Sundance Mountain Resort: Your Complete Guide (2026)

Abigail Giordano Senior Writer, Provo.com

Sundance Mountain Resort sits about 14 miles up Provo Canyon from downtown — close enough to ski on a weekday morning and be back for an afternoon meeting. Founded by Robert Redford in 1969, it has long been the opposite of Park City's mega-resort energy: intimate, uncrowded, and set in some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in Utah.

That description is still true. It is also, for the first time in decades, incomplete. Sundance is in the middle of the largest expansion in its modern history — a new base hotel opened in January 2026, a new day lodge in 2025, a terrain expansion that will raise skiable acreage by roughly a third, and a high-speed quad arriving for the 2026–27 season. If your mental picture of Sundance is a small hill with a good restaurant, it needs updating.

And the founder is gone. Robert Redford died on 16 September 2025, aged 89, at his home at Sundance — in the canyon he bought into in the 1960s, on the mountain that carries the name he gave it. He had sold the ski area five years earlier. Locals noticed the flowers on the makeshift memorial at the resort long before the national coverage moved on.

Winter: Skiing & Snowboarding

The Mountain at a Glance

A note on that table: resort statistics are exactly the sort of number that goes stale quietly, and Sundance's have moved twice in three years. Treat the acreage and lift count as current-as-of-this-update and the resort's own mountain report as final.

What Makes Sundance Different

Sundance isn't trying to be Park City or Snowbird, and that's the point. The crowds are a fraction of the Cottonwoods, lift lines are short by Utah standards, and the mountain has a relaxed, local feel. The terrain is varied enough for all levels, with genuine expert lines off the back and gentle groomers for beginners.

It is also small in a way that matters practically: the 8,250-foot summit is well below Snowbird's, and the acreage is a fraction of Park City's. What you trade in size you get back in proximity — for a Provo or Orem resident, this is a mountain you can ski for two hours before work, which is not true of anywhere else with this quality of terrain.

The expansion, in plain terms

Four years of steady building have changed the mountain:

• Outlaw Express (2021) — the resort's first high-speed lift.
• Wildwood lift and terrain expansion (2022), plus significant snowmaking upgrades.
• Mountain Camp Day Lodge (January 2025) — a base lodge at Jake's Lift in the upper parking lot, with ticketing, rentals, ski school, retail, ski patrol and a cafe, and about 200 additional parking spaces. If you have ever circled the lower lot at 9:40 on a Saturday, this is the single most useful thing on the list.
• Far East ridge, phase one (2025–26) — nine new trails across about 60 acres, a preview of the larger project, connected by a blue-square ridge run with views from Utah Valley across to Heber Valley.
• The Inn at Sundance Mountain Resort (January 2026) — 63 ski-in/ski-out rooms at the base of the Outlaw Express.
• Electric Horseman Express (2026–27) — the piece that ties it together.

The Electric Horseman Express is a Doppelmayr high-speed quad running from near the base of the Wildwood lift, across the Far East ridge, to the top of Red's Lift at Bearclaw Summit. It carries about 1,850 feet of continuous vertical and unlocks roughly 165 acres, including an entirely new bowl next to Bishop's Bowl plus chutes and tree runs out the Far East ridgeline. Counting the earlier phases, that is about 205 acres of new terrain since 2021 and roughly a 32% increase in the resort's skiable acreage — reported as the largest expansion at Sundance since 1985.

The practical effect is simpler than the acreage suggests. Sundance's best terrain has always been up high and behind the front face, and reaching it meant a slow multi-lift journey that most people did once and then avoided. One high-speed ride replaces that, which turns the back mountain from an expedition into a lap.

As of this update the resort's own site confirms the lift for this coming winter, alongside a new run named Storyteller. The lift itself is named for The Electric Horseman, the 1979 film Redford starred in — of a piece with a resort where the runs, the bar and the restaurants have all carried names with a story behind them.

Pricing & Passes

Sundance has historically been cheaper than the Cottonwoods and Park City, with student rates that are among the best deals in Utah skiing and a night-skiing option that has let locals get a real session in for well under a day rate.

