Sundance, Utah today revealed plans for its fifth new lift in ten years, the Electric Horseman Express. The mountain’s second detachable quad will run from near the bottom of Wildwood to the top of Red’s, rising an impressive 1,850 vertical feet in six minutes. The back mountain expansion will open in phases with nine new trails and 60 acres opening this winter. The new lift will debut in 26/27 along with 105 acres adjacent to Bishop’s Bowl. The nearby Flathead lift, a 1975 Thiokol, will remain for now but eventually be removed.
Doppelmayr will construct the Electric Horseman Express along a steep, 4,400 foot alignment requiring 16 towers. The lift’s eccentric name is a nod to a 1979 film starring Robert Redford, who owned Sundance for 51 years. Redford sold the mountain in 2020 to two real estate investment firms, which have pumped tens of millions into new lifts, terrain, parking, a daylodge and hotel over the past five years.
“The addition of the Electric Horseman Express will transform how our guests experience the back mountain, allowing skiers and riders to lap all of the new and existing terrain in a single high-speed lift ride,” said Czar Johnson, Chief Operating Officer. “The expanded acreage gives locals even more reason to choose Sundance Resort for their season pass, and provides our traveling guests enough variety to make our new Inn at Sundance their home base for exploration,” he continued.
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Great news for Sundance. Happy to see they are keeping Flathead for a bit longer.
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Interesting alignment. I figured it would be more to the right and going up the Pipeline Gully, not crossing the steep Far East runs. That’s going to change the whole vibe of the area with a lot of tree clearing.
IMO, the most iconic and best Utah lift ride view is from Flathead. On the ridge before the top to lookers left you have Bishop’s Bowl, and the right you have the incredible view of Timpanogos. Peter, you’ll have to get some pics for the blog on a bluebird day before Flathead is gone. I don’t see any pics of either on the Flathead page.
I’m excited for the new terrain. I’ve been on the ridge of Far East many times looking over to the new area and wondered how it is to ski it.
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I definitely agree that it will change the vibe of Far East. Right now it is a sleepy part of the mountain. I think it will become one of the most visited part of the mountain once you get all the eyeballs from lift riders on it.
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This is going to be another rare case of a detachable only accessed from a fixed grip, since you have to ride Wildwood to access it.
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I think you can access it from outlaw.
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It doesn’t look like it. The bottom terminal is just off the top of the Wildwood lift.
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Granted, I haven’t skied Sundance, but there appears to be a green connector trail from the base of Flathead to the base of the new lift.
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Never mind, you are right. I though the Wildwood lift went up from the top of Jake’s, but I had it completely backwards. I guess you can access it from Outlaw then.
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You most definitely can ski from the top of Outlaw down to it. It’s the Broadway cat track.
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The bottom of the new lift is just off the bottom of Wildwood. Sundance is a funny mountain with lots of different aspects. If you only look at a top down map you don’t get a good grasp for all the different canyons and peaks.
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Sundance is my home mountain. I live about 10 minutes away from the base. Next summer I will make sure to take plenty of pictures of the construction progress. I hike up there quite regularly. As for this summer I’ll make sure to get pictures of the new runs and work they’re doing.
As far as what I think this will do for the mountain, I think it will be huge. Far East is some of the best terrain on the mountain. Right now it is just hard to access. A very tight, narrow ridge. I’ve talked with folks at Sundance and they are going to be grading out the far east ridgeline to make it ski similarly to Grizzly Ridge or Amy’s Ridge. Will allow quick and fun access to all of the far east terrain.
Also, 1850 of vertical feet is no joke. Will be fun to lap Bishop’s Bowl, the new bowl or the ridge and get right back to the top of the mountain.
Really excited for this!
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My home mountain also. This is exciting. The whole mountain will now be accessible with two high speed lifts.
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