Robert Redford’s little Sundance Resort has got to be nestled in one of the most beautiful corners of Utah. Just 15-minutes up Provo Canyon is a quaint little hill made up of only 3 regular-speed lifts covering barely 450 acres of skiable terrain. Sounds pretty small… well, it is small for a reason. Mr. Redford is one of the more outspoken environmentalists I know of and his resort does its best to preserve the beauty of the location against the southeastern flanks of 12,000-foot Mt. Timpanogos.
Sundance was the first ski resort I skied in Utah during my freshman year at college in 1993. Just like that winter 15 years ago, Sundance is mostly filled with local college kids because of the quick access and low cost student passes.
But, not only is Sundance affordable for college kids, it’s also a great place to take your family skiing if your budget can’t take the higher-priced lift tickets up north. A weekend or holiday full-day lift ticket remains a reasonable $45 with weekday passes only $35!
Now for their next trick, they drop the price even more for the last two hours of operation (2:30-4:30pm) with their twilight pass that’s a paltry $15 midweek. That’s where busy professionals who yearn for turns can spare a couple of hours midweek to get up on the hill. Just split out a little early and have a boards meeting on the chairlift.
Because I just got a new pair of Scott Mission 183 skis (see my video on GEAR.com), I had to get up to the hill for some quick product testing and to see how the recent stormcycle has treated Sundance. I can honestly say the conditions at Sundance right now are the best I’ve seen. The entire mountain is open and it has great coverage.
Things were a little busy today, so it took about 30 minutes to reach the back mountain, but once there, I quickly dove into the 2nd entry gate into Bishop’s Bowl where I was greeted to top-to-bottom knee-deep pow. This was at 3:30pm on a fairly busy Friday! I was stoked arcing turns in the untracked with my new Scott skis.
I then spent lap-after-lap on Jamie’s Run lacing in and out of the trees to skier’s right, then bombing the groomers back to Ray’s Lift. Definitely not a bad way to spend an extra two hours in the afternoon, I’d say.
More Info: Visit www.SundanceResort.com
