There will be no ziplining at Cody’s ski hill this summer due to the ongoing effort to enhance the Sleeping Giant experience for future winters.
In a statement released on Monday, May 17, owner Nick Piazza and his wife Yulia announced that the ziplines at Sleeping Giant will not be in operation during Summer 2021. The decision is framed around preparing the site and infrastructure in anticipation of future winters.
After some intense debate and with an eye to making the mountain the best it can be, we have decided not to open the Zipline for the summer season. Our promise to Park County was always centered on the ski season and while we regret we will not take part in what by all accounts should be an incredible tourist season, our review of the winter season suggested to us that we need more depth on our management team and to focus on infrastructure development projects if we want to get to the quality level we want to reach at Sleeping Giant. This year’s SG team did a great job getting the mountain running and keeping it going throughout the winter season but there are lots of areas for improvement and that’s where we will focus our energy this summer.
For those who were interested in working the summer season and especially our returning employees that worked with us during the winter, we encourage you to get in touch as we will be hiring for several projects that we have planned during the offseason and we would be glad to have you on board. Please reach out directly or send emails to info@skisg.com.
Despite this development, the entire area will be busy this summer with millions of dollars of improvements already planned and approved by the U.S. Forest Service.
In the same statement, Piazza outlined some of the work that will be underway during the summer. It appears the short-term loss of the ziplines will be to the long-term benefit of Sleeping Giant’s future.
We plan to move forward with several additional improvement projects on the mountain which have already been approved by our friends and partners at the Forest Service. We recently provided the USFS with our development plan to invest over $2.5 million in the mountain over the next 5 years including a potential $1 million investment in infrastructure modernization and lodging that would be deployed in 21/22. There is quite a bit of work we will need to do to get these projects from the drawing board to shovel ready but we are confident that these projects will be a boon to the long-term stability of the mountain and provide growth to winter tourism in Park County.
While this work is commencing, concerts will still be held on the mountain and venues are still available for event rental during the summer.
The zipline closure is of the ongoing renaissance of Sleeping Giant. In Winter 2020, Piazza took over the ski hill, which faced permanent closure due to dropping attendance and revenues.
Despite the short timeline, Winter 2021-21 proved successful for Sleeping Giant. In the first year under new management, more than 300 season passes were sold, twice the amount sold the previous season.
Efforts to enhance the hill and its opportunities are ongoing. Now, Piazza is reaching out to last winter’s season pass holders to get direct input on what they want to see in the area’s future.
Lastly, we want to once again thank everyone who came up to make the 20/21 season such a success. You showed up for us in a huge way this season and we wanted to be sure that you understood that we saw you. There is a lot of work to do to get your Sleeping Giant to the level we all want it to be at and we are confident if we keep working together we will get there. With this in mind we have set up a new email – Giantideas@skisg.com -where we welcome all our season pass holders and friends to send in their thoughts and ideas on what they would like to see improved at Sleeping Giant or what they would like to share with us about their experiences on the mountain.
Updates on the season and upcoming summer are available on the Sleeping Giant website and Facebook page.
