Deer Valley, one of three ski-only resorts in the United States, is getting ready to unveil the first phase of a massive expansion. But the 100 new trails coming to the Utah mountain—20 of which will be open in time for the 2024–25 ski season—still won’t welcome snowboarders.
According to the resort, “We remain committed to our three brand pillars of; providing exceptional guest service, offering a ski-only resort experience, and limiting daily skier visitation on the mountain.” Deer Valley was founded in 1981 in Park City, Utah, with just five chairlifts and 35 runs. It has since expanded to 21 lifts and 103 runs, with more on the way.
This winter’s soft launch of the “Expanded Excellence” project includes three new chairlifts—one of which, the Keetley Express, is the resort’s first six-person bubble chairlift—300 new skiable acres, and 500 additional parking spots. More terrain is expected to open for the 2025–26 season, and in the near future, even more runs—3,700 new acres in total—will be accessible to Deer Valley ticket holders.
Instead of one main base, there will be two. When completed, a new Deer Valley East Village at the foot of the mountain will include more than 1,800 residential units, 1,400 hotel rooms, and some 250,000 square feet of new retail and commercial space. All told, Deer Valley will double in size, making it one of North America’s largest ski resorts.
Emily Summers, Deer Valley’s director of communications, says that the resort is intent on continuing to provide outstanding customer service as it grows and responds to demand by “giving people more space, more space to move around, [and] more lifts to explore.”
One of the highlights of the expansion is the November 20 opening of a 400-room Grand Hyatt Deer Valley hotel with slopeside access to the new terrain. Rates will start at $799 per night. A shuttle will be available to carry skiers 100 yards to the new lifts. The five-star hotel will be in good company with several other high-end resorts that already offer ski-in, ski-out access, including Montage Deer Valley, the St. Regis Deer Valley, and Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley.
Deer Valley loyalists appear to be generally enthusiastic about the changes coming to the posh ski resort. Lisa Niver, who has been skiing at Deer Valley for decades, said she is “thrilled” about the expansion. The Los Angeles–based author is especially excited about all the new trails, but the additional parking, new restaurants, and opening of the Grand Hyatt in the new base area, Deer Valley East Village, are pluses too. “We will need more people because there will be so much terrain,” Niver said, unconcerned about potential overcrowding since Deer Valley will continue to cap the number of skiers it allows on the mountain each day.
Park City local Hilary Reiter Azzaretti said people are eagerly anticipating the new facilities and amenities, especially since Deer Valley’s slopes have gotten more crowded since Alterra Mountain Company purchased it in 2017, and it became a member of the Ikon Pass a year later; seven days of skiing at Deer Valley are included on the standard Ikon Pass. But as much as Reiter Azzaretti believes the expansion is needed to manage congestion, she’s less jazzed about the new terrain itself: “I’ve been watching the runs get cut, and I don’t think it’s going to be the resort’s most exciting terrain,” she said, adding that this side of the Wasatch Range doesn’t get as much snow as the existing Deer Valley terrain. It could be a problem early in the season and in the spring, she points out.
Joseph Mattioli, Montage Deer Valley’s general manager, called the expansion a positive development, something that will serve to further elevate Deer Valley as a premium ski destination. “While change invariably brings some level of uncertainty, we overwhelmingly see this as a positive one for the community that will provide even more opportunities to explore the beauty of the mountain, with a greater diversity of offerings for every type of traveler,” says Mattioli.
Every type of traveler, that is, except for the snowboarding kind.
