Three more chairlifts are coming to Utah’s Powder Mountain over the next two years, though you’ll need to purchase a house or know someone with one to ride two of them. First, a bit of background. Ever since Powder Mountain’s founding in 1971, the ski area struggled to generate enough cash for growth and capital improvements. The volume of skiers venturing beyond more accessible resorts like Park City and Snowbird was never enough to match the ambition and available terrain at PowMow. Not a single new lift was constructed from 1976 to 1993 while dozens popped up across the Wasatch including an entire new ski area named Deer Valley. Fixed grip doubles and triples serviced the bulk of Powder Mountain’s terrain well into the mid-2000s. A couple different owners tried their hands at PowMow over the following years with only modest growth.
Fast forward to 2023 and Netflix co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings purchased a controlling stake in Powder for $100 million. He quickly pivoted to a bifurcated model where real estate sales and private skiing would subsidize a smaller public mountain. The public side would continue to be known as Powder Mountain with the private complex dubbed Powder Haven. Two existing lifts, Village and Mary’s, were removed from the public area and reserved for homeowners only. Last year, Hastings constructed four new lifts, three of which opened to the public. Raintree became the first all-new lift to be reserved exclusively for real estate owners. The public gained new access to Lightning Ridge. This season Powder will span 8,000 acres, making it the largest mountain in North America (with several caveats.)
Powder broke ground on three more lifts this summer, one of which will be public and two private. I’m told the initial plan was for all three to be completed this summer but permitting delays recently pushed two to next year. The first to open will be Primetime, a Leitner-Poma detachable quad servicing the all-new Davenport territory and topping out next to Raintree. Davenport makes up “1,000 gnarly acres of powdery glades and cut runs on the northeast face of the mountain,” notes Powder Haven’s sales site. “Serviced by a new high-speed detachable lift, Davenport is ready and waiting for those ready to push their limits and let it rip on some of North America’s most uniquely challenging terrain.” Primetime will become the first detachable quad at Powder open exclusively to homeowners and their guests. It will also be the lowest elevation lift at Powder, increasing the mountain’s vertical to 3,346 vertical feet – if you have means to access it.
Next summer a fixed grip quad will rise to service the private Shelter Hill neighborhood. Its 39 homesites will encompass “a blend of family retreats and bespoke enclaves, each one rare and distinctive in its own way,” the sales deck notes. Skytrac will install the lift, called Half Pint, utilizing CTEC equipment from the former Paradise quad. “Private ski slopes glide down the mountain below,” says the website. “All around, panoramic views and a closeness with the wild world around you.”
By next season Powder Haven will swell to 2,700 private acres, making it larger than most US ski areas with five dedicated chairlifts. A 73,000 square foot lodge is set to open for winter 2027-28, designed by the same architect as the Yellowstone Club, Spanish Peaks and the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch. The private facility will include a rock climbing wall, thermal pools and omakase experience, among other amenities.
The public can look forward to a new DMI lift, scheduled to open for winter 2026-27. This Skytrac triple will service some of the steepest terrain at PowMow, currently accessed only via guided expedition. The lift will rises out of Wolf Canyon and terminate at the top of Sundown. DMI will add 900 acres of lift-served and 147 acres of hike-to access, for a total of 1,047 acres of public advanced terrain. With the addition of DMI, Powder Mountain’s public lift fleet will span two detachable quads, four modern fixed grip chairlifts and several surface lifts. The future of the Sunrise Poma is unclear, woefully under capacity with equipment over 30 years old and a potentially private Cobabe lift earmarked for the same vicinity.
Powder continues to buck industry trends, shunning multi-mountain passes and reserving peak weekends for season passholders again this season. “Escape the Masses,” Powder’s public homepage proclaims. I hit Powder Mountain several times last winter and its was indeed uncrowded and powder-filled, even on weekends. In a letter to passholders last year, Hastings wrote “the previous business model was failing. While we’ve historically been uncrowded and inexpensive, we’ve been losing money, not upgrading lifts or lodges, and building up debt,” he said, simultaneously announcing increased prices but eliminating a cap on the number of season passes sold. “The rise of Epic and Ikon have made the independent ski resort business very challenging, and we likely would have been acquired by one of the mega pass owners had we stayed on the old model…Our Wolf Canyon expansion, alongside limiting day ticket sales and not accepting mega passes, continues to fulfill our promise of keeping Powder Mountain uncrowded, independent, and truly a special experience for generations to come.”
