On Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, the East Village Gondola carried its first public riders. It came three weeks after Deer Valley opened for the season. For a while it mostly brought people down. Park Record reported that the new two-stage gondola was "in use to help skiers download to the East Village while ski access is not yet open."
The only new run open that day was Clipper, a green run off Pinyon Express that tops out near 9,350 feet. If you were based on the Jordanelle side, your first December run started on the other side of the mountain, and so did your last run home.
Deer Valley is now aiming for a public opening on Dec. 5, 2026, conditions permitting. Last season shows that this date matters less on the east side than it seems. Out here, the season starts when enough snow reaches the east side, and this year Deer Valley is adding to the water supply that decides when that happens.
What opening day looked like last season, lift by lift
Deer Valley first planned to open Nov. 29. Then warm weather stopped snowmaking, and the resort said it would set a new date "as soon as sustained cold temperatures allow for consistent snowmaking," KPCW reported. The resort opened instead on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, at 9 a.m., with Birdseye, Silver Link and Success served by Carpenter Express, Sterling Express and Homestake Express. Access was from Snow Park Lodge.
Here is how the east side compared with the plan the resort published in November. That plan appeared in Park Record as a target schedule, not a promise.
| Phase | November 2025 target | What the record shows |
|---|---|---|
| Phase One: East Village Gondola, Pinyon Express, Keetley Express, Aurora | Dec. 26 | Gondola and Pinyon opened Saturday, Dec. 27, with Clipper as the first new run |
| Phase Two: Revelator, HooDoo, Galena, possibly Vulcan | Around New Year's Eve | Vulcan and Revelator opened Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 |
| Phase Three: Pioche Express, Neptune Express | Mid-January | As of Jan. 24, Galena, Pioche and Neptune were the three new lifts still waiting |
Phase One came in close to its target. Phase Two came about three weeks late, according to Unofficial Networks, which called it a low-snow year in Utah. By the time Vulcan and Revelator opened, Deer Valley had been running for seven weeks.
Even opening those first two lifts took effort. Deer Valley communications director Emily Summers told Park Record it "took over 48 hours of snow movement to pull it off."
Why the east side waits
Two decisions by the resort explain the sequence, and both still hold.
The first is how Deer Valley makes snow. Steve Graff, the resort's vice president of mountain operations, put it plainly to Park Record: "When Deer Valley makes snow, we traditionally make it to finish the season and not open the season. So once we make snow, we don't really want to go back and make it again." The resort lays down a base meant to last until spring, which takes longer than covering one strip of white for opening day. Run after run on the new east-side terrain needs that full base.
The second is the order terrain opens. Summers described it to Park Record during last season's holiday rush: "We're prioritizing terrain that helps disperse guests, reduces pressure on core areas, and improves circulation between lift pods. That means openings won't always be linear or intuitive from a guest perspective, but they are intentional." In practice, a lift opens when the resort can build and maintain its terrain safely, and the base village it serves is not the deciding factor.
This season's language points the same way. Deer Valley says it expects a phased opening, starting with terrain around Snow Park and Silver Lake and adding other areas as conditions allow, TownLift reported. East Village is not on that opening-day list.
The new reservoir is aimed at December
What has changed since last winter is the water. According to Deer Valley's June 2026 update, a new 10-million-gallon reservoir is planned for a drainage southwest of Park Peak Lodge. It is designed to work with the existing Summit Pump House to send 10,000 gallons a minute to snowmaking guns on the east side. Another 10,000 gallons a minute would come from Ventana, for a planned total of 20,000 gallons a minute across the east system. Deer Valley says 80% to 90% of the water used for snowmaking returns to the Jordanelle Reservoir or the Provo River.
In September, Deer Valley President and COO Todd Bennett described the reservoir as "coming to the top of the mountain" and tied it directly to early season on KPCW's Local News Hour: "We're going to be able to exceed 20,000 gallons of snowmaking a minute, which is really important early in the season, so that we can make sure we've got that great product for guests, independent of what the temperatures are, what the natural snowfall is, getting a great product out and ready in time for the holidays."
The deadline Bennett named was the holidays. Last season the gondola opened Dec. 27, in the middle of a holiday stretch when lift tickets and Ikon reservations were sold out through Jan. 2. The reservoir is meant to give the east side more snowmaking capacity during that window. It doesn't come with a promised date for any East Village lift.
Weather still decides how much of that capacity gets used. Ideal snowmaking needs consistent below-freezing temperatures, low humidity and no wind, and Wasatch Back resorts usually start making snow between late October and early November, according to Park Record. Deer Valley's senior snowmaking manager, Brett Hawksford, started his official winter season the week of Oct. 6 by planning where every gun goes and walking the hill with irrigation flags. The Super El Niño outlook is uncertain for northern Utah. "We're in a mid-latitude (where El Niño) doesn't guarantee anything either way," OpenSnow meteorologist Evan Thayer told the paper.
Hail Peak gives the east side more to open
The east side will also have more terrain to fill this winter. Hail Peak Express, Deer Valley's 32nd chairlift, carries skiers from East Village to Hail Peak, at the easternmost edge of the resort. It runs 86 chairs, carries 2,400 riders an hour and rises 1,130 vertical feet, opening 200 acres and seven new runs. One of those runs, "Hill Yeah," is named for Hill Air Force Base and ties into the resort's Salute to Service program. A helicopter set the lift's towers on Sept. 9.
Deer Valley has said Hail Peak opens this winter but hasn't given a day. Since Hail Peak sits farther east than anything else at the resort, the safest guess for planning is that it comes after the lifts closer to the village.
The family terrain off Pioche Express is a better reason for East Village households to watch January. A new snow-feature zone with rollers and berms is tentatively planned for Pirate King, a green run. Humbug will get flowy rollers, and McHenry will have a dedicated family area, Park Record reported in July. Pioche opened in the last group of new lifts last season.
Planning December from the Jordanelle side
For anyone based in East Village, the first weeks of the season run through Snow Park. A few details shape that December:
- Base services stay limited one more winter. The East Village Lodge, with its ski school, rentals and food hall, opens for winter 27/28. Park Peak Lodge's dining areas, restaurant and bar are also scheduled for 27/28, with interior work continuing through this winter.
- Day parking already exists. Deer Valley's materials describe 1,200 complimentary day-skier spaces at East Village. The resort hasn't published this winter's lot hours, shuttle routes or overflow service yet, so last season's schedule doesn't apply.
- The holidays are the window to watch. The new reservoir is meant to get terrain ready for that stretch. Last season, holiday tickets and Ikon reservations sold out, which capped daily skier numbers.
- Watch for a midday rope drop. On Feb. 6, 2026, Deer Valley launched Corduroy Lunch Club, a noon rope drop at the East Village Gondola mid-station that opened fresh groomers on Tug of War, Evening Star, Sure Thing, Matchless and To the Max. Deer Valley East Village Restaurant added a Shepherd's Pie with its mashed potatoes groomed to look like corduroy. Deer Valley hasn't said whether the program returns this winter.
Across the canyon, Park City Mountain is aiming to open Nov. 20, about two weeks before Deer Valley. On Deer Valley's east side, the date to watch this winter is when the gondola starts carrying skiers up from the village. That comes after Dec. 5 and, if the new reservoir does its job, before the holidays.
If you own in East Village or are thinking about it, the east side's opening calendar affects more than ski days. It shapes when the place is usable, when guests can ski from the door, and how a December stay actually goes. Wayne Levinson follows that calendar closely and will gladly go through it with you. Schedule a personalized Park City property consultation.
