Past the movie competition—why Sundance is the ski resort to go to this 12 months

“We’ve been skiing here since we were little kids,” says my chairlift companion, Devon. “We love it here.” I’m sitting on the four-seater Red’s Lift in Sundance Mountain Resort subsequent to native brothers, Devon and Clovel Anderson, travelling the two,515 metres as much as Bearclaw Summit station on the slopes of Sundance’s highest peak, Mount Timpanogos.

Wearing matching woolly hats, goggles and walrus moustaches, the sixtysomething siblings are diehard Sundance followers. “It’s my therapy,” says Clovel. “Skiing here feels like freedom.” With empty slopes and serene views of the Heber and Utah Valleys, and the encompassing Wasatch mountains, it does really feel a world away from some of the state’s mega-resorts. 

I had arrived in Sundance a day earlier, the final cease on a week-long street journey by means of a few of Utah’s ski resorts together with upscale Deer Valley and its neighbouring mega-resort of Park City, some 20 miles to the north. Despite being new to Sundance, like many, I used to be accustomed to the title, regardless of realizing little about its ski space.

Until lately, Sundance was owned by American actor, director and producer Robert Redford, who died in 2025. Redford found the world in 1961 whereas driving his motorcycle by means of Provo Canyon in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, the place he got here throughout the pine-covered slopes of Mount Timpanogos. He instantly fell in love and bought two acres of land for $500 (round £180 on the time).

Eight years later, with a wholesome financial institution steadiness following the success of his 1969 movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Redford returned, shopping for hundreds extra acres. He additionally bought the small, mom-and-pop Timp Haven ski hill that had been established in 1944 by Scottish immigrant settlers, the Stewart household. Redford renamed the world Sundance after his character within the film and vowed to “develop little, preserve much”, inserting a lot of the land apart as a nature conservation. Today, over 70% of the resort’s land stays completely protected.

A brand new chapter

My arrival in Sundance coincides with a brand new chapter in its historical past. In 2020, Redford offered the resort to 2 actual property funding companies, Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners, with an understanding that the brand new homeowners would proceed to respect its distinctive character and independence. Unlike many US ski resorts, Sundance is just not a part of the worldwide Epic or Ikon elevate move networks.

And but, there have been vital modifications in the previous couple of years together with an enlargement challenge that’s including 165 acres of latest terrain and debuting the resort’s first resort. Previously, visitors stayed at one of many self-catering log cabins clustered close to the resort base. “This was always part of the plan,” says Leslie Brand, who heads up the advertising and marketing for these new Sundance tasks. “But Robert Redford didn’t have the money to make all these changes himself.” 

The new Inn at Sundance Mountain Resort has solely been open just a few weeks once I verify in. It’s a good looking resort, set on the base of the Outlaw Express elevate — one other new addition to the ski space — embellished with tributes to Redford, together with a classic Honda CL-350 Scrambler, a duplicate of the bike he was driving when he first came across Provo Canyon.

I’m proven to my room within the Ridge lodge, one of many Inn’s two low-slung buildings that sit both facet of the North Fork Creek, and from my balcony, I’ve unobstructed views of the hovering, pyramid-like summit of Mount Timpanogos. It’s straightforward to see how Redford fell in love with the place.

I spend my first day exploring the ski space. With simply 71 runs and 6 lifts throughout 540 acres, Sundance is tiny in comparison with a few of Utah’s different resorts — close by Deer Valley has 4,300 skiable acres. But it’s additionally considerably cheaper, and it very a lot delivers relating to snowboarding.

At least it does throughout a great snow 12 months. Unfortunately, my journey coincides with the state’s worst winter in almost 30 years, and half of Sundance’s runs are closed — together with these within the new terrain. From my perch on Red’s Lift, I can see what seem like thrilling black and double-black chutes on the resort’s again mountain and vow to return to the slopes after they’re open.

But reasonably than fixating on locations I can’t ski, I benefit from what’s open, bombing down the Bearclaw blue run, and making my manner by means of the timber alongside Freddie’s and Holman’s Hollow black runs. At lunchtime I refuel at Bearclaw Cabin, a single-storey wood hut named after the eccentric mountain man in Redford’s movie Jeremiah Johnson, the place I tuck into the home speciality, an infinite plateful of pork nachos.

More than a ski resort

That night, I stroll from the Inn over to the Village, residence to the resort’s two eating places and handful of outlets. I cease by the Owl Bar and revel in a pre-dinner Gaucho — Sundance’s model of a spicy margarita — perched on the rosewood bar as soon as frequented by the true Butch Cassidy and his gang of outlaws. Redford purchased the bar in 1994 and had it shipped right here from Wyoming. It’s a inventive contact, however Sundance has all the time been greater than only a ski space. It has welcomed artists, writers and filmmakers for so long as it has skiers and boarders. In 1981, Redford launched the Sundance Institute to champion indie movies and filmmakers, and took over the Utah/US Film Festival, renaming it the Sundance Film Festival — though the occasion was all the time held outdoors the resort, largely in Park City. And now that, too, is altering. From 2027, the annual January competition will probably be held in Boulder, Colorado.

Taking trip from the slopes the next afternoon, I go to the resort’s Art Studio and Gallery the place potters, painters and glassblowers are laborious at work, becoming a member of Asia Raine for a jewellery-making class. Asia has been instructing at Sundance since 2020 however snowboarding right here for for much longer.

“You will always take something away with you, whether that’s the ski experience, a good meal or a piece of art,” she says, as she patiently guides me by means of the ring-making course of. As I slip the newly crafted ring onto my finger, I actually really feel a union with these mountains. “It’s the Sundance way,” notes Asia.