika. Footage and photos of the scenes were captured by one of Sundance’s security cameras.

Around the same time, a home was burglarized, resulting in $15,000 in damages. The Sheriff’s Office believes that the two instances were related, due to the incident occurring 200 yards away from the mid-station.

Thanks to these intelligent individuals deciding to burglarize and vandalize the chairlift in broad daylight, the Sheriff’s office announced that they had identified the people involved. Hopefully, they’ll pay for the damages that they caused to Sundance.

Image/Video Credits: Utah County Sheriff’s Office/Sundance Mountain Resort

Over the past couple of days, the very underrated Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah has been letting people know about what’s new. These changes include new intermediate mountain biking trails and a new dog on Sundance’s patrol team.

Sundance has created one of the most extensive lift-serviced mountain biking networks in the Beehive State, with over 25 + miles to explore. On Wednesday, they announced the opening of two new trails. in the Archies Loop & Wildwood Area. The Diamond Back Trail connects Ray’s Summit to Sunnyside, while the Switch Back Alley Express connects the Upper Mandan Flow Trail to Switch Back Alley.

In more adorable news, Ida has joined Sundance’s ski patrol. The young puppy got her first taste of life at Sundance recently, as she took a ride with her dad, Collin Richards, on the chairlift, and got to explore the Ski Patrol hut. It looks like Ida’s going to love Sundance.

Image/Video Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

Sundance Mountain Resort is known for having some of the best views of any ski resort in North America. Because of this, the ski resort has a multitude of summer activities and is continuously adding to its offerings.

The Pahneekahvets Trail, which opened on June 2nd, is accessible from the midway point of the Outlaw Express chairlift. The hiking trail, which is 1.25 miles long (over two miles round-trip), has an intermediate difficulty.

The gradual hike takes you across meadows, wildflowers, and views of the Uintah Mountain Range and Stewart Falls. It ends with an impressive view of Mt. Timpanogos. The word Pahneekahvets comes from the Ute Indian tribe, and means “Look around you, look at the beauty of this place.”

If you want to check out the hike, keep in mind that there’s still a lot of snow remaining up at Sundance right now. Hike with a buddy, and check the weather before heading out. Lastly, while you’re out there, keep an eye on the sky, as thunderstorms can approach rapidly.

Image/Video Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

This past weekend, Sundance Resort was back like they never left. After supposedly closing on April 8th for the season, the Utah ski resort announced last week that they were going to reopen the mountain for another two days of skiing.

From 10 am-2 pm, guests traveled up from the Outlaw Express at the base area to Mandan Summit. From there, they put on their skis/boards to go down to Red’s Lift via the Diamondback trail. Red’s Lift was the only lift operating over on Back Mountain, but it had a variety of intermediate and advanced terrain open.

To get back to the base area, guests descended from the Roundup Cat Track trail down to Red Canyon and Maverick down to Jake’s Parking Lot, where guests were encouraged to park. If you didn’t park there, guests then took a shuttle from the Jakes Parking Lot to return to the other base area.

There was also a variety of summer activities open, including scenic lift rides on the Outlaw Express, Ziptours, live music, and dining/shopping.

I’m a big fan of season extensions, especially in May, so kudos to Sundance Resort for reopening the mountain to skiers and riders.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sundance Mountain Resort (@sundanceresort)

Stoke level was high this weekend. Thanks to everyone who came up and was a part of Sundance history as we skied in May for the first time ever ! pic.twitter.com/xVzmUSZd7p

— Sundance Resort (@SundanceResort) May 15, 2023

Image/Video Credits: Sundance Resort

A historic season has led many ski resorts in the state of Utah to extend their seasons or reopen for May skiing. This has included Brian Head, Brighton, Cherry Peak, Park City, Snowbird, and Solitude. After having a bonus weekend in April, Sundance Mountain Resort will be giving it another go this weekend

Yesterday, the ski resort located in Provo Canyon announced that they’ll be reopening Saturday and Sunday for some more skiing. The Bearclaw side of the Back Mountain is open, with intermediate and advanced terrain available to shred on. The open lifts will be the Outlaw Express and Reds. More terrain could possibly open if conditions permit. They’ll also have scenic rides on the Outlaw Express, zipline tours, and live music in the base area.

For more information about this weekend, you can check out Sundance’s video announcement below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sundance Mountain Resort (@sundanceresort)

Image/Video Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort 

This year, Nate Luebbe from The Journal Of Lost Time has started a documentary series about Utah’s last independent ski resorts. Called Higher Ground: The Last Independent Ski Resorts In Utah, they’ve previously covered Nordic Valley and Eagle Point. On Sunday, they posted their most recent episode, which explores Sundance Mountain Resort.

The first part of the video covers the lodging and dining options at the ski resort. During his ski day there, Nate checked out the Outlaw Express, Flathead triple chairlift, and new Wildwood terrain pod with Olympian Steven Nyman.

The video covers the many strengths of Sundance: the luxury food and lodging, the varied terrain, and the mind-boggling views. At the end of the video, Nate says that Sundance is his favorite ski resort in Utah, and it’s easy to understand why.

The video from The Journal Of Lost Time is below.

Image/Video Credits: The Journal of Lost Time, Sundance Mountain Resort

Wild footage out of Utah where a group of skiers at Sundance Resort got blasted by a “powder cloud” generated by an avalanche from the Middle Finger of the Timpanogos in the Provo area mountains.

Thankfully the avalanche debris stopped short of the resort in the dry lakes area adjacent to the ski area, but the dust cloud carried for hundreds of yards and enveloped the skiers in blizzard like whiteout conditions.

While spectacular, the powder cloud was not dangerous and no one was injured in the incident.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTs2IrArmU/

Sundance Mountain Resort was one of the big winners from Utah’s latest storm cycle, as they received 69″ of new snow since December 30th. This heavy snow created logistical challenges for the mountain though, as they were without power for much of New Years’ weekend. This has resulted in Sundance being closed since Sunday.

This was caused by hundreds of downed trees around Provo Canyon, with Rocky Mountain Power struggling to keep up with the work needed to restore operations. The power outage may last until Wednesday and have been running basic operations out of diesel auxiliary power.

Yesterday, Chad Linebaugh, who is the President and General Manager of Sundance Mountain Resort, explained the situation in a video address to their social media followers.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sundance Mountain Resort (@sundanceresort)

On Monday afternoon, they announced their operations plan for today. They’ll only be operating the Outlaw Express, and access is only available to season and S Card passholders, along with lodging guests. There will be a small terrain park open on Maverick.

They further elaborated that Rocky Mountain Power will be closing SR92 from 10 a.m. to dusk to complete repairs. They are asking people to wait until they fully get their power back, which will hopefully be Wednesday. If you do go, expect to wait at the ski resort until the evening.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sundance Mountain Resort (@sundanceresort)

Update 1/3 10:00 p.m.:

Image/Video Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

In the latest edition of SKI-MZ, we have actress Denise Richards trying her hand at snowboarding on the slopes of Park City Mountain Resort while in town for the Sundance Film Festival weekend. Not sure what ski school package includes après shoulder rubs but these snowboard instructors really seemed to enjoying their jobs.