Updated • Dec. 4, 2025, 11 p.m.: This article now reflects new opening dates announced by Alta Ski Area, Deer Valley Resort and Snowbasin.
Park City Mountain picked a date. Then Deer Valley Resort and Snowbasin followed suit.
Park City Mountain, Utah’s largest resort, will finally open for skiing and snowboarding out of both of its bases Friday. The announcement came Monday, shortly after the resort reported 4 inches of snow had fallen on its slopes. That was nearly two weeks after Park City Mountain originally intended to open for the 2025-26 season.
On Wednesday, both Deer Valley and Snowbasin announced they will join in the Friday festivities.
Snowbasin will begin with 2,500 feet of vertical by turning its Needles Gondola, Middle Bowl Express and Littlecat Express lifts.
Deer Valley will be open only to resort pass holders and will limit skiing to terrain out of its Snow Park Lodge, including off of Carpenter Express, Sterling Express and Homestake Express. The Park City ski area will open to all guests Saturday, but its new 2,300-acre East Village terrain will not be unveiled until “later this winter,” according to a news release.
With more snow in the forecast through the weekend, though — including potentially the first powder day — more resorts have been compelled to fire up their lifts.
Brighton brought its Explorer and Majestic lifts online Tuesday. Snowbird promised on its social media accounts that it would open this weekend but has not released an update. And Alta Ski Area is now targeting Sunday as its most likely opening day.
Utah’s skiing and snowboarding season has gotten off to a slow start. Lack of natural snow, and temperatures too warm to manufacture it, kept most of the state’s ski areas closed nearly a month after Colorado’s first resorts opened.
In Utah, the only resorts open on Thanksgiving Day were Brian Head Resort near Cedar City, which opened Nov. 21, and Solitude Mountain Resort, which celebrated its opener on the holiday.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Skiers ski down the mountain during opening day at Solitude Mountain Resort in Brighton on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025.
If the weekend forecast holds, however, resorts will have a shovel full of reasons to get the season started. They might even see their first powder day.
According to OpenSnow.com on Wednesday, as much as 6 inches could fall on Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin on Friday. Twice that much could fall Saturday alone, with all the Cottonwood Canyon and Park City resorts predicted to see double-digit snow totals.
Evan Thayer, the Utah forecaster for OpenSnow.com, had warned on his blog early in the week that this storm might disappoint by moving north. As of Wednesday, he’d taken a more optimistic tone.
“Attention is squarely on the storm for this weekend,” he wrote, ‘which is hopefully going to be our biggest of the season in Northern Utah."
Park City Mountain will be offering a new way to get to its terrain. In addition to opening for the season, it will be debuting its Sunrise Gondola. Utah’s only 10-person gondola, it will take passengers out of the Canyons Village base up to the lifts and revamped beginner area around Red Pine Lodge. A grand opening ceremony will be held at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the bottom terminal, near the Pendry Park City. The first 250 guests in line will receive a special commemorative pin.