If you’ve skied in Utah before, you know its mountains are compact, accessible, and impossible to outgrow. I just returned from a trip to Park City and Deer Valley during a warmer-than-usual spell that might have worried some, but on the ground, the story was a bit different. Higher elevations held onto surprisingly decent snow, the terrain skied beautifully, and the usual midwinter lift lines felt refreshingly short. In other words, this “slow snow year” brought me one unexpected perk: more room to explore.
But what sets Utah apart is more than just its powder. Within an hour of Salt Lake City International Airport (which is easy to navigate and quite pretty), the Wasatch Range packs an extraordinary mix of resorts into a tight corridor boasting family-friendly runs, challenging steeps, tree skiing, and high-alpine valleys that reward early starts and strong legs. And, of course, there are fantastic lodging options and après-ski hot spots nearby.
Excitingly, Utah’s ski areas are also evolving: Deer Valley is in the midst of a history-making expansion, set to double its terrain; Sundance Mountain Resort is entering a new era with the opening of The Inn at Sundance; and Park City just debuted its Sunrise Gondola, a high-speed 10-person lift at Canyons Village, nearly doubling uphill capacity and streamlining access to improved beginner terrain.
To help navigate the new and the long-beloved, we put together a guide to the best ski resorts in Utah, with tips and tricks on how to book the winter escape of your dreams. Read on to learn how to navigate each resort like a local.
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Deer Valley
As the 2025–2026 ski season hits its stride, Deer Valley in Park City is one of our best places to go this year for good reason—namely, remaining a high-altitude ski-only sanctuary of Olympic pedigree after receiving a massive, modern-day facelift. The resort’s DNA goes back to 1981, and is inextricably linked to the late Stein Eriksen—the dashing Norwegian “Godfather of Freestyle” who took Giant Slalom Olympic gold in 1952. Eriksen served as Director of Skiing here for over 35 years, and his legacy still permeates the award-winning ski school, widely regarded as the gold standard for American instruction (as a snowboarder, I took great advantage of it, and wholeheartedly agree). Either way, there’s such varied terrain to ski here for all kinds of riders—whether that be icy, exhilarating moguls for the experts or nice, long greens for beginners looking to practice while catching some stellar views on the way down.