The alpine slide was one of Snow- bird’s earliest summer attractions, aimed at attracting families.
Credit: Otto Solberg
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.
adding up now to a total of more than 20 activities, according to Sherman.
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 challeng - ing,” 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 origi - nal six-pole course, introduced elements as much as 30 feet off the ground.
Adrenaline junkies. The resort deter- mined, as time passed, that its winter reputation as one of the most challeng - ing 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 of - ferings, there needed to be something of interest in summer for those younger gung-ho folks, too. Snowbird needed in the mix what Sherman calls “adrena - line 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 combi - nation of climbing wall and free fall. It’s the only one of its kind in North America. A climber is given 20 seconds
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 rec- reation, 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 gradual - ly—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
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