Over 2,000 Acres Of New Terrain Opening This Winter in World’s Biggest Terrain Expansion

Work is continuing at pace this summer on what’s believed to be the biggest single-season terrain expansion in the world for the upcoming 25-26 season.

Utah’s Deer Valley Resort is fast-tracking what’s thought to be the largest terrain expansion in U.S. ski history, with nearly 2,000 new acres and 81 fresh trails slated to debut this winter.

Located on the East Village side, the expansion builds on last year’s rollout of two lifts and 316 acres and will ultimately push Deer Valley’s total skiable terrain to an immense 5,726 acres across 200 runs.

The expansion, which has come about from the collapse of plans to build a separate resort, Mayflower, next to Deer Valley. It was announced in 2019 as a $1 billion project. The terrain planned for that abandoned project is now instead absorbed into the existing skiers-only centre. The resulting huge expansion, which totals 3,700 acres with 16 new lifts and 135 new ski runs was much-hyped ahead of the 24-25 season but in the end only a small part of it opened. This coming winter though looks like it should be when we see the big reveal of more than half of it.

Depending on how you measure them, it will make Deer Valley one of the top four or six largest in America, overtaking Vail (5,317 acres). Only Big Sky, Park City and Whistler Blackcomb will definitely be larger, with a third Utah area Powder Mountain claiming more areas but not much of theirs lift accessed and Palisades Tahoe in California also bigger but their terrain split into two areas linked by a gondola.

At Deer Valley crews are currently racing to install five new lifts and a sprawling infrastructure web: 140,000 feet of snowmaking pipe, 1,100 snow guns, a 60,000-square-foot day lodge and gondola garage, plus additional buildings to support skier services and mountain operations. The resort is partnering with lift maker Doppelmayr to execute the aerial system upgrade.

The centerpiece is the East Village gondola, a dual-cable system with a mid-station at Dutch Peak. Skiers will ascend from the base to Park Peak at 9,100 feet, with cabins switching cables seamlessly at the mid-mountain transfer point. The setup allows flexible operation during high winds—a critical feature at this exposed elevation.

Among the other new lifts, the Pinyon Express six-pack bubble is key to accessing the expanded terrain. Rising from behind Bald and Flagstaff mountains to the summit of Park Peak (9,350 feet), it will link the front side of Deer Valley to high-elevation glades expected to hold snow late into spring. Combined with Neptune Express, which connects Jordanelle and East Village bases, these new lifts aim to provide efficient access to the extensive new terrain.