Utah’s 15th Ski Resort On Its Way

Utah’s Cache Valley will become home to the state’s 15th ski resort.

Cherry Peak Ski Resort – currently a construction site – sits nestled in the foothills above Richmond, a small town north of Logan. Developer John Chadwick told Utah Public Radio: “We’re kind of like the convenient store of ski resorts; close, quick you can be here in just a few minutes and back home.”

“Other ski resorts you have to dedicate a half-day or a whole day, and when you are that convenient you create a lot more skiing than would otherwise happen.”

According to Chadwick, Cherry Peak Ski Resort will eventually feature three ski lifts, a small lodge, and a 300-car parking lot. At 200 acre, with 1,265ft total vertical, it’s pocket-sized by Utah standards, however, studies have shown that the area receives 322 inches of annual snow.

With a three-lane tubing hill, ice skating, mountain biking, and a large night skiing area, some Richmond residents are speculating that the clientele will be high-school students rather than out-of-state ski enthusiasts looking to buy a holiday home in Utah (driving property values up in the process…)

Pitching the resort as a teaching mountain, Chadwick said developers had originally hoped to open last autumn, but a number of setbacks have meant a Thanksgiving ’14 launch is likely.

“It was actually ten years ago I hiked up here with an Olympic ski coach and he said after skiing one run, ‘you need to build a ski resort’ so that’s really what got it going,” he said.
Travis Seeholzer, of neighbouring Beaver Mountain Resort, told Utah Public Radio that, while they may initially lose business to Cherry Peak, he hopes eventually both resorts will benefit.

“Maybe people are going to start skiing there. In a way that could benefit us. I think those people eventually are going to want to move to a bigger hill and probably are going to end up at Beaver.”