In 2019, a wealthy group of anonymous investors acquired a plot of land for $46 million, which was located in a promising region southeast of the city of Ogden in Northern Utah’s Wasatch Range. With its total acreage adding up to be around 12,700 acres, this land is also situated just south of the famous Snowbasin Ski Resort. The land was not used for months, but in the fall of 2021 a small plot of land was opened for backcountry skiing. However, this area was very hard to get to, but new developments have opened the door for a bright future for Wasatch Peaks Ranch.
Currently, Wasatch Peaks Ranch has three chairlifts, two of which are high-speed quad-chairlifts. The terrain here is largely between the intermediate and expert scale, with the most challenging runs being located at the summit of Jacob Ridge, the tallest mountain on the property. The 1,600 acre resort is currently being serviced by these three lifts, but there are plans to add two more in the future when the resort expands further into the other mountains on the property as well as when the development of a small village base and residential community advances.
Wasatch Peaks Ranch CEO Tiger Shaw and managing partner Ed Schultz have also recently released a statement that details a co-op with Leitner-Poma that would create nine more lifts that would service up to 3,000 acres of skiable terrain, a resort size that could rival that of world-famous resorts such as Copper Mountain (CO) and Snowbird Mountain Resort (UT). With a development like that, Wasatch Peaks Ranch could greatly benefit Utah’s ski economy and really establish themselves as a powerhouse in such a competitive Utah ski market.
Although this new development will certainly help Utah’s ski industry, it does come with a pretty hefty price. Wasatch Peaks Ranch doesn’t work like other ski resorts where you can buy and Ikon or Epic pass (or resort issued pass) and be good to go for the year. Instead, WPR offers memberships to the property, which start at the comfortable price of $500,000. The other option is to buy a plot of land on the property with the intent to build a house, which have recently sold for around $5 million each. And even though it’s a lot of money, residents will get all inclusive access to WPR’s skiing and 18-hole golf course, as well as bonuses at the resort’s restaurants and shops at the base of the mountain. The goal of this membership-based ski resort aims at creating a new exclusive society within Utah’s ski culture, which honestly isn’t new since the skier-only resorts of Alta and Deer Valley exist.
So what can skiers expect in the future? Is the example of Wasatch Peaks Ranch the future of snowsports? I think that there will be more ski resorts created that subscribe to this same philosophy, but I think that Vail and Ikon are here to stay. I could see a WPR-style resort being created near Telluride since there is good land for skiing and space for new resorts down there, but in my opinion I think that most of this membership-based thought really stems from the classic Utah elitist skier frame of mind.
