Deer Valley
Ski Resort

Consistently voted as one of North America’s premier mountain resorts, Deer Valley is the market leader for hospitality and guest experience. Recent awards in 2023 include Conde Nast Traveller’s 2nd Best Ski Resort in North America and Ski Magazine No. 1 in the West for Grooming.

The most celebrated service-oriented ski resort in North America with an abundance of luxury ski-in and ski-out accommodations including luxury hotels featuring award-winning restaurants, Deer Valley Resort offers the highest standards of service and amazing attention to detail both off and on the slopes.

Three lodges in the ski area provide excellent on-mountain dining and other amenities within the ski area. Likewise, Deer Valley’s upscale accommodation typically is located on the mountain including five internationally renowned luxury hotels, 10+ lodge-style properties and numerous condos and homes. Much of the lodging is ski-in, ski-out or just a few minutes walk from a chairlift.

Deer Valley ski-in, ski-out convenience avoids having to spend time in “the village”, and necessarily so! There is no village as such, nor any need for one, thanks to sophisticated après ski on-mountain at Deer Valley hotels and lodges and over 100 bars and restaurants as well as great shopping nearby in Park City.

Once a beautiful mountain where silver miners enjoyed weekend diversion by sliding about on crudely made wooden skis, Deer Valley’s ski terrain now covers 2,026 acres and 101 trails across six mountains, with skiing for all abilities. While renowned for impeccably groomed corduroy slopes (and much of the resort’s marketing proudly showcasing that) Deer Valley ski area also offers plenty of challenging skiing for advanced and expert skiers.

Advanced and expert skiers can enjoy uncrowded black trails, chutes, bowls and skiing among Aspen glades and the resort’s attention to detail includes thinning out some glades to make them that little bit easier for wannabe tree-skiers. Deer Valley is one of the few remaining skiing-only resorts in North America, so snowboarding is still not allowed.

Home to the 2002 Olympic slalom, moguls and aerials events, and the 2003 Freestyle F.I.S. World Ski Championships, Deer Valley (owned by Alterra Mountain Company) is little more than a mile from historic Park City, home to Park City Mountain Resort (owned by Vail Resorts). Although the two ski areas are separated by little more than a ridge and a fence, there is no common lift ticket, and you cannot ski from one to the other.

Though adequate in most respects and very well managed, Deer Valley’s lift system is not yet state-of-the-art. Dynamic lift ticket pricing and limiting the number of ski tickets sold, and to day visitors especially, helps reduce overcrowding but Deer Valley’s inclusion in Ikon Pass is likely one factor causing slower lift lines at peak times. From the 2023/24 season, Ikon Pass holders need to pre-book to ski Deer Valley. Investing in new high-speed 6-pack chairlifts would also help modernise the now ageing lift system.

The award-winning ski school employing more than 500 ski instructors gets rave reviews thanks in part to highly personalised ski instruction, either semi-privately (a maximum of just 4 adults per group lesson) or private lessons. And if you want to spend half a day or a full day skiing Deer Valley with an Olympian, that’s possible too.

The resort’s green credentials are apparent everywhere including the Deer Valley logo and branding, green painted lift pylons, exceptionally well-trained and attentive staff wear green uniforms and the resort’s commitment to sustainability includes becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Deer Valley’s ski season runs from the first Saturday in December to the first Sunday in April. Peak season is December 26 to January 1 and President’s Day weekend in February. The low season is December 7-25 and from April 1 until the end of the season.

The resort is around 40 minutes by road from Salt Lake City International Airport with 300 flight connections daily from numerous cities in North America and direct flights via Delta to SLC from Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris, so getting there is easy.

Deer Valley Expansion Plan Confirmed 2023

Deer Valley Resort is expanding over the next few years with more terrain opening from the 2025/26 ski season. Following the acquisition of the Mayflower Project, the ski terrain will include four more mountains to the east side of Bald Mountain, more than doubling the size ski area to 5,726 acres and making Deer Valley one of the largest ski resorts in North America – an additional 16 chairlifts, 135 more ski runs, a new village area with world-class lodging, dining and retail amenities – and improvements to existing facilities including the redevelopment of the current 15 acres of surface parking lots at Snow Park Lodge into a modern and convenient world-class base area and arrival experience.

Deer Valley Strengths & Weaknesses

+ 5-star guest services on- and off the mountain
+ Easy access via Salt Lake City International Airport
+ Reliable snow record of more than 300” each winter
– Upscale accommodation and much of it ski-in, ski-out
– Lodging, dining, ski school and lift tickets are expensive
– The lift system is adequate but not world-class
– Limited après ski outside Park City (one mile away)

Photo credits: Deer Valley Resort