SnowCal: One Man’s Dream to Bring Indoor Skiing to Southern California

The United States has the world’s largest ski market by skier visits, a population of more than 340 million people, and exactly one indoor ski resort. That single facility, Big Snow at American Dream in New Jersey, has been operating since 2019. Meanwhile, the West Coast, home to the country’s largest concentration of skiers and snowboarders, has no equivalent. But one man wants to change that.

José Flores, founder and CEO of SnowCal USA, is proposing to build California’s first indoor ski center in the Los Angeles area, with Torrance and Irvine currently under consideration as potential sites. According to Flores, both locations offer easy access from LAX while serving the broader Southern California population corridor.

If successful, SnowCal would become one of the largest indoor snow facilities in North America. Flores envisions a purpose-built, climate-controlled facility spanning at least 180,000 square feet, featuring a minimum vertical drop of 170 feet and up to 1,000 feet of continuous skiable terrain. Plans include a high-speed quad chairlift, surface lifts, a beginner learning area, terrain park, and real snow. “I want to ensure people enjoy long runs,” Flores told SnowBrains in an exclusive interview. “Not just go up and come down real quick.”

The project is already moving beyond the idea stage. SnowCal USA has incorporated as a Delaware C-Corp, filed for trademark protection, launched an investor website, and gathered more than 450 survey responses with virtually no marketing. Burton has already reached out to discuss the concept, while ski teams from UCLA and USC have also expressed interest. “There’s a lot of people that are willing to be all hands on deck,” Flores said. “Burton, the LA ski teams—they’re waiting for it to look more real.” If development proceeds as planned, Flores hopes to open SnowCal in 2028.

For Flores, the logic begins with access and scale. Los Angeles sits within driving distance of millions of potential skiers and snowboarders while being anchored by one of the busiest international airports in the United States. It is also one of the country’s youngest and most active metropolitan regions, yet remains largely disconnected from skiing outside the winter months.

SnowCal would also eliminate one of American skiing’s biggest limitations: seasonality. Once Mammoth Mountain and the Sierra Nevada resorts close each spring, Southern California skiers are left with few options other than expensive overseas trips or waiting months for winter to return. “If someone wants to snowboard in July or ski in August, they could just go to the indoor ski resort,” Flores said. “Good pricing, no seasonal limitations, no long drives.”

The timing of SnowCal’s proposal also comes as the American ski industry faces a demographic challenge that has been building for decades. According to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), the average age of a U.S. skier has increased from 30 years old in 2012 to 38 during the 2024-25 season—an eight-year jump in just over a decade. Baby Boomers have sustained the industry longer than many expected, skiing more days per season than previous generations and driving Epic and Ikon Pass sales. But that customer base is gradually aging out, while younger generations have not entered the sport at the same pace.

• Related: The Baby Boomer Cliff: America’s Average Skier Is Now 38 — and the Industry Is Failing to Adapt

The cost of learning to ski remains one of the biggest barriers. Lift tickets at major U.S. resorts now regularly approach $250 to $300 per day. Add rental equipment, lessons, food, and travel, and a family’s first ski day can easily exceed $1,000. For many people, that is not an introduction to skiing; it is a reason never to try. “You’re looking at a thousand bucks for one day,” Flores said. “Why would you continue?” This challenge has been highlighted for years by ski industry analyst Laurent Vanat, author of the International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism, who has argued that skiing’s future increasingly depends on bringing the sport closer to urban populations rather than expecting newcomers to travel to mountain resorts.

According to Patrick Thorne’s World Indoor Snow Centres Guide, an estimated 50 million people learned to ski indoors worldwide over the past decade, most of them in China. Indoor slopes have become one of the primary gateways into snowsports across Asia, but the United States has yet to follow suit despite having the world’s largest ski market.

SnowCal could also fill another gap: year-round athlete development. The winningest alpine skier in World Cup history, Mikaela Shiffrin, has travelled to Germany for indoor training sessions with Atomic because no comparable facility exists in the United States. Germany’s indoor slopes are FIS homologated, allowing technical athletes to complete hundreds of training gates in a single day. Flores believes a similar concept could work in California. UCLA and USC ski teams currently rely on simulators, dryland training, and overseas trips to maintain off-season preparation. SnowCal’s vision is to eventually provide a FIS-quality training environment much closer to home. “Why send athletes abroad,” Flores said, “when we could build that opportunity here?”

While SnowCal is still searching for a lead investor, Flores is seeking an initial $1 million to support site acquisition, feasibility studies, and preliminary design work. Although indoor snowmaking requires significant energy, Flores believes California’s increasingly renewable electricity grid, combined with future solar integration, can help offset operating costs. He also points out that the largest carbon footprint associated with skiing typically comes from travel rather than snowmaking itself, arguing that locating an indoor resort within one of America’s largest metropolitan areas could substantially reduce unnecessary long-distance trips.

For now, SnowCal USA remains somewhere between concept and construction. Flores’ immediate focus is securing land and investment. “Once we have that land locked in,” he said, “we should be good to go.”

If he succeeds, Southern California could become home to the West Coast’s first indoor ski resort, and one of the most ambitious attempts yet to make skiing a year-round sport in the United States.