Lift Blog 
Drawing a very generous polygon around all of PowMow’s skiable terrain (public, private, hike-to, guided, whatever) … I’m only getting 11.2 square miles … or <7200 acres. This includes every single tree island, which is not typically how resorts count skiable acreage. Maybe every tree island at Powder Mountain is wonderfully gladed / intended for skiing. But it’s definitely not how most people are skiing the mountain.
For comparison, similar polygons around skiable terrain at other mountains (not including undeveloped portions of their SUP boundaries):
(fwiw i was also getting weirdly low numbers for Palisades/Tahoe)
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I miss my old Ogden Valley from the 80s and 90s :(
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I was not around back then but the development in ogden valley is off the rails. Its gonna incorparate into a city in 2026. Im undecided if thats a good thing or a bad thing.
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Having learned to ski primarily at Snowbasin in the mid 80s thru early 90s before moving back to Colorado I can tell you that Utah Valley skiing was a hidden jem. Powder Mountain and Nordic were not crowded on weekends, but Snowbasin did get up to 5-10 min long lift lines from time to time at Becker and Wildcat on the weekends and occasionally with Porky. Still it was a great time to be a kid and a great time to ski. I lived about 45 min away from Snowbasin in Farmington so it wasn’t too bad of a drive and my folks would send my brothers and I up there every Saturday via a learn to ski program that also included a chartered bus that made stops in Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, and Kaysville. (3 busses) It worked out great. I had/have extended family that lives down in the Eden area and every now and then back then the folks who owned Nordic and Powder would give free tickets to the locals down there. It was a wonderful community. Still is. But as you are well aware, the growth is out of control and the once quiet community is going away quickly. If they want to incorporate to try to protect their community, I am all for it. With the mountain skiing along with how crazy things get at Pine View Dam in the summer.. it’s not good. I’m kicking myself for having not focused on getting my own property down there when I could have before the prices went crazy. I’ve said it on here before, my ancestors helped to settle that area and my folks are buried in the Liberty cemetery, so that area holds special meaning for me. It was a great place to hold family reunions and to just take a nice Sunday drive and get away from the city folk.
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I live in Huntsville so its a short drive up trappers loop road to snowbasin. Short enough that I just take our canam defender up there with the skis tied down in the bed. I learned how to ski at snowbasin when the current little cat high speed quad was brand new. Before the wildcat triple was replaced the chairlift did not run very often and when it was open it felt like the seats were leaning forward. Ive actually havent done much skiing at nordic valley or powder mountain. If i did it was usually at night with friends after school. Snowbasin has always been my go to mountain.
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I’ve been here less than a decade and it’s a crap show with hundreds of work trucks, cement and dump trucks roaring through every neighborhood. Every road and street has been torn up to install some form of utility, be it fiber optic or sewer or water. What everyone needs to understand is there is only very limited sanitary sewer and just a handful of sizable water companies. Ogden Valley has not been able to grow due the reliance on wells and septic.
There are now ongoing water wars with developers suing trying to force small water companies to provide water connections when all the studies to date have shown they are already past capacity and some springs have dried up.
Having the 2032 Winter Olympic downhill races at Snowbasin will bring additional pressures.
As Powder season passers, it’s been hard watching the terrain being snatched for the Haven folks, but since no one was able to make Powder a sustainable ski mountain until Hastings stepped in, we suck it up. At least staff get paid decently, free meals, good gear, and most seem to love it.
The town of Eden (& Wolf Creek area)will never be the same as Powder has a huge footprint there now. They’re hoping to put in an 800 space surface parking lot about a mile from the golf course to shuttle skiers up treacherous Powder Mountain Road. I’m guessing there aren’t more than 250 spaces on the mountain, so that could negatively impact the uncrowded by design claim pretty quickly.
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“keeping Powder Mountain uncrowded”
Literally means the same thing as “keeping people out”.
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Rob Katz says the same thing when asked about pricing and crowds. Raising prices = keeping people out.
I find the crowding issue to be way overblown. It’s largely limited to a small number of resorts at peak times on peak days. There are lifts at every major resort that never have a line. I believe ski areas were just as crowded in the ’70s and ’80s but without Instagram to show the lift lines to the world. Some like Indy Pass and PowMow have really capitalized on the perception of larger resorts being crowded, even though they aren’t crowded most of the time.
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I concur. Lift lines the days before high speed lifts were nuts. Plus the ride times were long. There was no “lapping” and one run per hour was typical. I’m old enough to remember those terrible times.
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Yes. If you know a mountain well, you know where the people aren’t—even on a busy day. But it definitely is nice to not have to worry about which lifts have lines and which don’t (admittedly a first world problem).
