Utah has 15 ski resorts, and Ski Utah counts 10 of them as less than an hour's drive from Salt Lake City International Airport. That is the state's real advantage: you can land in the morning and be on a lift after lunch. The resorts cluster in four groups: Little Cottonwood Canyon (Alta, Snowbird), Big Cottonwood Canyon (Brighton, Solitude), Park City (Park City Mountain, Deer Valley) and the Ogden Valley (Snowbasin, Powder Mountain, Nordic Valley), with Sundance, Brian Head and the small northern hills further out.
This guide covers each one with its 2026/27 opening target, which pass it takes, and who it suits. All opening dates are targets announced by the resorts and Ski Utah as of October 2026 and depend on snow. Last season was a slow start: many resorts opened one to two weeks late, so the actual opening days from 2025/26 are listed too. One resort is missing this season entirely: Eagle Point, near Beaver, is closed for 2026/27 after the Cottonwood Fire in June 2026 destroyed its Canyonside Lodge and damaged four of its five chairlifts, and floods then washed out SR-153, the road up from Beaver. It aims to reopen in winter 2027.
Little Cottonwood Canyon: Alta and Snowbird
The two resorts at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, about 45 minutes from the airport, get the most snow and the steepest reputation in the state.
Alta is one of the last resorts in North America that bans snowboarding. Its own policy is blunt: "Alta is a skier's mountain—Snowboarding is not allowed", and a federal appeals court upheld the ban. It has 2,614 acres, five chairlifts and 2,538 feet of vertical to an 11,068-foot summit, with an average of roughly 545 inches of snow a season. The renovated Albion Day Lodge opens this winter. 2026/27 target: 20 November (last season: 7 December 2025).
Alta's base area and lifts at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Image: Baileypalblue, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Snowbird is next door and bigger in vertical: more than 2,500 acres and 3,240 feet down from the 11,000-foot Hidden Peak, reached by the Aerial Tram. For 2026/27 the Chickadee beginner chair has been replaced by a new quad with more beginner terrain. 2026/27 target: 27 November (last season: 7 December 2025).
The two resorts share a boundary, and the AltaBird season pass covers both: 5,114 acres and 20 lifts, unlimited, with no blackouts. Snowboarders can ride Snowbird but not Alta.
Parking: Alta requires parking reservations on Fridays, weekends and holidays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., from 11 December into early April. It costs $25, or $10 if you buy your lift ticket online, and is free for qualifying Alta and AltaBird passholders. Parking without a reservation can cost $150. Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude hadn't published their 2026/27 parking rules in October; check before your first day.
Big Cottonwood Canyon: Brighton and Solitude
Big Cottonwood is the next canyon north, and its two resorts are smaller, a little gentler and popular with locals.
The road up Big Cottonwood Canyon in winter. Image: GyozaDumpling, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Brighton has 1,050 acres and nine lifts, including the six-seat Crest Express, with about 500 inches of snow a year. It is popular with snowboarders, has night skiing (now including Sundays) and a new Off-Peak Pass valid from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on most non-holiday weekdays. 2026/27 opening: not announced (last season: 2 December 2025). Last season it required parking reservations on weekends and holidays from 7 a.m. to noon.
A snowboarder at Brighton Resort, at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. Image: Tyson Dudley ty_dudley, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Solitude has more than 1,200 acres, eight lifts and 2,494 feet of vertical, and it is the only Utah resort where both the full Ikon Pass and the Ikon Base Pass are unlimited. It has added more snowmaking this year. 2026/27 target: 20 November (last season: 27 November 2025).
Park City Mountain and Deer Valley
Park City is the easiest base for a non-skier in the group: a real town with a historic Main Street, restaurants and a free bus system (Park City Transit) that serves both resorts. Ski Utah puts it about 35 minutes from the airport.
The First Time lift at the base of Park City Mountain. Image: InSapphoWeTrust from Los Angeles, California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Park City Mountain is owned by Vail Resorts and calls itself the largest ski resort in the US: 7,300 acres and 41 lifts across the Park City and Canyons sides, with 3,226 feet of vertical. It is the only Utah resort on the Epic Pass. New for 2026/27 is the Canyons Village Skyway, a 10-person gondola from the new parking garage at Canyons Village that replaces the old Cabriolet. 2026/27 target: 20 November (last season: 5 December 2025).
Deer Valley is in the middle of a multi-year expansion it calls Expanded Excellence. Before it began, the resort had about 2,000 acres. For 2026/27 it lists 4,500 acres, 209 runs and 32 lifts, with a new base area, the East Village, on the Jordanelle Reservoir side of the mountain. The new lift this season is the Hail Peak Express, a quad from the East Village that adds about 200 acres and seven runs. Construction continues through 2028. Deer Valley is also skiers only, like Alta, and Ikon holders must reserve their days. 2026/27 target: 5 December (last season: 6 December 2025).
The view from Deer Valley's Wasatch lift towards the Jordanelle Reservoir, where the new East Village sits. Image: Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Ogden Valley: Snowbasin, Powder Mountain and Nordic Valley
The Ogden Valley resorts are about an hour north of Salt Lake City and noticeably quieter on weekends.
Snowbasin hosted the speed events of the 2002 Winter Olympics. It has more than 3,000 acres, 3,254 feet of vertical and free parking. It takes the Ikon Pass and Mountain Collective. 2026/27 target: 27 November (last season: 5 December 2025).
Looking down on Snowbasin's gondola and the Ogden Valley from Allen Peak. Image: Snow Blizzard, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Powder Mountain has changed more than any resort in the state. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings took control in 2023, some lifts are now for homeowners only, and some peak weekends are passholders-only. It takes no Ikon or Epic passes for 2026/27. It is also adding terrain as part of a $40 million upgrade: the new public DMI lift opens more than 1,000 acres of advanced terrain, and Sundown Express is a new high-speed quad. 2026/27 target: 11 December (last season: 12 December 2025).
