Burning Man’s Desert Ski Slope Faces Financial Freeze as BRC Snow Club Launches Fundraiser

Burning Man is held every summer from August 24 to September 1 in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The event transforms the desert into a temporary city focused on art, self-expression, and radical self-reliance. The temporary city is named Black Rock City, with the festival’s mission being to guide, nurture, and protect the more permanent community that its culture fosters. Burning Man began in 1986 at Baker Beach, California, with just 35 participants. Today, it draws over 70,000 attendees. According to organizers, Burning Man is not a festival—it’s a city wherein almost everything that happens is created entirely by its citizens, who are active participants in the experience.

In 2023, the BRC Snow Club brought the first and only dry ski slope to Burning Man. The slope is both portable and functional, constructed in the heart of the desert. It also features a fully staffed rental shop with a wide selection of skis, snowboards, and sleds. This year, however, the club is facing financial challenges and is actively fundraising to make it to the event.

• Related: What is Burning Man?

The club aims to raise $10,000 to cover essential costs such as transportation, infrastructure, and safety, to ensure the slope makes it to Burning Man this year. The BRC Snow Club hopes to raise in excess of that, stressing that $20,000 would enable them to host a proper après party. The higher amount would enable BRC to have a fully powered sound system and bring the après-ski energy to the slope. The additional funds would be used to purchase a generator and fuel for the sound system, a complete speaker system that can withstand the elements, and a DJ booth, along with lights and shade for the dance floor.

There are other ways to support the BRC Snow Club if you are unable to make a monetary donation. For the Burning Man Event, the club requires:

• Lighting for the slope looks awesome at night
• More sound equipment
• One ticket and two vehicle passes to get everything to Burning Man
• On-site equipment donations (especially men’s snowboard bindings, snowboards, boots, helmets, and saucer sleds)
• More people who know how to tech skis to volunteer in their “rental shop” so they can keep things running smoothly
• An Experts Only takeover with John Summit on Wednesday for our White Wednesday Powder Party

Maintaining and operating a portable ski slope is neither easy nor inexpensive. The storage and transportation expenses alone are over $20,000. “If you’re in the SF Burner community, you’ve likely crossed paths with us and hopefully felt the depth of our love for this community, and this project has been our crazy labor of love, but we simply can’t fund it ourselves anymore,” the BRC Snow Club said on its website. So far the fundraiser has raised in excess of $2,000.

To donate or for more information, visit the BRC’s fundraiser website.