Utah's Deer Valley Resort Doubles Skiable Acreage, Fulfilling Longtime Vision
The tony Utah ski resort accelerated work on a long-awaited expansion along its eastern slopes
A view of the new angle station of the East Village Express Gondola looking east toward the Jordanelle Reservoir (lower right) that will supply water for snowmaking. The lift station is the midpoint along the nearly three mile length of the East Village Gondola system.
As soon as the last skier left Utah’s Deer Valley resort at the end of the season, construction crews moved in to begin work on what resort officials call the largest current expansion of a ski resort in North America. Under a plan marketed by the resort as Expanded Excellence, work that began in 2024 moved into high-gear in the summer as Deer Valley executes plans that will more than double its skiable acreage to 5,726 from the current 2,026 over the next two years.
Deer Valley’s parent company, Colorado-based Alterra, has said the project is the largest they have ever undertaken in one season.
The expansion is taking place east of the existing resort in an area known locally as the Mayflower property, named for the silver mine that once operated there. The expansion has been part of the long-term vision for the resort, says Garrett Lang, senior director of mountain operations for Deer Valley. That vision only became a reality when the resort was purchased by Alterra in 2017. Alterra signed an agreement with New York-based Extell Development to develop and operate new facilities at the resort. Extell holds the long-term leases for the land and is developing the on-mountain facilities with Deer Valley. Daily operations at various facilities will be split between Deer Valley and Extell.
As part of Alterra, Deer Valley joins nearly a dozen other resorts in North America owned by the company, which offers access to all of its properties through its IKON pass.
A tandem-rotor, heavy-lifting helicopter moves a lift tower into place for one of the seven new ski lifts being installed on the mountain. Crews also used the helicopters to place concrete in challenging locations.
Photo courtesy Deer Valley Resort
Long Time Coming and More to Come
With many entities involved in the expansion, and costs shared for different portions of the work, a publicly available budget number for the Deer Valley East Village is difficult to pin down. Estimates in 2020 put the price tag at about $2 billion. In June of this year, Extell secured a $600-million loan for the construction of a new Four Seasons Resort and Residences in the East Village. In September of this year, Alterra announced capital investments of $400 million, with the majority of it earmarked for the Deer Valley project.
The Deer Valley East Village expansion includes a partnership with the Military Installation Development Authority, an entity established by the state of Utah that works with the U.S. military, private enterprises and local governments to facilitate the development of military property within the state and to promote economic growth. The MIDA held significant amounts of property on the east side of Deer Valley. In a partnership with MIDA, Extell developed the new Grand Hyatt Deer Valley hotel, which provides discounted rates to members of the military. The MIDA also issued just over $600 million in bonds to facilitate infrastructure development in the Deer Valley East Village project.
New lodges will soon rise near the base station for the East Village Gondola. The system has gondola cabins with heated seating for 10 passengers and can move up to 3,000 people per hour at 1,400 ft per minute.
Photo courtesy Deer Valley Resort
Digging Down and Standing Up
The hills have been alive with the sound of digging, scraping and blasting to create foundations for new buildings and piping for the extensive snowmaking system while overhead helicopters thrummed as they delivered concrete and placed towers for the seven new lifts being installed.
Lang estimates that on an average day 200 to 230 workers have been on the site, with peak days reaching upward of 270.
Installation of the snowmaking system and seven of the project’s 10 new lifts was the chief focus of the work in the summer. Water for the snowmaking system is drawn from the nearby Jordanelle Reservoir located opposite the site on the east side of U.S. Interstate 40.
“Probably 95% of the land is in Wasatch County, and then the rest is in Summit County. We’ve been pushing up against red lines and potential stop work orders all summer. We’ve had to carry on as if the permits were coming, and it has been working out.”
—Matt Tuttle, Senior Superintendent of Vertical Construction, Deer Valley
Crews have installed 80 miles of pipe for the system, which includes four pump houses and several reservoirs. The system can move up to 15,000 gallons of water per minute along with 32,000 cu ft of compressed air to the 1,250 snowmaking guns that line the 81 new ski runs.
Lang says dealing with the ground conditions and the constantly evolving permitting process were the greatest challenges for the project this summer.
