In early September, a helicopter set the towers for Hail Peak Express, the last lift in Deer Valley's East Village expansion. The Park Record reported that after three years of lift and terrain work, the resort is now focused on finishing the East Village and Park Peak lodges. Neither lodge opens this season. Both are slated for 2027-28, so East Village will run out of a temporary skier services building again this winter.
That leaves East Village with a finished mountain and a base that is still mostly unbuilt. For the 2026-27 season, the sit-down meals, the après drinks and the coffee before first chair are at the two hotels already open at the base: Grand Hyatt Deer Valley and the Canopy by Hilton, which opened in September.
The Mountain Side Is Complete
Hail Peak Express is the 11th new lift in the East Village expansion since 2024. It opens seven runs and 200 acres of groomed beginner, intermediate and advanced terrain. The detachable quad has 86 carriers and moves 2,400 skiers per hour. That matches the Neptune Express, which carries the same number with fewer chairs, and beats the longer Pioche Express at 1,800 per hour. If you know the western side of the resort, Garrett Lang, Deer Valley's senior director of mountain operations, compared the new pod to Flagstaff Mountain.
With this phase, Deer Valley counts 209 runs and 32 lifts. Last season added 80 runs and seven lifts. Hail Peak is the smaller final piece of a project that has more than doubled the resort's skiable acreage. The resort's 2026-27 count is 4,500 skiable acres.
The smaller on-mountain changes announced in June are still plans, not finished features:
- A family snow-feature zone off Pioche Express, tentatively on Pirate King
- Rollers on Humbug and a family area on McHenry
- A 10-million-gallon reservoir near Park Peak to boost snowmaking on the east side
Deer Valley is aiming to open Dec. 5, conditions permitting. Hail Peak Express is expected to run this season. Lang has said he hopes for more snow than last winter, when the new terrain never showed its full potential.
What the Lodges Will Hold, and When
The schedule for the buildings explains why the hotels carry so much this year. Park Peak Lodge is designed with sweeping views, a patio, two bars and eight dining options. No road reaches it in winter, so crews got there last season by snowcat or by riding the East Village Gondola, and supplies go up the same way. The East Village Lodge at the base will hold ski school, rentals and a food hall, and it is still scheduled for winter 2027-28.
The village around it follows a later timeline. Here is the sequence KPCW reported in late September:
- Winter 2026-27. A temporary skier services building at the base, while the permanent lodges are still under construction.
- Late 2027. The East Village Lodge, the residence portion of the Four Seasons, the first commercial spaces and a pedestrian plaza.
- The 2028 phase. The Four Seasons hotel tower, the Waldorf Astoria and the first phase of Cormont.
- 2028-29 ski season. More than 70 shops and restaurants targeted.
- By 2030. The remaining residential and retail space.
The retail announcement named no tenants. So the dozens of restaurants planned for the plaza are at least two winters away, while the dining that exists today is inside two hotels.
Two Hotels Do the Lodge's Job
Canopy by Hilton opened in September with four food and drink venues. Hilton says they are meant for hotel guests and the local community. All four are run by Executive Chef Scott Rackliff, who spent 25 years in kitchens that include New York's Eleven Madison Park and Daniel. The Italian menus were developed by Daniele Uditi, co-founder of the Los Angeles pizza restaurant Pizzana.
Across the village, Grand Hyatt Deer Valley's dining page lists its own set of rooms. Between them, the two hotels cover most of what a base lodge would:
| Venue | Hotel | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mountain Provisions | Canopy by Hilton | All-day café with coffee, house-made pastries and grab-and-go |
| Tavolona | Canopy by Hilton | Flagship Italian trattoria, individual or family-style |
| Fornetto | Canopy by Hilton | Pizza, Venetian cicchetti, Utah craft beer and live sports |
| Alpine Attic | Canopy by Hilton | Rooftop lounge, open since Aug. 21 |
| Double Blacks | Grand Hyatt | Listed daily, 6 a.m. to noon |
| Remington Hall | Grand Hyatt | Breakfast and dinner daily |
| The Lounge at Remington Hall | Grand Hyatt | Lunch and bar daily |
| Sushi by Scratch | Grand Hyatt | Seatings Wednesday through Sunday, ages 21 and up |
| Hidden Ace | Grand Hyatt | Listed Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m., ages 21 and up |
The Hyatt hours come from the hotel's dining page, which doesn't say which season they cover. Canopy hasn't published regular hours yet. Check before planning a night around either one.
Some of Canopy's menu was clearly built for a ski base. Mountain Provisions makes stromboli in a few flavors, served in an insulated sleeve that keeps it hot and your hands clean, and Rackliff said it was designed for guests on the move, including those eating on the chairlift. At Alpine Attic, the bar food runs to shareables. Rackliff's Wagyu Salisbury steak comes with Robuchon mashed potatoes and porcini demi-glace on a plate shaped like a TV dinner tray. The Wagyu shepherd's pie uses beef from Wasatch Meats and arrives in a camping tray. At Fornetto, Rackliff's favorite dish is a meatball smash burger built on Tavolona's signature meatball recipe.
The sourcing is local too. Rackliff named Wasatch Meats, PaMaw Farms and Heber Cheese among the purveyors he chose through repeat visits and working relationships with their owners.
A Free Lot With a Lift Beside It
How you get to the hill matters as much as where you eat. The East Village lot has 1,200 spaces, and parking is free all day. Hail Peak Express sits close to that lot, and Lang called it a good choice for early runs or for starting the day before heading across the mountain. The resort's complimentary trams will run from the lot near the lift to the hub.
Put those pieces together and a morning at East Village looks like this: park free, take a first lap on new groomers right next to the car, then ride the tram to the hub. Once the lifts close, the nearest drinks and dinner are at a hotel bar or trattoria a short walk away.
The resort expects more people to use this entrance. Lang said pass-scan data showed a steadily growing share of skiers starting their day at East Village last season, as people found it more convenient than dealing with traffic in Park City. "So, going into this season, I expect that to do nothing but continue," he told KPCW. Lodge seating isn't arriving until 2027-28, so a bigger crowd will lean on the same nine hotel venues listed above.
Deer Valley has agreed to build a gondola connecting Snow Park and East Village, KPCW reported in November 2025. The resort's Snow Park project page says no finalized timeline has been set.
The Weeks Before Dec. 5
The resort's summer season ran June 19 through Sept. 20 and is closed. That makes October and November a quiet stretch at the base with the new restaurants already open, and the dining rooms aren't competing with lift lines for space yet.
Down the hill, Jordanelle State Park is shutting down for winter on a published schedule:
- Oct. 3: Courtesy docks were in at the main and PWC ramps. The Rock Cliff and Ross Creek ramps were out of the water.
- Oct. 11: The boat decontamination station is scheduled to close, weather permitting.
- Oct. 31: Campgrounds close and reopen May 1.
- As temperatures drop: The marina store, docks, fish-cleaning stations and restrooms close for the season.
Deer Valley's posted fall event is the Navajo Rug Show & Sale, Nov. 7 and 8 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's at Snow Park Lodge on the Park City side, not at East Village.
Across U.S. 40, Keetley Square has final approval for three commercial buildings with restaurants, offices and shopping. A building expected to hold a grocery store still needs separate approval, and no opening date has been reported. Closer to home, Jordanelle Ridge's Barn & Café has served coffee and casual café food since June 20.
If you own around Jordanelle, the next two winters at East Village will look different from each other. Expect a temporary skier building and two hotels this season, then permanent lodges, a plaza and the first retail. If you're weighing what that sequence could mean for your property, Pack | Fey can walk you through it. Request a private home valuation.
