Walking into the lobby of The Inn at Sundance Resort is like stepping into a page from an “I-Spy” book.
It’s maximalism from floor to ceiling: Patterned couches on patterned carpets, wood grain and stone grain layered in with accent tables, coffee tables and sculptural elements. Paintings, collage art and books fill walls covered in a velvet green wallpaper, more like fabric.
It wouldn’t be strange to find a magnifying glass hiding on the bookshelf cabinet, or a red-tailed hawk feather poking up from the arm of a couch. What about hidden Robert Redfords? In just the shadowbox gallery full of postcards and letters, the count pushes five.
The founder’s legacy is the through line for the hotel’s design, especially since the inn is the first new build at Sundance since Redford sold the resort in 2020. From the use of his own art collection to the emphasis on the surrounding flora and fauna, the land that stole the Hollywood star’s heart, the new inn bears the values that birthed Sundance Mountain Resort over half a century ago.
Chad Linebaugh, Sundance Mountain Resort’s president and general manager for the past 20 years, said Redford would have approved of the result.
“He never came into the finished product, but he passed away in his home up here at Sundance, so he had been in town for a few months, and he had driven by,” Linebaugh said. “I know he was pleased about it from the outside, which tells me, the inside, I think he’d have been even more pleased with. There’s a lot of small little tributes or nods to him.”
Even down to the staff uniforms: a Canadian tuxedo — so very Redford — and bolo tie, made by hand just across the parking lot at the Sundance Mountain Resort art studio. And there’s plenty of Scottish touches, a nod to his heritage and the former stewards of Provo Canyon, like a crest by the front desk and rich green and plaid carpets throughout, woven in by the Fettle design team based in the U.K.
Linebaugh pointed to an oil painting of a bighorn sheep hanging over the lobby fireplace, a snow-capped Mount Timponogos looming behind it. The work was commissioned for the inn as a reference to Redford’s work in returning the native animals to the canyon after populations were pushed out by domestic sheep grazing.
“He actually paid and organized the effort to go and bring the bighorn sheep back in, so they went down by Green River, Utah, in coordination with the Division of Natural Resources, gathered some bighorn sheep and restored them back up here on this mountain,” Linebaugh said. “That was back around 1998 or ’99. I was there the day that the sheep were released, and now that population is doing incredibly well up here on the mountain.”
Just looking around in the lobby alone, Linebaugh said, features of the new hotel bring back other similar memories of the man who became more than a boss to him.
“He was my mentor, and he became a really close friend,” Linebaugh said. “I just have all these lines and sayings and quotes of his that just run through my head so that when we’re making decisions here, I can, maybe not in a perfect way, but I can kind of think, what would Bob do? Or what would Bob think?”
Responsible development
That question, “WWBD,” is at the center of what Linebaugh and the new owners choose to do with Sundance going forward. They look back and they plan ahead, he said. As a leader who learned to ski at the resort, Linebaugh has a pretty good grasp on the resort’s evolution.
He recalled conversations with Redford in 2018, when the founder decided he wanted to find the next ownership group in his lifetime.
“It wasn’t because he lost interest in the place. It was quite the opposite. He wanted to really make sure that it was forever protected, that his legacy could live on, and that whoever would become the new owner would continue to be the steward of this canyon in the same way he was, which was to develop very little and to preserve a great deal,” Linebaugh said.
Part of the purchasing agreement required the buyer to honor the existing conservation easements — over 70% of its roughly 5,000 acres. Outside of that, small pockets for development were left, like the land that became the inn.
“Some people might assume Robert Redford did not want a (hotel) to be built, and that is not true. He was very supportive of this as long as it was done in the right way, meaning the scale is right,” Linebaugh said.
In the buyer’s pitch from the new ownership group was a list of “land rules,” statements that would guide any and all development or management of the resort. One of those is “nothing taller than the tallest trees,” Linebaugh said, which is how the inn’s height limit was determined.
It’s also a lot smaller than it could’ve been, he said, at 63 rooms. Instead of building a hotel with hundreds of rooms, which may have led to higher profits, the ownership group kept to the spirit of a boutique hotel.
That feel is accentuated with the structure: two smaller buildings connected by a bridge over the north fork of the Provo River.
The choice to split the hotel in half not only makes the footprint slightly smaller, Linebaugh said, but it also means “you have a river that runs through it,” a concept that plays on the title of the 1992 film Redford directed.
