Deer Valley Resort will open 200 new skiable acres off Hail Peak this winter, bringing the resort to 4,500 total acres for the 2026-27 ski season.

The expansion adds seven runs and a new chairlift called Hail Peak Express, giving the Alterra Mountain Co.-owned resort 209 total runs and 32 lifts. Crews are installing the lift by helicopter this fall. It will carry 2,400 skiers per hour across a 1,130-foot vertical rise, KPCW reported.

The new terrain builds on a 2025-26 debut that added 80 runs and seven lifts as part of the resort's Expanded Excellence initiative, announced in August 2023. That multiyear project aims to eventually stretch Deer Valley to 5,726 acres.

Garrett Lang, Deer Valley's senior director of mountain operations, said the resort is eager to showcase the expansion after the 2025-26 season fell short of revealing the new terrain's full potential.

Ski pass scan data showed a growing share of visitors starting their days at East Village rather than the resort's original base, Lang said.

"It increased steadily throughout the course of the season as word got out and as people realized that it was so much more convenient than having to deal with traffic in Park City," he told KPCW.

Lang said he expects the shift toward East Village to continue this season. East Village has more than doubled Deer Valley's skiable acreage.

Construction on the Park Peak Lodge continued through last winter without pause. No road reaches the lodge in winter, so workers rode snowcats or the East Village Gondola to the mountaintop site. The lodge will feature two bars, eight dining options and a patio. It is scheduled to open for the 2027-28 season, along with the East Village Lodge at the base. Until then, skiers can use a temporary services building.

A new 10-million-gallon snowmaking reservoir adjacent to Park Peak will also come online, adding up to 10,000 gallons per minute of pumping capacity for the east side and bringing the full east system to 20,000 gallons per minute, according to a Deer Valley press release. Snowmaking coverage will reach 932 acres resort-wide.

One of the seven new Hail Peak runs, "Hill Yeah," pays tribute to Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah through Deer Valley's Salute to Service program.

Deer Valley had not announced an opening day for the 2026-27 season as of Aug. 31.