Sunrise over the ridges of Powder Mountain. Image: Eric Kilby, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nordic Valley is the small, cheap, family hill in Eden: more than 500 acres, five lifts, and kids 12 and under ski free. The Crockett lift is being removed and the tubing hill won't return this season. Its 2026/27 opening date hasn't been announced.
Sundance, Brian Head and the northern hills
Sundance, in the North Fork of Provo Canyon below Mount Timpanogos, is the resort Robert Redford built up; he sold it in 2020 to Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners and died at his Utah home in September 2025. It is independent and small (about 600 acres with the new terrain), and for 2026/27 it opens a new high-speed quad, the Electric Horseman, serving a new bowl of about 100 acres. Ski Utah expects it to open in early December.
A Sundance chairlift with Mount Timpanogos behind. Image: PunkToad from oakland, us, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Brian Head, in southern Utah, is about three and a half hours from Salt Lake City but about three hours from Las Vegas, and Cedar City's airport is about 35 minutes away. It has 650 acres, a top lift elevation of about 10,900 feet, and has the earliest opening target in the state. 2026/27 target: 6 November.
Beaver Mountain at the top of Logan Canyon has been run by the Seeholzer family since 1939 and has no snowmaking, so it opens when nature allows. Cherry Peak, near Richmond in Cache Valley, opened in 2015. Both are on the Indy Pass, and neither had announced an opening date in October.
Ikon, Epic or independent?
- Ikon Pass: Solitude is unlimited; Brighton, Deer Valley and Snowbasin get seven days each; Alta and Snowbird share seven days between them. Deer Valley needs reservations.
- Ikon Base Pass: Solitude unlimited, Brighton five days and, according to Ski Utah, Snowbird five days. Alta isn't on Base. Blackouts: 26 to 30 December 2026, 16 and 17 January and 13 and 14 February 2027.
- Epic Pass: Park City Mountain only. The Epic Local Pass is blacked out at Park City on 27 and 28 November, 26 to 31 December 2026, 16 January and 13 and 14 February 2027.
- Mountain Collective: two days each at Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin.
- Indy Pass: Beaver Mountain and Cherry Peak.
- Power Pass: Brian Head and Nordic Valley.
- Independent: Powder Mountain and Sundance.
- Ski Utah's own passes: the Yeti Pass gives one day at each of the 15 resorts, and the Gold Pass is unlimited. Both are sold in limited numbers.
Day-ticket prices vary by resort and date, so compare them on each resort's site against the pass prices before you buy.
Getting up the canyons: traffic, avalanches and ski buses
The Cottonwood canyons are narrow two-lane roads with one way in and out, and on powder mornings the queue of cars can stretch down into the valley. When the canyon beacons flash, UDOT's traction law applies: two-wheel-drive cars need snow tires with the three-peak mountain snowflake symbol or chains, and four-wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles need at least M+S tires, all with 5/32 of an inch of tread. Since 2025 UDOT can declare it 24 hours before a storm, and police can issue tickets.
In Little Cottonwood, avalanche control closes SR-210 several times a season. During an interlodge, everyone at Alta and Snowbird must stay indoors, including people in their cars. Most last a few hours, but one at Alta in 2021 lasted about 60 hours.
The long-promised gondola up Little Cottonwood is now expected in the 2040s and is unfunded. UDOT's first phase, due by winter 2028, is more buses, tolling and an end to roadside parking near the resorts.
Until then, UTA's ski buses are the low-stress option. Last winter route 994 ran from Historic Sandy Station to Snowbird and Alta, route 972 from Midvale Fort Union to Brighton and Solitude, routes 675 and 677 to Snowbasin from Ogden and Layton, route 674 to Powder Mountain and route 880 to Sundance from Orem. The fare was $5 each way, and UTA says Ikon Pass and resort season-pass holders ride free. The 2026/27 schedule wasn't out in October. More on driving in snow is on our winter driving and road conditions page.
Is it really "the Greatest Snow on Earth"?
The slogan began as a newspaper headline. Tom Korologos, the Salt Lake Tribune's ski editor, wrote it on 4 December 1960 as a play on Ringling Bros.' "Greatest Show on Earth". It has been on Utah license plates since 1985, Ski Utah uses it as a registered trademark, and when Ringling Bros. sued, a federal appeals court sided with Utah.
Deep snow on a backcountry tour on Rodeo Ridge, east of Ogden. Image: Intermountain Forest Service, USDA Region 4 Photography, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The weather science is more modest than the marketing. University of Utah meteorologist Jim Steenburgh, who wrote the book Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth, found that the Great Salt Lake's lake effect provides only about 5 to 6 percent of the snow at the Cottonwood resorts, mostly in October and November. What really sets the Wasatch apart is quantity: Alta's season totals almost always pass 300 inches and average more than 500. Utah powder also has a reputation for being light and dry, though that is harder to put a number on than the snowfall.
Flying into Salt Lake City
The rebuilt Salt Lake City International Airport, whose first phase opened in 2020, is a few miles west of downtown, and the drive times are short: about 35 minutes to Park City, about 45 to Alta and Snowbird, and roughly an hour to Snowbasin. Brighton is 35 miles away, Solitude 33 and Deer Valley 38. You can ski without a car if you stay in Park City or near the UTA ski bus stops. And if you're planning further ahead, Salt Lake City and Utah will host the 2034 Winter Olympics, awarded by the IOC in July 2024.
For more ideas, see our Utah winter sports guide, the winter sports page and our look at Salt Lake City's ski culture beyond the slopes.
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