New Ski Resort to Open in Oquirrhs

Over the past several months I have been working with a group of investors developing a new ski resort for the Oquirrh Mountains west of Salt Lake City.  My non-disclosure agreement expired today, so I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about their plans.  

The Oquirrh Mountains have extensive amounts of private land, mainly owned by Rio Tinto/Kennecott.  This investment group, however, owns approximately 8000 acres of land near the ghost-town of Ophir at elevations between 7000 and 10000 feet elevation.  You haven't seen me much in the Wasatch this winter because I've been doing a lot of ski touring on the property, avoiding crowds and getting to know the dry powder of the Oquirrhs on an intimate basis.  

I thought snowfall wouldn't be as plentiful as in Little Cottonwood, but after skiing a season there, I'm pretty certain the resort gets more.  It's simply an incredible microclimate, fueled by lake effect funneled into a terrain concavity.  If you think Alta gets a lot of snow in northwest flow, wait until you see this place in northerly flow.  I've toured in five storms with snowfall rates of more than 4" an hour.  There's little doubt that this is the future of lift-served skiing in northern Utah.  

In addition, to provide insurance against climate change, the investors have secured substantial water rights for snowmaking and are planning on developing Utah's first extensive use of snow farming in order to recycle snow from season to season.  They have hired an expert from Levi, Finland, where this is now being done to preserve snow from one season to the next.  

In fact, they are planning a trial run as they build out the resort over the next 18 months.  Next season, while they will still be under development, they will start making snow on what will be their signature run, Showcase. Comparable in length and pitch to famed upper, mid- and lower warm springs run at Sun Valley, the plan is to blow snow into deep piles next winter and then preserve those piles through the summer by covering them with white, geotexttile blankets to reflect sunlight and insulate the snow piles, allowing as much as 70% of the snow to survive through the warm season.  

They then plan to open the 2026/27 season in mid September with 3000 vertical feet of skiing on Showcase.  They expect to do this each season moving forward, pipping Snowbird for Utah's longest season.  

The main challenge at this stage is figuring out how to get people to the base of the resort.  The investors are currently working with UTA on plans for an extension of the Trax Red Line through an old mining tunnel in the eastern Oquirrhs.  Incredibly, this tunnel is built at grade, allowing light rail to deposit skiers at the base of the resort without having to use an expensive cog-railway design.  

I anticipate that this development will completely transform skiing in northern Utah.  Once skiers get an appetite for the dry powder of the Oquirrhs, Little Cottonwood will be an afterthought and the red snake will be dead.