About Sun Valley

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We’re not saying Sun Valley has special powers, but a lot of magical things do happen here. The slopes on Bald and Dollar mountains enjoy a nearly lift line–free existence all winter long, not to mention a nearly cloud-free one. Plus there’s a 26,000-square-foot family center with everything from lessons to rentals to lockers. Our restaurants have menus loaded with fresh gourmet options from inexpensive to luxury. In summer you can hike, bike, fly-fish or golf in the morning, bowl a few frames in the afternoon, and still catch the sunset from 8,000 feet at the Roundhouse before catching a jazz show. We don’t like to brag, but we do think there’s something out of the ordinary going on in these hills.

    Around here, if the sun is out, there’s something you really need to be doing. And the sun is almost always out. So first things first: the mountains.

    Baldy is our big-time mountain. Boasting perfect-pitch vertical from peak to base, Bald Mountain has no flats, no plateaus and nothing but downhill. And with the barely-there lift lines, there’s plenty of time to make as many turns as your legs will allow, usually under a sun that shines for 80 percent of the year. With runs ranging from expert to beginner, groomers to slalom challenges, Baldy is a mountain for people who like to go down, no matter how fast or what they strap to their feet.

    Dollar Mountain is where skiing learned to ski. The home of the world’s very first chairlift, it now has 76 rails, along with beginner-friendly slopes, five lifts and 628 feet of vertical on a treeless, sun-kissed face. Every snow lover, no matter their skill level, will find something on this mountain that will put a grin on their face and some fresh tracks behind them in the snow.

     

    Mountain Lodges

    River Run Day Lodge

    River Run is where it all begins at the base of Baldy. A veritable mini village of everything ski and ride oriented, it’s a place you can pick up rental equipment, stash your belongings and get a last-minute tune and wax before heading up to the peak. Hungry? River Run offers wood-fired pizzas, grilled delights, deli sandwiches, salads and sushi by day, with après-ski entertainment on Friday and Saturday afternoons.

     

    Warm Springs Day Lodge

    Right at the base of Baldy, the Warm Springs Day Lodge serves up yummy eats for breakfast and lunch. Featuring one of the West’s most famous Idaho potato bars, Warm Springs also serves fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies that can be enjoyed on the sunny patio or while soaking up the live entertainment inside.

     

    Seattle Ridge Day Lodge

    The food at Seattle Ridge is a standout, and it has to be to compete with the views. Sitting high at 8,800 feet along the Seattle Ridge area of Baldy, this lodge opens up onto jaw-dropping views of the surrounding Wood River Valley. Open for lunch, Seattle Ridge’s menu includes wood-fired fare like grilled steaks and fish, burgers, and barbecue, along with a large variety of food to grab on the go.

     

    Carol’s Dollar Mountain Lodge

    Carol’s is Sun Valley’s family-friendly locale, complete with classic European décor. The menu at Carol’s Dollar Mountain Lodge has a little something for everyone, from kids to parents to anyone on the hunt for a great meal. Located within easy walking distance of the village, Carol’s is the spot to kick your feet up and enjoy breakfast and lunch, either inside or on the heated patio. Open for winter season.

    He was almost ready to give up and go home. It was 1935, and for a few weeks Count Felix Schaffgotsch of Austria had been on a mission to find a hidden gem tucked into the western reaches of the United States. He wanted to find the perfect untapped area in which to build a ski resort the likes of which no one had ever seen.

    So far it had been a series of hits and misses, and the good count figured his vision just might not exist. But it was then that he overheard some locals talking about a small mining town in Idaho called Ketchum. The count couldn’t exactly say why, but “Ketchum” had a ring to it, and he decided to take a look.

    The veritable Shangri-La he found would change the skiing world forever. As he looked upon a beautiful sun-kissed valley outside Ketchum, the count knew this was the gem he had been hunting. He immediately wired his employer, Averell Harriman, ecstatically exclaiming, “This combines more delightful features than any place I have ever seen in Switzerland, Austria or the U.S. for a winter resort.” Harriman rushed to join the count, and within days purchased the 4,300 acres that would become Sun Valley.

