Industry News
Snowland is located about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City and has officially reopened for its first official season since 1980. Snowland has long been a destination for road served backcountry skiing for Utah locals, but a non-profit known as Snowland Recreation and Education, has installed a rope tow for the first time. Located up at the top of the Fairview Canyon, the ski area gets plenty of that world famous Utah powder the area is known for. That powder accumulation, however, and ease of road access led to some dangerous conditions involving vehicles dropping off and picking up skiers along the treacherous mountain road.
Prior to 1980, the area operated as a ski area before rising insurance costs proved the venture unprofitable. Over 40 years later, thanks in part to danger mitigation efforts and largely due to the favorable conditions of the area, the resort recently welcomed 50 lucky skiers and snowboarders to its single rope for a free opening day on the slopes. The renovations to reopen the ski area have already cost around $1 million in state funding plus more than $400,000 in matching donations. The 50 tickets were available online only to keep crowds to a minimum on opening day, and all the tickets were swooped up within the first hour of being available.
Even though the tickets were limited to 50, over 350 people showed up to the resort on opening day, mostly to sled. To some visitor’s disappointment, sledding is currently an uncondoned activity at Snowland this season. The ski area plans to bring back snow tubing in the coming years, however.
With its modest size of about 25 acres, the ski area plans to limit free tickets to 70 per day for the 2025-26 ski season. The ski area also has plans for a state grant worth $1.46 million dollars to install an approximately 2,475-foot T-bar lift. The proposed lift would connect the lower and upper sections of State Route 31 that historically made up the starting and ending points for road served skiers in the years between the ski area operations.
Once tubing and T-Bar operations are fully operational, visitors can expect to pay “a nominal fee for day use,” according to Brent Lange, chairperson of the Snowland nonprofit, who spoke with The Salt Lake Tribune. Snowland has no artificial snowmaking abilities and relies fully on natural accumulation in order to operate. The ski area will operate Saturdays and holidays through February 2026.
In a notoriously expensive sport, a free or extremely discounted ski area is a breath of fresh air for many people wanting to experience the sport for the first time. With the recent funding and exciting renovations announcements, what Snowland looks to become could inspire other ski areas around the country to adopt the same business profile and attitude towards affordable skiing and snowboarding.