Supporting military families
As much as The Inn at Sundance recognizes Redford and his legacy, it also heralds something new brought in with new owners. Namely, as a resource for military veterans.
The hotel was ultimately made possible through a partnership with Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, or MIDA, an entity created to further secure and develop military initiatives in the state.
The taxpayer-funded agency was brought on to help cover the $35 million bill for the inn, and in return, the resort helped establish the nonprofit Mountain Veterans Program that will host veterans and their families to the mountain venue, all expenses paid.
After the MIDA board unanimously agreed to the proposal, the Mountain Veteran Project Area was created in collaboration with Utah County. The project is designed so “wounded veterans transitioning from hospital and rehabilitation centers will be able to visit year-round with their families and other primary caregivers to learn techniques they can apply to home life,” according to the website.
The decision to involve MIDA in the resort and start the Mountain Veterans Program stems from a personal connection for a member of the new ownership group, Bill Jensen, whose wife, Cheryl Jensen, founded the Vail Veterans Program in 2004 in Vail, Colorado.
Christine Russ, the newly appointed vice president of the Mountain Veterans Program, said the nonprofit aims to bring the same concept to Sundance Mountain Resort.
“For Vail Vets, they brought wounded warriors out … to Vail for adaptive outdoor skiing and a whole bunch of different other events,” Russ said. “And what they saw was the vets had such a healing time, and they were able to connect with other veterans who understood their journey, and they built so much confidence and new skills by doing this adaptive skiing, and this program just grew exponentially.”
Veterans who are either referred or whose applications are accepted will be welcomed cost free to Sundance not just for a night at the inn, but for a taste of everything the resort offers, from skiing to spa services, dining and art classes.
The rooms at the new inn are ADA compliant, and on the subject of healing, Linebaugh said they even consulted a sleep expert on how to ensure a great sleeping experience.
The resort is set to host its first group of veterans this week, said Russ, with three follow-up programs scheduled in March. She said they’re eager to see feedback from these first participants on how the program may have lasting, healing impacts.
“Historically, based off Vail Vets, and I mean, we all feel it: When you’re in the mountains, you feel connected, and you feel present, and you feel the healing spirit of the mountains. And so that’s why this is such a wonderful program,” Russ said.
While the website and social media are under construction, the best way to apply is to email Russ directly at [email protected]. To be clear, while it’s a relaxing, multi-day experience, this program is not a vacation club, she added, and only serious candidates will be considered.
A backward approach
With the completion of The Inn at Sundance, giving the resort its first ski-in, ski-out lodging property steps from the Outlaw Express lift — as opposed to their existing cottages — Linebaugh said Sundance worked in reverse as a destination.
“We kind of saved the biggest and most important piece for the last, right? Sundance has been a 55-year journey. I mean, it started in 1969,” he said. “Sundance established the restaurants and activities, and the art studio and all these cool programs, but we didn’t have the central, iconic lodging product, a hotel or an inn.”
But there’s a benefit to that backward approach, he said. For example, the art studio has created a hand-blown glass program that recycles all the resort’s glassware into everything from cups to plates to vases. The studio also has a resident soapmaker, Sara Hicken, who teaches soapmaking classes. Not to mention a staff full of independent painters, ceramicists, silversmiths and mixed media artisans, all operating their own businesses.
So when a hotel is built and needs cups for the bedrooms, hand soap for bathrooms, or art for the lobbies and lounges, the resort didn’t need to look far, Linebaugh said.
Now that they’ve finished that last piece, Linebaugh said he sees Sundance as a complete package — not only as a resource for Utah’s veterans, but for a certain kind of traveler.
“I think it’s a guest who wants to go somewhere that has history, somewhere that has story,” he said. “I think there’s a growing number of travelers who want to go somewhere that has meaning and purpose. In fact, one of Robert Redford’s quotes that lives in my mind, he would say, ‘Sundance is not just a place, it’s a feeling.’”
That particular quote opens a whole world of possibilities for Sundance as a business, he said.
“It’s possible, by the way, we could have other Sundances someday. I mean, we could make a Sundance Resort in a desert setting or an ocean setting, who knows? And we think we will do that,” Linebaugh said.
But first: “This is kind of the mothership. We want to get this right and up and running.”