We are deliberately not printing this season's numbers. Lift pricing has moved every year through the expansion, most Utah resorts now use dynamic pricing where the same day costs different amounts depending on when you buy it, and a figure copied from an older guide is worse than no figure at all. Buy in advance rather than at the window, check whether your student ID still gets the discounted rate, and compare against the multi-resort passes if you plan to ski elsewhere in the state — our skiing near Provo guide covers how Sundance sits against the alternatives, and our student discounts guide tracks what is available with a BYU or UVU ID.

Rentals & Lessons

Full rental packages are available at the base and now also at Mountain Camp, which spreads out the morning queue considerably. Group and private lessons run for all ages and abilities, and first-timer packages bundling lesson, rental and beginner lift access remain the sensible entry point.

Summer & Fall Activities

Sundance is not a winter-only property, and its summer operation is one of the better answers to "what should we do while we're here?"

Hiking

Several trailheads sit at or near the resort. The Stewart Falls Trail — roughly 3.5 miles round trip to a two-tiered waterfall — is the standout, and the Sundance Nature Trail is an easy family loop. The Mount Timpanogos trailheads are a short drive up the Alpine Loop when the road is open.

Mountain Biking

Sundance runs lift-served mountain biking in summer, with trails from flowing intermediate to technical, plus rentals. The lift ride alone is worth it on a clear morning.

Scenic Lift Rides

The scenic chairlift runs through summer and fall. The fall views are the reason to plan around it — and remember that on this mountain color is an elevation staircase, so the top of the lift will turn before the base does. Our fall in Provo guide explains the timing.

Zip Line, Adventure Course & Spa

A zip line tour and a ropes adventure course cover the family-thrills side, and the resort added an outdoor spa during the recent building program. Book ahead on peak summer weekends.

Fly Fishing

The Provo River is one of Utah's premier trout fisheries, and the resort runs guided excursions with equipment provided. Worth knowing that "the Provo River" means several distinct fisheries with different characters and different rules by section, so a guided trip is genuinely more useful here than it sounds.

Dining at Sundance

The Tree Room

Fine Dining · $$$$

The resort's flagship, hung with original art and Native American pieces from Redford's own collection. Refined, seasonal, and a special-occasion room that holds its own against anything in Salt Lake. Reservations essential. It also appears on our restaurants with a view list, where it is the valley's benchmark.

The Foundry Grill

Casual American · $$–$$$

The version you can walk into in hiking boots — comfort food, burgers, salads, mountain fare, and a patio with the views. The right call after a ski morning or a summer hike.

The Owl Bar

Bar & Lounge · $$

Built around an 1890s rosewood bar salvaged from a saloon in Thermopolis, Wyoming, where it was frequented by Butch Cassidy's Hole-in-the-Wall Gang — a fitting object for a resort named after the character Redford played. It is the social heart of the property, particularly après-ski. Utah's alcohol rules apply as everywhere in the state; our Provo nightlife guide explains what that means in practice.

The Film Festival Connection (and the Disambiguation)

This trips up visitors constantly, so plainly: the Sundance Film Festival is not held at Sundance Mountain Resort. The festival, founded by Redford, ran principally in Park City. It held its final Utah edition in early 2026 and moves to Boulder, Colorado from 2027. The Sundance Institute, which Redford founded in 1981, retains its long association with the resort property.

What remains at the resort is the ethos rather than the red carpet: the art studios running glassblowing, pottery, jewelry and screen-printing workshops, occasional screenings and events, and a property that was designed from the start around limiting what you can see from the canyon floor. If you are chasing the festival rather than the mountain, our Park City from Provo guide is the one you want.

Before It Was Sundance: Timp Haven and the Stewarts

The resort's own story starts in 1969, but the ski hill is a generation older, and the older half explains why the canyon looks the way it does.

Skiing began here in 1944, when S. Paul Stewart — with his brother Ray — opened a small ski area on the family's land in the North Fork. The Stewarts were a ranching family who had held ground in this canyon since the mid-1800s. The name came from a public contest: Ruth Biddulph submitted "Timp Haven" and won a season pass for it. Paul managed the slopes and built the lodge; Ray cleared the runs and had a hand in the original rope tow; Paul's wife Hilda ran a café on the property selling hamburgers to skiers. For over twenty years it was a T-bar-and-rope-tow hill for local families and university students, with a single chair added in the 1950s.

