Year-Round Sustainability Efforts Prepare Slopes For Deer Valley's 25/26 Season

DEER VALLEY RESORT; PARK CITY, UTAH (Nov. 12, 2025) – As Deer Valley Resort approaches the start of the 2025/26 ski season, which opens to Deer Valley Season Pass holders Saturday, Nov. 29 & Sunday, Nov. 30 (Public opening day is Monday, December 1, 2025), slope crews are readying the grounds before the lifts begin to turn. Thanks to ongoing sustainability initiatives and thoughtful preparation, guests will feel the exceptional Deer Valley experience firsthand as it unveils one of the most significant expansions in North American ski history.

“Each stage of our Expanding Excellence initiative is being executed with precise intentionality, prioritizing the long-term impacts on our mountain landscape,” said Deer Valley President & COO Todd Bennett. “All year long, our teams are researching and implementing innovative ways to care for our terrain and improve our ecosystem to ensure guests can experience Deer Valley and the surrounding community for generations to come.”

Throughout the year, Deer Valley’s on-mountain sustainability efforts and meaningful community partnerships are put to work in every facet of resort operations. Initiatives and best practices include:

Snowmaking
The Pisten Bully SnowCat LiDar System tracks snow levels before and after snowmaking to help save water, power, air, and labor by only making the snow needed to open a run, allowing excess resources to be used to make snow on additional runs earlier in the season. 1,205 new low-efficiency snow guns have been added to the fleet for the 2025/26 season.

AI in Sustainability
A partnership with PowderWatts utilizes advanced technology to inform energy savings by installing controls powered by AI cameras on heat tape across the resort. These controls are anticipated to reduce energy consumption from the tape at the resort by 90%. Additional controls on snowmelt on the Empire deck are designed to reduce the run-time of snowmelt at Empire Canyon Lodge and determine the need for snowmelt based on smarter inputs.

Transportation
Partnerships with Park City Municipal Corporation and High Valley Transit have helped increase staff transit ridership by 50% in one year and public transit service to the resort by 80% over the past 5 years. These convenient ride services reduce emissions and enhance the arrival and departure experience for Deer Valley guests, especially during peak ski season.

Hazard Removal for Land Protection
A team of Deer Valley sawyers clear hazardous deadfall and trees brought down by avalanches to keep skiers safe, ski runs healthy, reduce wildfire risk, and strengthen long-term forest health. Controlled brush and wood pile burning takes place under the first snowfall, clearing out natural fuels from the grounds and rejuvenating the soil by turning over nutrients. Split logs are used for firewood at Empire, Silver Lake, Snow Park, and the new Park Peak Lodge.

Fire Mitigation Efforts
Last summer, the Methane vs. Diesel Showdown Pilot Program combined animal grazing and mowing power to reduce dead foliage from the mountain before the winter season. From late September through November, sheep and goats grazed Deer Valley’s steep, more technical terrain. 1,500 sheep from the Uinta Mountains dined on grasses and weeds across newly expanded terrain, historically a sheep grazing habitat, while 500 goats from Kamas munched aspen shoots and twigs beneath Sultan Express lift, stripping back stubborn brush and neutralizing invasive weeds. For less steep, off-piste terrain, slope tractors from Pine Creek Resort in Cokeville, WY, mowed down brush and spread grass seed on 75 acres of terrain on Flagstaff and Bald Eagle mountains. Cutting these grasses spreads seeds, strengthens root systems, and creates hardier ground cover that outcompetes less-desirable shrubs.

Tree Planting
More than 100 trees have been planted across the resort to improve forest health. In 2026, events will be held for volunteers to dig up native tree seedlings and move them to a new on-mountain nursery to be replanted on the mountain in the following years as the trees mature.

Weed Abatement & Regrowth Program
With weed grant funding from the State of Utah and partnerships with Summit and Wasatch CWMA, the resort maintains a robust, year-round weeding and reseeding program. In the early off-season, slope crews focus on pulling, clipping, and spraying more than 10 aggressive, invasive plant species, and also utilize biocontrol bugs from the Tintic Mountains to decimate noxious weeds. Teams maintain decades-old log books with detailed accounts of every weed pulled, the slope it came from, and the season it was treated to inform the following year’s priority list. Last summer, 2,500 labor hours resulted in the removal of more than 3,500 pounds of weeds and trash from the mountain.

Pollinator Garden
Funded by a grant through the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food’s Utah Pollinator Habitat Program, a pollinator garden was established in the Snow Park base area. The plot features irrigation by a solar-powered drip system fed from the Snow Park snowmaking pond and salvaged stones from construction sites, which have been repurposed for pathways and retaining walls. 600 new plants found a new home in the garden this fall, including goldenrod, willows, and other native flowers meant to draw bees and butterflies.

For more information about sustainability efforts or the upcoming 2025/26 skis season at Deer Valley, visit the resort’s website at deervalley.com or contact media@deervalley.com. rich-text, responsive-table

Media Contact
Emily Summers
Director of Communications
Deer Valley Resort
media@deervalley.com
435-645-6512
rich-text, responsive-table