“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

While the start of the ski season in Utah hasn’t been as deep compared to last year, mountains are still opening. Currently, six ski resorts are open in Utah, which include Alta, Brian Head, Brighton, Park City, Solitude, and Woodward Park City. In the next couple of days, four more ski resorts are set to open for the season. With snowfall in the forecast for this weekend, this could be a pretty good stretch for the Beehive State.

Here’s a rundown of what mountains will be opening this week…

After delaying their opening by six days due to warm weather, Snowbasin Resort announced on Monday that they’ll be opening tomorrow (November 30th). Three lifts will be operating: Needles Gondola, Middle Bowl Express, and the Littlecat Express. They’ll have nine groomed runs available on opening day, with more trails expected in the near future.

Snowbird will also be opening on Thursday. They’ll have the Aerial Tram, Gadzoom, and Chickadee lifts spinning. For the tram, the only terrain open from the top will be Regulator Johnson. Gadzoom will have intermediate and advanced terrain available, while Chickadee will have limited options for beginners. As always, the Bird is the word.

Up in Park City, Deer Valley will be starting its ski season on Saturday, December 2nd. To start out, Deer Valey will have ten trails and seven lifts open. More terrain will be opening quickly after their opening day.

In Provo Canyon, Sundance Resort will get its season going on Saturday. The open trails will be Upper Stampede, Center Isle, Lower Stampede, Bandit, Outlaw Trail, Red Canyon, Rollers, Upper Maverick, and Lower Maverick. The operating lifts will include the Outlaw Express, Jake’s Lift, and their three magic carpets. A small terrain park will be situated around Lower Stampede. Sundance will have donuts for the first couple hundred people at the Outlaw Express. If I lived out in Utah, I’d be arriving at the lift maze at 5 a.m. for that perk.

Image/Video Credits: Snowbasin Resort, Snowbird Resort, Deer Valley Resort, 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

“It has long been a goal of the Resort to provide additional terrain on our mountain. This new area has great natural light with abundant sunshine; I am confident it will be a new favorite area for early morning runs and laps throughout the day for families.”– Chad Linebaugh, President and General Manager of Sundance Mountain Resort.

Last season, Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah debuted its first high-speed quad, a new fixed-grip quad chairlift, and new trails. This season, they are undergoing a terrain expansion south of the top of Jake’s Lift. The forty-acre terrain pod will feature ten new runs and a fixed-grip quad chairlift. The trails will be mostly of the beginner and intermediate variety, with one tiny advanced run.

This week, Sundance announced the names of these new trails. A few of them, Hot Bread and Honey Butter are named after one of Sundance’s signature food items, which may be making a return to their menu this winter.

The name of the new lift will be announced soon. The new trails and chairlift are expected to open during the 2022-23 season.

Image Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

“Elk Meadows is a priceless pedestal on which rests one of Utah’s most powerful peaks, Mount Timpanogos. To walk those meadows in the summer, or snowshoe and cross-country ski there in the winter is to enter a sanctuary, a place of safety, peace, and contemplation.”– Jamie Redford, Son of Robert Redford.

In spite of a new expansion announced this Spring, Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah remains committed to protecting its environment. Since its opening in 1969, famous filmmaker and actor Robert Redford has done his part to protect one of the most stunning natural destinations in all of Utah, which was encapsulated by a conservation easement last week.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Redford family held a ceremony last Thursday to celebrate the conservation easement of 316 acres known as Elk Meadows, which is at the base of Mount Timpanogos. The ceremony renamed the land the Redford Family Elk Meadows Preserve, which will help protect it from putting ski lifts or other commercial developments there.

Some parts of the ceremony included a musical performance by the Utah Symphony, a prayer from Larry Cesspooch, who is the spiritual leader of the Ute tribe, various speeches by members of the Redford family, a champagne toast, and a picnic lunch. The ceremony was held in honor of Jamie Redford, who tragically died in 2020 at the age of fifty-eight.

According to Utah Open Lands, protecting Elk Meadows is important due to its “vital year-round moose habitat, crucial spring through fall elk habitat, sensitive wetland meadows, and seeps, black bear, cougar and coyote use areas and the continued availability to the public of the Stewart Falls hiking trail.”

