Every press release about the Fox US Open of Mountain Biking points the same direction: Bald Eagle Mountain, Snow Park Lodge, the finish line where an estimated 10,000 spectators will pass through over three days. If you live in Empire Pass, that's the story you've probably already seen. It's also not the part that happens closest to you.
The event opens on Friday night, two lift rides from Silver Strike, at Silver Lake Lodge. Before a single professional drops into the Pro Finals course on Saturday, invited athletes will compete in the Best Whip, a big air jump competition staged right in the village Empire Pass residents already treat as their front porch. For three days starting September 11, the biggest thing to happen at Deer Valley since before the financial crisis starts in your neighborhood, not the one national outlets are covering.
What's Actually Happening, Day by Day
The full schedule, confirmed by Deer Valley Resort and reported by the Park Record as of late August:
| Day | Location | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Sept. 11 | Silver Lake Lodge | Best Whip big air jump competition, invited athletes |
| Saturday, Sept. 12 | Bald Eagle Mountain to Snow Park Lodge | Pro Finals, Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series |
| Sunday, Sept. 13 | Bald Eagle Mountain to Snow Park Lodge | Youth and amateur races |
This is the final stop of the 2026 Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series, which already ran through Ride Rock Creek in North Carolina, Mountain Creek in New Jersey, Solitude Mountain Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and Big Bear Lake, California, before landing at Deer Valley. General admission is free. A lift ticket is only required if you want to ride up and watch from the course itself rather than the base area.
Why This Hasn't Happened Since 2008
Deer Valley isn't new to downhill racing. It hosted National Off-Road Bicycle Association events and World Championship Series downhill races through the late 1990s and early 2000s, back when the resort's reputation on two wheels rivaled its reputation on skis. Nick Van Dine, a Park City resident who raced the NCS course at Deer Valley between 1999 and 2007, told the Park City Council in June that the community has gone without elite professional downhill racing since roughly 2008. That's an eighteen-year gap, long enough that most current Empire Pass residents have never seen it happen here at all.
The Fox US Open itself has existed since 2003, but it spent the last four years at Killington, Vermont. It moved to Utah after organizers watched the crowd response to last year's Pro Downhill Series stop at Solitude Mountain Resort and decided the Wasatch deserved a bigger stage. Deer Valley spent the summer rerouting sections of its old NORBA-era course, smoothing out the tighter, slower stretches and rebuilding jump features from lumber cut and milled on the mountain itself. The track keeps its historic character, including named sections like Little Niagara, The Quarry, Whiskey's Rock, and Psycho Spin, but it's been rebuilt to modern racing standards. Once the competition wraps, the track opens to the public, meaning the trail your neighbors ride recreationally this fall will be the same one that hosted a national championship.
The Traffic Plan Looks Like a Ski World Cup, Not a Summer Bike Race
If you're wondering why this feels like a bigger production than a typical summer event, it's because the city is treating it like one. Park City's Special Events Manager told the council that the transportation plan for the Fox US Open mirrors what the city uses for large Deer Valley concerts and the FIS Ski World Cup, not a standard mountain biking event. Any single day that draws more than 3,000 RSVPs triggers the full mitigation plan, which routes vehicles and buses in opposite directions along Deer Valley Drive to keep traffic moving.
That threshold matters for anyone driving in or out of Empire Pass that weekend. With 10,000 total attendees expected across three days, at least one of those days is likely to cross the 3,000 mark, which means the same routing changes you'd expect during a February World Cup weekend could apply in September. The city's own estimate puts the event's economic impact at $1.25 million in local business activity and 237 sustained jobs, numbers that tell you this isn't a niche gathering the resort is squeezing in quietly. It's being planned and staffed like one of the two or three biggest weekends of the year.
How to Watch It From Where You Live
You don't need a lift ticket to see the race. Spectators can access the event for free from the Snow Park base area and watch the finish. If you want a closer look at the actual course, Deer Valley is selling a Pro Downhill Course Scenic Ride Ticket that includes one ride on the Silver Lake Express to the Silver Lake area, where you can stop for lunch, followed by a ride on the Homestake Express to reach the race venue itself. For Empire Pass residents, that route starts at the lift you already use most.
A few practical notes if you're planning your weekend around it:
- Friday night's Best Whip at Silver Lake Lodge doesn't require a lift ticket and puts you closest to home.
- Saturday's Pro Finals draw the largest crowd of the weekend, so expect the Deer Valley Drive routing changes to be in full effect.
- Trails around Deer Valley stay open to the public throughout the competition, so normal hiking and riding access isn't interrupted outside the race venue itself.
- General admission requires an RSVP through Deer Valley's event page, even though it's free.
The Thursday Before, at Alpinist
If you want a preview of the weekend's energy without the crowds, Thursday, September 10, falls squarely inside Alpinist's summer pop-up series at Silver Lake Village. The restaurant, the newest addition to the village, is running ticketed themed evenings every Thursday from June 18 through October 1, each built around a different vintner, distiller, or chef. It's a smaller, quieter version of what the resort will feel like all weekend, and it's one of the few dining spots in the immediate area confirmed to be running its full summer program that close to race day.
What This Actually Means If You Live in Empire Pass
The headline event, the one that will show up in mountain biking coverage nationally, happens on Bald Eagle Mountain and finishes at Snow Park. But the opening night, the one that sets the tone for the weekend, happens in the village you already walk through. Deer Valley hasn't hosted elite downhill racing since before most current Empire Pass owners bought here. The city is treating the logistics with the same seriousness as a Ski World Cup. And the first spectacle of it all lands two lifts from home, on a Friday night, before the rest of the country is paying attention.
If you're weighing what a weekend like this means for property here, or you're curious how events like this shape demand in Empire Pass and the surrounding Deer Valley communities over time, Lindsay Clark Shields has spent years watching how these moments ripple through the market. Reach out if you'd like a local read on what's ahead for Empire Pass, on the mountain or off it.
