Somewhere toward the latter part of the 20th century, ski resorts began deciding they didn’t want to be just winter resorts anymore. Before that, they had generally been satisfied with operating for the three to six months of the year when there was snow on the ground. But come spring, the lifts would shut down, the doors would close, and ski resorts would basically go into dormancy, save for some infrastructure upgrades and maintenance, until November. A few resorts might’ve kept a lift or two open for scenic rides or try and promote hiking, but any real smorgasbord of summer activities? Nope.
Then wiser heads among resort executives realized that non-skiing months could be revenue-generators, too. They sought to reimagine their properties as “four-season resorts,” awakening existing infrastructure—e.g., lodging and food and beverage—from ghost-town slumber to active, money-making vitality. They began adding summer-specific activities such as mountain biking, alpine slides, disc golf, zip lines, challenge courses, etc.
Not only did the expansion of summer business make sense from a revenue perspective, there was an HR benefit, too. Key resort employees, once forced to seek other employment when the ski season ended, could now be retained year-round (a seasonal flip of an issue many adventure park managers face when operations shut down or curtail at summer’s end). It all made great sense.
Among the resorts in the vanguard of the move into summer business was Snowbird, Utah, which now operates nearly two dozen activities, including a climbing-wall-cum-free-fall and a newly expanded ropes course, says communications manager Sarah Sherman.
Early Adopter
Snowbird began exploring the world of summer operations as early as the 1970s, with events such as concerts by the Utah Symphony Orchestra and camps, capped by a season-ending Oktoberfest (which continues to this day) before switching gears back to winter operations.
The move into summer was reinforced by a name change: in 1977, Snowbird began officially calling itself Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. That lasted until 2008, when the resort reverted to just Snowbird. By then, its summer operations were a given.
One incentive for the push into summer was a desire to fill the 350 rooms in Snowbird’s Cliff Lodge, especially with the expansion in the 1980s of meeting space in the hotel. But going after corporate groups for meetings and going after the general public for summer fun represented different business models. The resort didn’t really jump on the outdoor-recreation piece of the puzzle until the early 2000s.
The alpine slide was one of Snowbird’s earliest summer attractions, aimed at attracting families. Credit: Otto Solberg
Ready-Made Potential Customers
There were two particular audiences that Snowbird identified as potential customers: Salt Lake City-area residents and winter visitors.
Locals. For the local market, Snowbird’s location at more than 3,000 vertical feet above the Salt Lake City basin (less than 30 miles away) offered an escape into natural air conditioning for city residents beset by the heat. Daytime summer temps are often 20 degrees (or more) cooler than the usual mid-90s in Salt Lake. Hence, it is in the Salt Lake City area that the resort began focusing its most robust summer marketing efforts.
It might seem that Snowbird would be competing for the Salt Lake City market with nearby Park City Resort, which has its own expansive menu of summer activities. But Sherman insists that “each resort attracts a different kind of person,” meaning that Park City, as its name implies, has a more urban, developed character—in other words, it is not unlike Salt Lake City only on a smaller (though cooler) scale. Snowbird, on the other hand, represents “a mountain escape for people trying to leave the city,” says Sherman. >>
Snow people. In addition, thanks to its winter operations, Snowbird had a starter kit when it came to buttonholing potential summer visitors from both near and far. Ski-season passholders and destination ski vacationers, already familiar with the resort and already on Snowbird’s mailing list, could be wooed into making an off-season trip.
Activity Mix (and Match)
While there was some overlap between these two visitor types, what worked best to attract one might not be what worked best in attracting the other.
As Snowbird ventured into summer recreation, it started mainly with a fun-for-the-whole-family approach expected to have broad appeal within the Salt Lake market. And the resort charted a careful, incremental approach to the world of summer operations rather than jumping quickly into the deep end of the pool. Summer activities were added gradually—an alpine slide in 2003, with other attractions to follow over the next two decades: a mountain coaster, a climbing wall, a ropes course, etc., eventually adding up now to a total of more than 20 activities, according to Sherman.
The Snowbird Tram, one of the resort’s anchor attractions. Credit: Otto Solberg
Adrenaline junkies. The resort determined, as time passed, that its winter reputation as one of the most challenging ski areas in the country tended to attract a younger, athletic type, drawn to the resort by its steep slopes, deep powder, and high percentage of expert terrain. Beyond the all-in-the-family offerings, there needed to be something of interest in summer for those younger gung-ho folks, too. Snowbird needed in the mix what Sherman calls “adrenaline options,” i.e., activities to challenge participants athletically, scare them a little bit, and even present a competitive component.