Redford's connection began as a customer, not an owner. In the 1960s the Stewarts platted a subdivision of lots called Timp Haven Homes, and in 1961 a young actor bought a two-acre lot for $500 and built a cabin. The resort's own account has him first driving up Provo Canyon that year and being unable to leave it alone afterwards.

The purchase that mattered was defensive. By the late 1960s, development pressure in the Wasatch was intense, and the plan on the table for these slopes was a subdivision of A-frame cabins on quarter-acre lots running up into the canyon's heights. Redford assembled investors and bought roughly 3,000 acres to stop it, then bought the ski area itself from the Stewart family. He renamed it Sundance, after the character he played in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — a real outlaw, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, whose nickname came from the Wyoming town where he served time.

A dating note, because sources genuinely disagree. Ski Utah and Wikipedia put the acquisition of Timp Haven in 1968; the resort dates its founding to 1969, the year of the film and the renaming. Both dates are printed by credible sources, and the likeliest reading is that they describe two different moments in the same transition rather than one of them being wrong. We are printing both rather than picking.

The Stewart name did not leave with the sale. Ray's Lift, the quad that started spinning in 1994, is named for Ray Stewart; Red's Lift is named for Redford and his family; and Stewart Falls, the most-hiked waterfall in this corridor, carries the family name into every trail description written since.

There is a closing chapter worth knowing. When the sale to Broadreach and Cedar Capital was announced in December 2020, the Redford family placed more than 300 acres of alpine habitat, wetlands and streams into permanent protection with Utah Open Lands — the Redford Family Elk Meadows Preserve. It is the same conservation organization that holds the easement protecting Bridal Veil Falls a few miles down the canyon. Whatever the resort becomes commercially, a meaningful piece of the canyon around it is now out of reach of development permanently, which was the original point of buying it in the first place.

Getting There

From downtown Provo: about 14 miles, roughly 20–25 minutes via US-189 through Provo Canyon.

Winter driving: the canyon road is well maintained and plowed, but it ices and it is a canyon — snow tires are a good idea and chains occasionally necessary during a storm. Check conditions at udottraffic.utah.gov before heading up.

No shuttle service currently runs between Provo and Sundance, so a personal vehicle or a rideshare is necessary. Carpooling is the student norm, and the Mountain Camp lot has eased the parking crunch but not eliminated it on a powder Saturday.

Where to stay: with the Inn open there is now a hotel at the base as well as the cottages and mountain homes. If you would rather stay in the valley and drive up, our where to stay in Provo guide covers the hotel zones and what each is close to.

Insider Tips

Best ski days: midweek, Tuesday to Thursday, for the smallest crowds. Weekends and holidays are busiest but still far quieter than Park City.

Night skiing: the resort lists night operations on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from mid-December, with night-only tickets from 4:30 p.m. and an afternoon-plus-evening option starting earlier. It is the cheapest real ski time on this side of the valley, and few Utah resorts offer it at all — but conditions and calendars move, so confirm the night before you drive up.

Park at Mountain Camp. The upper lot and its lodge exist precisely because the base was overwhelmed. On a busy morning it is the difference between skiing at 9:15 and skiing at 10:00.

Fall drive: pair the resort with the Alpine Loop in the second half of October — but check that the loop is open, since it closes with the first heavy snow, and check the 30-foot vehicle limit if you are driving anything large.

Photography: the mountain faces east, so morning light on the runs is the good light. In fall, late afternoon on the aspens is the other one.

Related Guides

• The Complete Provo Hiking Guide
• Skiing Near Provo: Beyond Sundance
• Alpine Loop Scenic Drive
• Free Things to Do in Provo
• Student Discounts in Provo
• Weekend Guide for Visitors

Last updated: August 2026. Sundance is mid-expansion, so acreage, lift count and operating details change season to season — always check sundanceresort.com for current information before you go.

Abigail Giordano

Senior Writer

Abigail Giordano is a senior writer at Provo.com covering student life, family resources, and community events across Utah Valley. Her writing focuses on making Provo more accessible and navigable for newcomers, students, and families — the practical guides that help people feel at home faster.