    They immediately got to work, and within eight months Sun Valley opened to the public in the winter of 1936. And it didn’t take long for the world to see what Harriman and the count had seen. Sun Valley was an instant success, and eventually became the lodge for celebrities, champion skiers from around the globe and everyone else who wanted a winter resort with almost year-round sun, endless vertical slopes and virtually no crowds. Sun Valley has grown since then, but it’s every bit as amazing as the day it opened.

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    Sun Valley Resort Fact Sheet

     

    Sun Valley Resort
    1 Sun Valley Road
    P.O. Box 10
    Sun Valley, ID 83353

     

    800-786-8259
    www.sunvalley.com

    Fax: 208-622-2030

     

    Opening day: Dec. 21, 1936

    Sun Valley Resort is America’s first destination resort, built in 1936 by the Union Pacific Railroad. It is located in the Northern Rockies region of south-central Idaho and is open year-round with four distinctly beautiful seasons. There are more outdoor recreational activities here than at any other destination resort in the U.S.

     

    Accommodations

    The Sun Valley Resort sleeps 1,200 with a total of 480 rooms.

    Sun Valley Lodge: 108 rooms 

    Sun Valley Inn: 105 rooms

    Apartments, cottages and condominiums: 227 rooms

     

    Mountain Statistics

    Bald & Dollar Mountains

    Ski season: Thanksgiving Day–mid-April

    Hours: 9 am–4 pm

     

    Sun Valley Totals

    Lifts: 18

    Gondola: 1

    Quads: 9

    Triples: 3

    Doubles: 2

    Surface: 3

    Total lift capacity: 29,717 skiers per hour

    Average skiers per day: 2,900

    Skiable area: 2,154 acres

    Longest run: 3 miles

    Total runs: 121

    Steepest run: Inhibition (70% or 35 degrees)

    Slope rating:

    36% Easiest

    42% More Difficult

    20% Most Difficult

    2% Expert Only

    Snowmaking area: 645 acres

    Snow guns: 555

    Groomable area: 810 acres

    Groomable terrain with snowmaking: 78%

    Sunshine: 120 days out of 150-day ski season or 80%

     

    Bald Mountain

    Summit elevation: 9,150'

    Vertical drop: 3,400'

    Rise: 19,714'

    Lifts: 12

    Runs: 100

    Lift capacity: 23,680 skiers per hour

     

    Day lodges:

    River Run Day Lodge

    Warm Springs Day Lodge

    Seattle Ridge Day Lodge

    Lookout Restaurant

    Roundhouse

     

    Sun Valley SnowSports School: 240 instructors

     

    Dollar Mountain

    Summit elevation: 6,638'

    Vertical drop: 628'

    Rise: 976'

    Lifts: 6

    Runs: 22

    Lift capacity: 6,037 skiers per hour

     

    Day lodge: Carol’s Dollar Mountain Lodge

    New terrain park: Three parks, two cross courses, 76 rails

     

    Sun Valley Nordic & Snowshoe Center

    40 km (25 miles) of meticulously groomed tracks for classical, skate skiing and ski touring

    Snowshoe trails: 14 km

    Ski and snowshoe rental, accessories, wax room

    Clinics and private instruction

     

    Winter Recreation

    Swimming and soaking: Two glass-enclosed heated pools, one Jacuzzi

    Spa: Day spa and full-service salon

    Ice skating and hockey: One outdoor rink, one indoor rink

     

    Après-Ski

    Entertainment: Duchin Lounge, Bald Mountain base lodges

    Dancing: Jazz musicians perform nightly for dancing in the Duchin Lounge

    Movies: First-run movies nightly in the Sun Valley Opera House. Free viewings of “Sun Valley Serenade” play continuously in guest rooms.

