The Helicopters Over Sundance This Month Are Finishing a Project That Started In 2021
October 1, 2026
October 1, 2026
Anyone driving up the canyon toward Sundance in the past couple of weeks has probably heard it before they saw it. A helicopter working low over the Back Mountain, ferrying steel lift towers up the ridge one at a time, then hovering while a crew bolts each one into a footing that was poured earlier this summer. As of mid-September, workers were assembling the top and bottom terminals for what will be the resort's second high-speed chairlift, a detachable quad called Electric Horseman.
It looks, from the road, like a single construction project with a single finish line. It isn't. It's the latest piece of something Sundance has been building in stages since 2021, and knowing that changes what the noise overhead actually means.
Electric Horseman will run 1,850 vertical feet in about six minutes, replacing what has always been a slower trip up the Back Mountain on fixed-grip lifts. The goal is to have it spinning for the 2026-27 season. Once it's running, the lift also feeds a reworked descent called Storyteller, a regraded and widened version of what used to be known as the Far Ridge Ridgeline trail. Trail materials describe it as somewhere between 1.65 and 1.7 miles of double-intermediate groomer, dropping the same 1,850 feet as the lift that serves it.
The practical shift for anyone who skis or rides here regularly is less about a new trail and more about time. Right now, getting to the Back Mountain and back means riding fixed-grip lifts that take considerably longer per lap. A six-minute high-speed ride changes how many runs fit into a morning, and it changes who bothers making the trip at all.
The Back Mountain project is easier to read once you line it up against what Sundance has already done. In 2021, the resort opened Outlaw Express, a high-speed quad that cut the ride to Mandan Summit from roughly 20 minutes down to seven. The following year brought more than 50 acres of intermediate terrain and an expanded snowmaking system. In 2024, Mountain Camp Lodge opened at the base, consolidating lockers, ticketing, ski school, and rentals into one building for day visitors. Last season, the resort opened the 63-room Inn at Sundance, complete with its own gallery and access to a new pool and spa complex called The Springs, alongside another 60 acres of terrain and what the resort called a stunning ridge run.
Laid out in order, the sequence looks like this:
Somewhere in that stretch the resort also added a redesigned beginner learning area and a new base lodge at the Jake's base area, part of a broader pattern of building out both ends of the mountain rather than layering everything onto one side.
If you've seen two different acreage figures for this season's addition, that's not a typo on either end. The resort's own trail materials put the new terrain at 68 acres, tied to the Storyteller run specifically. Ski-industry coverage published in August described the same project as adding more than 100 acres and put the resort's new total at 605 skiable acres. The gap likely comes down to timing and what's being counted as open versus under construction, but both sources agree on the shape of what comes next: a second phase of 100-plus acres is planned for 2027-28, which would bring Sundance close to 700 skiable acres served by two high-speed quads instead of the all fixed-grip lift network the resort has run on for most of its history.
That's worth sitting with for a second. Nearly 700 acres on two high-speed lifts is a different mountain to move around on than the same acreage spread across lifts that take three times as long per lap. The acreage headline is real, but the lift speed is what actually changes a Tuesday afternoon on the hill.
None of this has paused what's happening at ground level. Sundance's fall calendar is running on its usual clock while the Back Mountain work continues overhead. The Owl Bar and the Lookout are serving a seasonal Oktoberfest menu on select weekends this September and October, German-inspired dishes rotating alongside a matching lineup of seasonal brews, with dates running September 18-20 and 25-27, then October 2-4. The Harvest Mini Markets, the resort's annual harvest-season gathering on the Village Lawn, bring in local artisans and craftspeople alongside live music on the same general stretch of the calendar.
The first Saturday of each month brings Maker's Hour, where a featured Utah artist walks through their process in an intimate, interactive setting. The long-running Author Series continues too, a program that over the years has hosted speakers including Madeleine Albright, Bob Woodward, Michael Pollan, and Jimmy Carter, built around conversation rather than promotion. The Foundry Grill's Sunday Brunch Buffet runs its usual 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. window, and the Owl Bar keeps live music going on weekends and select weeknights. Later in October, the resort has a dedicated weekend set aside from Friday the 23rd through Sunday the 25th, described as part quiet reset and part inspiration, timed to the stretch when the woods go still before the first snow. Halloween season brings its own overnight event at the Inn, billed as an evening of eerie elegance.
None of that changes because a lift is going up on the other side of the mountain. If anything, it's a reminder that construction and hospitality have been running side by side here for years without one crowding out the other.
This is also the third consecutive year Sundance has held a One MICHELIN Key, a recognition tied to hospitality rather than terrain. Put next to the Back Mountain build-out, it points to a resort investing in two things at once: how fast you can get up the mountain, and what the experience looks like once you're back down. Those aren't competing priorities. The Inn, The Springs, and the Michelin recognition all landed in roughly the same stretch as Outlaw Express, Mountain Camp Lodge, and now Electric Horseman.
For anyone who lives around Sundance, the useful takeaway isn't the acreage figure of the week. It's that the helicopter noise this month is one visible step in a build-out that's been running since 2021 and has at least one more phase already planned for 2027-28. The lift towers going up right now aren't a surprise project. They're on schedule.
If you're curious about how Sundance's ongoing investment cycle tends to shape interest in the surrounding area over time, Echelon Luxury Homes follows these projects closely and is glad to talk through what's next.
Whether you’re searching for a secluded, Sundance mountain retreat or a custom masterpiece in Wasatch, Salt Lake, or Utah Counties, she offers a concierge-level experience designed to help you find a home that embodies your vision of the extraordinary.