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That’s me when I’m at Park City! I skied there for over 15 years now and even with the times changing, lift line media and ownership turnovers, I still love PC to heart and have never waited in a bad line, because I know which lifts are good spots for an escape from the crowds from the others which get busy
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I’m curious where the information came from before Powder made their official announcements of these lifts – I’m not finding a master plan anywhere online. OpenSkiMap is also showing a whole bunch of future lifts (included the mentioned Cobabe lift), where is this information available?
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Information on the private side, Powder Haven, is kept quiet. They also don’t mention the thousands of acres of adjacent cat skiing that will be accessible only to the ultra-rich homeowners.
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That’s good PowMow is investing but the fact that most of the new lifts will be private still raises eyebrows and questions from me. Now I don’t mean to sound negative, but I’m still a bit distraught over Powder Mountain cutting Public Lift Access in Mary’s, Village and even Davenport private, which to me has lost my trust on wanting to visit. I just wish there are more open spaces for the public to ski like with DV’s expansion. Wasatch Peaks Ranch is already fully-private, but personally a hybrid model PowMow is something else.
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Through 2026, (2) new lifts will have been built public (DMI, Lighting) and (2) existing lifts will have been replaced new for the public (Paradise, Timberline). Also, through 2026, (3) new private lifts (Raintree, Primetime aka Davenport & Halfpint) and (2) existing lifts (Village, Mary’s) converted to private will have occurred. Pretty close to 50/50 and not too bad in my mind. I personally think the hybrid model is interesting and might actually be viable for long term stability and managed growth. Why not use the capital and investment of some folks (through land purchases and club dues) to subsidize the ever increasing costs of running a resort and help keep the lights on for EVERYONE? Skiing as the “user” is cheap compared to golf. Paying $150-$300 a day at some golf club that has 1/10th or less the size of land and 1/50th the number of employees as a ski resort sounds a lot more expensive to me than $1500 for a season pass.
I’ve heard 99% nothing but good comments and vibes from other locals & guests I’ve spoken to. The other 1% are just waiting to see how it all pans out. I have only seen the negativity on IG and some anti PowMow website created by a hurt local who thinks $29 lift tickets are still realistic when insurance, labor rates, infrastructure improvements, power, gas & other utilities required to run a resort have done nothing but skyrocketed. People have no clue what it costs to run a ski resort, (I included). PowMow has hired help away from Deer Valley & Wasatch Peaks for ski patrol, management, food service, etc. at pay scales that exceed those fancy resorts let alone the measly rates Epic and Ikon based resorts pay their employees. They are investing for a bright, prolific and long standing future for both guests and employees.
In essence, you are getting a damn good deal in my mind to ski at PowMow as the place is huge (private or public sides), the freshies last for days, the lines are gone, the food is great and most importantly……..the employees are happy, vibrant and great folks to converse with. It’s worth a visit for anyone, but don’t let me sell you on it, cause I like the zero lift lines and zero bodies per acre on the runs. Those 45-60 minute lift lines at Heavenly, Mammoth, Vail and Park City in the 70’s & 80’s still haunt me (along with Trappers Loop traffic at Snowbasin on a powder day, now thanks to Ikon!).
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I am fine with the new lift into Davenport being private. That is basically new terrain. Keep lift service into Cobabe Canyon and sunrise public.
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Every time I read more about PowMow I’m happy I got to ski/ride it in the golden days, prior to 2006
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After I published this story Powder quietly updated the map on their website to say DMI is a “future lift” with no timeline. No longer marked as opening for 2026-27. Interesting as construction already started but apparently has stopped.
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I regularly hike up to where the DMI lift is going in. Concrete has been poured for the lifts and towers and electric has been put in. I can’t figure out from the bottom what is skiable or how skiers will get from the top to the chair lift. It’s cliffy and then very thick scrub oak on impressively steep terrain with a narrow, steep slot for Wolf Creek that lies between the top and the lift station at the bottom. DMI has been guided cat terrain for many years because it’s just that gnarly. And much of that aspect is south and west facing and lower altitude so the snow conditions could be far less than ideal. Maybe they’re just throwing a bone to the public side. I’ll not be surprised if it’s delayed. I personally don’t see it as desirable terrain for a majority of skiers, but then again, it’s early in the process.
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Also a factor for the DMI lift is that low on the mountain, snow coverage at the bottom will be a challenge and likely require snowmaking — something Powder has avoided. Currently, the only snowmaking is a tiny area immediately around the beginner’s magic carpet at Sundown lift. Getting permits for water could be a challenge.
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God forbid the peasants have fun.
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