Wyoming – After Sleeping Giant didn’t operate during the 2023-24 season and this past summer, it won’t awaken from its slumber for this upcoming winter.
Yesterday, Sleeping Giant Ski Area & Zipline announced that it won’t operate its lifts for skiing, riding, or snow tubing for the 2024-25 season. This move follows its closure for the 2023-24 season. Factors included continued recovery from the spring flooding and the vandalizing of the Big Horn lift’s new communication line this summer. These problems, along with the need to go through a hiring push over the next few months to be able to open, led them to throw in the towel.
They’ll be spending time on various projects and have members of their team go through a ski resort management training program at a university. They still hope to use a grant to fund a trail expansion and snow tubing hill improvements, but they may have to give it up due to the closure. Sleeping Giant is also working on a partnership with Red Lodge Mountain, potentially offering a season pass for both mountains down the road.
It’s hard to interpret the local response to this announcement, as Sleeping Giant turned off public comments on the post. The Cody Enterprise’s former publisher and editor, Bruce McCormack, criticized the move, saying that turning comments off was bush league. According to the Cowboy State Daily, a profile named Nick Piazza (the same name as the owner of the ski area) said the following in a now-deleted comment to Bruce: “I’m sorry we’ve limited your ability to gossip, Bruce. But see, you found another way. So enjoy -). As can anyone else, by following your example…And as I told you this morning, if you want to talk, come by, bring your friends, I’ll make you coffee — but I’m not debating with you on Facebook. Have a great day.”
First opened in 1936, Sleeping Giant is one of Wyoming’s most historic ski areas. However, it’s gone through a few closures. In 2020, local investment banker Nick Piazza purchased the ski area. Nick has spent lots of money modernizing the mountain, including adding a zipline. Sleeping Giant also planned a terrain expansion, with a new terrain pod above the Bighorn chairlift. The ski area also drew praise for offering Ukrainians work and free lift tickets following the beginning of the Russian war against the European country.
It was closed for the 2023-24 season due to a lack of snowfall in the early portions of the winter. This summer, it remained closed to focus on recovering from spring flooding, ironically caused by late-season snowfall.
It’s hard to determine what comes next for Sleeping Giant, but not operating for two straight winters is typically not a positive sign. They did note the possibility of bringing in more investors to help move various capital improvements forward, but I could also see him selling the ski area. Not operating for two winters in a row doesn’t bring confidence for their fans to purchase season passes, which is a crucial source of cash flow for ski areas. Ultimately, snow farming isn’t an easy business to be in, as you never know what challenges you’ll face.
Image Credits: Sleeping Giant Ski Area & Zipline