In other words, summer options to produce the type of thrill generated by skiing Snowbird’s steep chutes in winter.
The adrenaline factor was seriously upgraded in 2022 with the installation of the so-called ZipWhipper, a combination of climbing wall and free fall. It’s the only one of its kind in North America. A climber is given 20 seconds to climb as far up the 55-foot-tall wall as possible; when the time is up, the climber, wherever they are on the wall, is automatically lifted to the top and then drawn back away from the wall for a pendulum free-fall (with a 10-foot surprise drop mid-swing).
A bit of a challenge—how far can you make it up the wall in the allotted time?—is mixed with the adrenal thrill of climbing, swinging, and free-falling from 50 feet in the air. Just about right for the Snowbird adrenaline-junkie type.
Expanded ropes course. This summer, the resort took another step in the challenge direction. An expansion of the original ropes course, built in 2010, came into the mix in August to meet “a demand for something more challenging,” says Sherman.
The original course was relatively tame, suitable for kids as young as 4, with a mini ropes course for kids younger than that. This summer’s expansion, which has roughly doubled the size of the original six-pole course, introduced elements as much as 30 feet off the ground.
Built by RCI Adventure Products, which also built the original course, the expansion includes such challenging elements as a lumberjack-like test of balance called a Roller Log—which RCI marketing manager Zack Loeprich calls “probably the hardest element” in RCI’s menu of features—and a Roller Rail. The idea with the latter element is to pull yourself along, while suspended by harness from an overhead rail, using regularly spaced hand grips suspended from the 60-foot-long rail. “It’s a real adrenaline rush when you’re dangling 25 to 30 feet above the ground,” says Loeprich.
Illustration of Snowbird’s expanded ropes course. The original course is the dark green; additions are light green and brown. Credit: RCI Adventure Products
With these additions, the summer activity mix at Snowbird now matches a broad range of visitors, including families, who can also enjoy summer tubing, various inflatable climbing structures, gemstone mining, and experiences such as guided hikes and a fishing pond for kids ages 12 and under.
All the activities, save for the gemstone mining, guided hikes, and fishing, are included in the all-day activity pass, which in 2024 is $71 for those taller than 42 inches and $52 for those less than 42 inches tall. A toddler pass for ages 2-5 is $19 and includes a handful of activities suitable for little ones.
Relatively reasonable investment. One plus for Snowbird in venturing into summer recreation was that the capital costs of installing summer-activities facilities were a relative drop in the bucket for a resort more familiar with the high capital costs of winter infrastructure.
At press time, the ropes-course addition had yet to be completed, but according to RCI’s Ronda Hulst, “Most of these additions fall in the $200,000 to $700,000 range.” That’s not cheap, but it is a relative bargain when compared with the price tag of lifts, grooming machines, snowmaking hardware, and other components of winter operations.
Environmental Considerations
Another inherent asset for attracting summer business is Snowbird’s breathtaking mountain beauty, embellished by mid- and late-summer wildflower blooms. But the scenic setting also comes with an operational caveat: in addition to the need to be protective of a sensitive alpine environment, Snowbird must also take into account that the canyon in which it is located, Little Cottonwood Canyon, is an important component in the Salt Lake Basin watershed and water supply.
To take proper precautions and abide by regulations in building and operating its summer (and winter) activities, Snowbird must interact with various public entities, in particular the U.S. Forest Service and Salt Lake County. The resort bears a responsibility to “protect the water for the Salt Lake valley,” says Sherman, by taking care not to impact the flow and clarity of the water, which in large part is produced by snowmelt, that comes out of the canyon into facilities that serve the Salt Lake City basin. More than 60 percent of the city’s drinking water supply comes from Little Cottonwood, neighboring Big Cottonwood, and other nearby canyons.
Furthermore, the configuration of the canyon, steep and narrow, presents both opportunities and limits on what Snowbird can build, whether in winter or summer. While activities such as the alpine slide and mountain coaster are enabled by the sloping topography, strict limits in the canyon are in place on new construction and other human interventions due to the high potential for avalanches in the winter and other natural hazards during the summer.
That said, the impact of skier business on the canyon in winter, when automotive traffic can be considerable and avalanche danger high, is far greater than the impact caused by summer activities and visitors.
The positive impact that summertime activities have on business, however, appears to be worthwhile, according to Sherman, who says, “We continue to find value in investing in our summertime experiences for guests.”
And who knows—maybe summer-oriented adventure parks will follow the ski-resort template and figure out a way of turning winter into a revenue-generator, too.