     

    Summer Recreation

    Golf: Sun Valley Resort Golf courses, 45 holes

    18-hole Trail Creek course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr.

    New 9-hole White Clouds course designed by Knott & Linn

    New Elkhorn Golf Club

     

    Tennis: 17 courts, full-service pro shop and expert instruction

    Ice skating: Indoor and outdoor rinks, skating school, hockey

    World-class ice shows Saturday nights during the midsummer, featuring Olympic and world champion figure skaters

    Swimming: Three heated outdoor pools, one Jacuzzi, one children’s pool

    Gun club: Trap and skeet fields, double trap, wobble trap, duck tower, five-stand, sporting clays, professional instruction

    Horseback riding: Sun Valley Stables

    Gondola and chairlift rides: Access to Baldy’s summit and biking and hiking trails

    Fly-fishing

    Rafting: Whitewater trips on the main Salmon River, the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and others

    Bowling alley: Six lanes, Sun Valley Lodge basement

    Paddle boating, horseshoes and volleyball: Sun Valley Lake

    Sun Valley PlaySchool: Available year-round

     

    Restaurants & Lounges

    13 restaurants, including 6 mountain lodges

    4 lounges: Duchin Lounge, the Ram Lounge, Warm Springs Day Lodge and River Run Day Lodge

     

    Shopping

    Sun Valley Village: 12 shops

     

    Summer Calendar

    Major events include Sun Valley Pavilion entertainment, the Sun Valley Wine Auction, Arts and Crafts Festival, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Saturday night Sun Valley summer ice shows, Swing ’n’ Dixie Jazz Jamboree, car auction, Writers’ Conference, Killebrew-Thompson Memorial Golf Tournament.

     

    Meeting & Banquet Facilities

    The newly renovated Sun Valley Inn Convention Center totals more than 12,000 square feet and is as grand in interior décor as it is impressive in its concealed state-of-the-art technological function. Meeting rooms have extensive telecommunication and audiovisual backbone cabling systems that allow for numerous telephone, data, video and audio distribution via fiber optics, data-rated twisted-pair 802.11g wireless and coax. High-speed Internet access is achieved through RJ45 twisted-pair connectivity and fiber-optic cabling along with 802.11g wireless Ethernet. This access also can be configured to allow for virtual LAN networking between meeting rooms within the hotel. In addition, an in-house, resort-wide fiber-optic backbone can accommodate all possible data and video distribution needs as well as direct fiber connections from carrier circuits to all meeting rooms.

    Total meeting rooms: 18

    Largest capacity: Seats 1,100 theater style

    Total meeting space: 28,500 square feet

    Ownership

    Sun Valley Resort is privately owned by the R. Earl Holding family, owners of Sinclair Oil Corp. Sister properties include Snowbasin Ski Resort, the Grand America Hotel, and the Little America Hotel and Towers in Salt Lake City, Utah; the Westgate Hotel in San Diego, Calif.; the Little America–Flagstaff in Arizona; and the Little America–Wyoming and the Little America–Cheyenne in Wyoming.

     

    Management

    Vice President/General Manager: Tim Silva

    Director of Hotels: Justin Cambier

    Director Marketing & PR: Mike Fitzpatrick

    Director of Sales: Brent Gillette

    Manager of Mountain Operations: Peter Stearns

    Future Plans Environmental Awareness Jobs Media Partners Legal

    Featured Post

    Spring Break in Sun Valley

    0
    February 25th, 2019

    Vacation in the mountains By Kitt Doucette  
    Where are we going for Spring Break this year? It’s a great question to ask and an even better one to answer.
    Sure, there are the traditional options like Hawaii and Mexico, but consider this; 
    Do they have days on end of crystal clear, piercing blue, Idaho mountain skies? 
    Can you ride corn snow so soft and smooth that it often gets compared to butter? 
    What about soak in a hot pool at a historic lodge and sip on a cold local beer with beautiful snow covered peaks all around? 
    ...

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