What’s new in Utah for ’15-’16

By Wendy Clinch •  Updated: 10/18/16 •  3 min read

If you’re planning to ski Utah this winter, then I’m sure you’ll find this of interest. The coming season brings a number of new improvements to Utah’s resorts. Here are a few of the things you can expect:

Snowbird: After spending $35 million on capital improvements last season, Snowbird has rebuilt its Creekside Lodge. The lodge, in Gad Valley at Snowbird Entry 1, is currently undergoing massive reconstruction to triple the building’s square footage. The larger facility will be the base of operations for all Snowbird Mountain Ski and Snowboard School lessons, eliminating shuttling students from the Tram Plaza and allowing for a lot more time skiing and snowboarding on the mountain. A new 500-foot conveyor lift will help skiers and riders get from the new Creekside Lodge to Snowbird’s Baby Thunder lift at the far western edge of the resort.

Snowbird is also replacing its 40-year old tram cables, and installing a fiber optic line into the cable, as well. The line will boost the resort’s online webcams to high definition and speed up the free Wi-Fi in the resort’s new Summit Lodge atop the tram. Finally, Snowbird is completing the remodel of the Cliff Lodge, its flagship slopeside lodging property, for the 2016-17 season.

Powder Mountain Resort:  Powder Mountain is adding two new lifts accessing Mary’s Bowl and Lefty’s Canyon, both previously accessible only by snowcat. These lifts will expand Powder Mountain’s skiable terrain to 1,000 acres.

Sundance Resort: Sundance is installing a new Arrowhead Lift to replace an aging triple chair on the mountain. The new lift will be a quad with new safety bars and improved loading and unloading areas. It willincrease uphill capacity by over 500 people per hour and assist in decreasing lift lines.

Cherry Peak: In its second year of operation, Cherry Peak is continuing to expand by adding a third lift. The new Summit Lift nearly doubles the mountain’s skiable terrain to over 400 acres. Cherry Peak is also installing lights in this area so it can continue to offer night skiing throughout the resort.

Brian Head: The resort has built a new state-of-the-art 2,000 square foot restaurant kitchen and BBQ pit. The improvement will triple the size of the previous facilities and double Brian Head’s current capacity for serving up brisket, ribs, chicken or pork every Friday and Saturday evening.

Solitude Mountain Resort: Now in its second year owned and operated by Deer Valley, Solitude is rebuilding the Roundhouse restaurant that was destroyed by a fire after the mountain closed last spring. The building’s architecture will closely mimic that of the former structure.

Other news out of Ogden Valley is the official opening of Whisper Ridge Cat Skiing, which starts on December 26. Whisper Ridge operates on over 30,000 acres of private ski and ride terrain east of the Cache Valley hamlet of Paradise, plus on over 12,000 acres of land south of Snowbasin, and uses eight custom PistenBully snowcats for access. Whisper Ridge is offering single to multi-day cat-skiing tours and optional first descent helicopter drops.

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