“We’ve had to do more blasting than I would say was planned on,” he says. “There are inevitably delays with the permitting process, and we just have to work through schedule changes. Despite challenges, the project has not experienced major delays.”
Lang said coordinating so many different projects during a short construction season and all at one time has also been tricky. “The biggest part of getting this done this season is the logistics ... making sure something that the lift installer is doing isn’t preventing the snowmaking installer from continuing on [and so forth] so there isn’t a domino effect holding up the progress of the lodge or whatever it is,” he says.
Matt Tuttle, senior superintendent for vertical construction with Deer Valley says an added layer of complexity has been that the project area lies in two counties, each with their own approval and permitting process.
Crews from Park City-based Big-D Signature prepare to pour concrete for a lift tower base.
Photo courtesy Deer Valley Resort
“Probably 95% of the land is in Wasatch County, and then the rest is in Summit County. We’ve been pushing up against red lines and potential stop work orders all summer. We’ve had to carry on as if the permits were coming, and it has been working out,” he says.
Vernal, Utah-based welding company D.C. Welding installed the snowmaking piping. The lift system is supplied by Austrian-based Doppelmayr, which has its North American headquarters in Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City-based Big-D Signature was tasked with pouring the concrete footings for the lifts. “We’ve been doing work on the lifts since 2024,” says Cody Dusenberry, project manager for Big-D Signature. “We have been able to get pump trucks up the mountain and mixers, but sometimes the location of the tower means we have to use the helicopters for pours. It’s more expensive, but it buys us time.”
Shawn Marquardt is the senior sales director for Doppelmayr USA, and he says the company partnered with Alterra to design the lift system and to perform the work of placing lift towers and installing the lift equipment.
“We fabricated the majority of the towers, electric controls, operator houses and fixed grip chair lift machinery in our Salt Lake City facility,” says Marquardt. Other equipment like gondola cabins and chairs came from facilities in Canada and Switzerland.
“I’m happy to say there were no outstanding or overreaching concerns with materials or delivery,” Marquardt says. “We have a thoughtful production strategy with sites worldwide to ensure the equipment will be delivered on time.”
Two of the six-seater chair lifts with a “bubble” enclosure and the 10-passenger gondola, both with heated seats, are firsts for a Utah resort, he adds.
“The aesthetics and finishes were specified to fit Deer Valley’s unique heritage,” says Marquardt, referring to the use of Deer Valley’s signature green and gold color schemes.
Working with a helicopter, the team from Austrian lift manufacturer Doppelmayr prepares to secure the top on another of the seven new ski lifts erected in the summer.
Photo courtesy Deer Valley Resort
Park Peak Lodge Takes Shape
One of the more important lifts for the project is the East Village gondola, which departs from a plaza that will house a lodge in later phases. The lift reaches a mid-mountain point at 8,170 ft where skiers can exit or continue to the Park Peak Lodge at 9,100 ft.
At just over 80,000 sq ft, the Park Peak Lodge, designed by Salt Lake City-based GSBS Architects and being built by Big-D Signature, is under construction now and will not open until next year. It includes basement storage space for 144 of the gondola cabins.
According to Tang Yang, lead architect at GSBS for the Park Peak Lodge, the design sought to incorporate familiar Deer Valley design elements with updated touches emphasizing expansive views from the peak.
“What makes the lodge distinctive is how it overlays this familiar mountain comfort with new layers of drama. The architecture intentionally frames view corridors, maximizes openness and uses contemporary engineering and construction techniques to elevate the guest experience beyond the traditional lodge,” says Tang.
“As a hub and connector between Silver Lake and the new East Village, the lodge required a unique solution that balances function and identity. Expansive views and a sensitivity to the mountain’s natural ranges give the project its signature quality,” he adds.
Dusenberry notes that the short construction season drove the contractor to use precast concrete panels for the foundation, and the team was able to pour footings for the structural steel last year. The steel was delivered and erected over the summer, and crews are now racing to prepare for winter.
“Access to the site was a challenge. Getting the cranes up there and the six-wheel trucks delivering materials was tough. There is more than the usual amount of planning going into this, and we have to coordinate with a lot of teams,” says Dusenberry.
“With the structural steel up for the lodge, we want to work through the ski season. We want to get the roof on before December,” he says.