Author Mark Spragg described Elk Meadows as a “place of silence, these acres of undisturbed land, where if we listen carefully enough, quiet ourselves sufficiently, we might hear the stories the earth whispers, and we might recognize ourselves in these stories, understand that regardless of our differences, we all belong to the same narrative of love and longing, desperate to be understood and valued.”

Robert Redford opened the ski resort in 1969 and sold the ski resort to Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners in 2020. When the deal was announced, the two new partners agreed to the Elk Meadows conservation plan but didn’t hold a ceremony until last week due to the global pandemic. This isn’t the Redford family’s first rodeo in land conservation, as they protected almost 900 acres of land around the Mount Timpanogos Wilderness in 1997. Out of the 2600 acres owned by Broadreach and Cedar Capital Partners, 1845 acres are protected via conservation easements or protective covenants.

The Redfords have been generally happy with the ownership group. They have spent millions of dollars on major on-mountain improvements, are working on a terrain expansion this off-season, and have kept their word on protecting Elk Meadows. The Redfords just have one request for the new owernship: bring back the fried pickles. Image Credits: Sundance Resort, Utah Open Lands

“It has long been a goal of the Resort to provide additional terrain on our mountain. This new area has great natural light with abundant sunshine; I am confident it will be a new favorite area for early morning runs and laps throughout the day for families.”– Chad Linebaugh, President, and General Manager of Sundance Mountain Resort.

Nobody told Sundance Mountain Resort that it was April Fools Day. The Utah ski resort announced on April 1st that they’ll be expanding their terrain for the 2022-23 season. The new fifteen-acre expansion will feature four runs for beginners and intermediate skiers. The trails will be serviced by a new Doppelmayr lift. This fixed grip-lift will be a five-minute ride, and the trails will feature snowmaking thanks to Sundance’s recently upgraded snowmaking system. The trails will not have lights on them for night skiing. You can read their official press statement here.

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This is just the latest addition to what has been a transformative two offseasons for Sundance Mountain Resort. This season, they introduced the Outlaw Express(going to the Mandan Summit), the Stairway Lift(which returns skiers from the back mountain), a new beginner area with surface lifts, snowmaking improvements, a renovated Creekside Lodge with a new BBQ restaurant, and more parking spots. With all these new additions, this ski resort should be on your bucket list for your next Utah ski trip. Image Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

A new era began at Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah on Wednesday, as they opened the Outlaw Express for the first time. The high-speed quad goes to the mid-mountain summit, Mandan, in seven minutes. The lift services beginner, intermediate, and advanced terrain. Night skiing will also be available from the Outlaw Express. There were some roadblocks to getting this lift open though.  Supply chain issues have delayed the delivery of the chairs. In the meantime, Doppelmayr has supplied temporary chairs from another western ski resort to operate the lift before the new chairs arrived.

The Stairway Lift, a new lift that services guests that are coming back from the back mountain to Mandan summit, opens for the first time today. Other offseason improvements include new runs off of the Outlaw Express, a new beginner area with surface lifts, snowmaking upgrades, RFID technology, added parking spots, and a new restaurant at the base named “The Lookout.”

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Image/Video Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort

Sundance Mountain Resort is undergoing transformative upgrades this offseason, with multiple new lifts and trails. On Thursday, Sundance announced the names of the new trails and runs. The new high-speed quad, Outlaw Express, ends at a different spot than its predecessor: Rays. The Outlaw Express climbs to the Mandan Summit, which used to be hikeable from the top of Rays. Rays only went to the top of the Warren Miller’s Beyond The Edge and Wedding Ring runs. Two runs have been created off Mandan Summit: the easy Broadway trail, and the intermediate Panorama trail. Then there is the new Stairway lift, which brings skiers back from the bowls of the Back Mountain. Also shown on the map is the new beginner area, which added three magic carpets over the summer. You can check out the video announcement of the lift and trail names, along with the various changes to the map below.

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Image/Video Credits: Sundance Mountain Resort