Trav's short answer
Sundance is adding 100+ acres of skiable terrain and a major new high-speed lift for the 2026/27 season.The centrepiece is Electric Horseman, a new high-speed quad serving more than 1,850 vertical feet in roughly six minutes. The expansion also introduces the 1.7-mile Storyteller groomer and three new expert gladed chutes, with Sundance saying the project brings its skiable acreage to 605 acres.
The announcement
Sundance is opening more than 100 acres of new terrain for winter 2026/27
The project is built around a new high-speed quad called Electric Horseman and a new signature ridge run named Storyteller, giving skiers faster and more direct access to a much larger section of the back mountain.
The headline change: Sundance says the expansion concludes the first phase of its back-mountain project and takes the resort to 605 skiable acres, while leaving room for further expert-terrain growth in future seasons.
The Utah resort announced the project on 21 August 2026. It is the latest in a series of mountain upgrades that have steadily changed how skiers move around Sundance, with the new lift aimed squarely at delivering more laps and less time waiting.
The key numbers behind the Sundance expansion
Sundance Mountain Resort · 2026/27Sundance's 21 August announcement says the first phase of the expansion brings the resort to 605 skiable acres. Other Sundance web pages may show different acreage figures as terrain information is updated, so this report uses the figures in the resort's expansion announcement.
Electric Horseman
The new high-speed quad is designed to transform the back mountain
The biggest infrastructure change is Electric Horseman, a new high-speed quad that Sundance says will make its debut during the 2026/27 winter season.
The chairlift will provide more than 1,850 vertical feet per lap and is expected to make the journey in about six minutes. More importantly for regular visitors, it is designed to let skiers lap the entire back mountain using a single high-speed lift.
One lift to the top
Electric Horseman is intended to create direct, high-speed access through the back mountain and make more of the terrain practical to ski repeatedly during a day.
Less waiting, more skiing
Sundance says the quad will increase uphill capacity and reduce congestion, addressing the amount of time skiers spend moving between runs.
The resort is also promoting a simpler route from the parking area to the summit, describing the new set-up as a two-lift journey from the car park to the top. For skiers who already know Sundance, that operational change may prove just as noticeable as the acreage increase.
Storyteller
A 1.7-mile groomed ridge run will anchor the new terrain
At the heart of the expansion is Storyteller, a new 1.7-mile upper-intermediate groomed run created along terrain formerly known as the Far East Ridgeline.
Sundance says the piste has been designed around sweeping turns and broad mountain views. That makes it an important part of the expansion for confident intermediate skiers, rather than positioning all of the new terrain purely at experts.
Advanced skiers are getting something new too. Storyteller will provide access to three new expert gladed chutes, with tree-lined terrain dropping from the ridge before feeding back towards the base.
That combination should give the new lift a broader role, serving skiers who want fast groomed laps as well as those looking for more technical tree skiing.
A wider upgrade programme
Electric Horseman continues several years of investment at Sundance
The 2026/27 project follows a sequence of upgrades at the resort. In 2021, Sundance opened the Outlaw Express lift, cutting the former journey to Mandan Summit from around 20 minutes to roughly seven minutes.
In 2022, the resort added more than 50 acres of terrain access for intermediate skiers and expanded snowmaking. Two years later, Sundance opened the Mountain Camp Day Lodge, bringing lockers, ticketing, rentals and ski-school services into one facility for day visitors.
Seen in that context, Electric Horseman is less of a one-off lift replacement and more the next stage in a longer effort to increase usable terrain, shorten lift journeys and improve the overall skier flow around the mountain.
What it means for skiers
Sundance should feel meaningfully bigger and quicker to ski next winter
For holidaymakers, the most important part of the announcement is not simply the number of new acres. A terrain expansion becomes far more useful when skiers can reach it quickly and repeat laps without awkward lift combinations.
Electric Horseman is intended to do exactly that. By pairing the acreage increase with a high-speed chair, Sundance is trying to make its back mountain easier to explore in a normal ski day rather than adding terrain that only a small number of visitors regularly reach.
A major new ridge run
Storyteller adds a long upper-intermediate groomer that should provide a clear new route through the expansion terrain.
Three expert glades
The new chutes add more technical tree skiing and point towards the resort's stated plans for additional expert-terrain growth in future seasons.
Sundance says this project completes the first phase of its back-mountain expansion. That wording matters: the resort has already signalled that more expert terrain could follow in later seasons, so the 2026/27 opening may be the beginning rather than the end of the changes.
Founded by Robert Redford in 1969 beneath Mount Timpanogos, Sundance has traditionally offered a smaller and more distinctive alternative to Utah's largest ski areas. The latest expansion does not change that identity, but it does make the mountain considerably more substantial on paper and potentially much more efficient to ski.
Trav's final summary
Sundance's 2026/27 expansion is about more terrain and faster access
The headline is 100+ new acres, but the real significance is the package around them: the Electric Horseman high-speed quad, more than 1,850 vertical feet per lap, a roughly six-minute ride, the new 1.7-mile Storyteller groomer and three expert gladed chutes.
- 605 acres: Sundance says the completed first phase takes the resort to 605 skiable acres.
- Electric Horseman: one high-speed quad will serve the full back mountain in about six minutes.
- More to come: Sundance has already pointed towards further expert-terrain growth in future seasons.