The transformation of Fairview’s Snowland Ski & Tube Resort back into a viable public ski hill has been a labor of love. Emphasis on labor.
Last weekend, about 20 volunteers from the Wasatch Academy and several board members of the Snowland Foundation, Inc. nonprofit cleared the tiny ski area’s two runs by hand. Brent Lange, chair of the nonprofit, said he burned through eight screws with the torque he put on his chainsaw. Others clipped saplings and pounded in stakes so the snowplow would know where to go.
The work won’t stop once the two-run community hill officially reopens — which Lange said will probably be later than the Dec. 6 date he originally laid out. Notably, water will have to be hauled in, and the ropes from the two tow ropes will have to be taken down and stored nightly.
With more experience and money, however, Lange said he hopes running Snowland will get easier. And this week, his group accumulated a fair amount of both. In addition to eight cords of wood, the Snowland nonprofit hauled in a $1.46 million grant from the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation.
In total, the Utah Outdoor Adventure Commission allocated $21 million to 38 recreation projects across the state during its meeting Monday. The money for the grants is distributed out of the Outdoor Adventure Infrastructure Fund. According to a statement from the Utah Division of Natural Resources, it is intended to “fill the gaps in the Division of Outdoor Recreation’s grant offerings.” Other projects supported by the grants included, among others, feasibility studies for the expansion of the Bonneville Shoreline Train in numerous parts of the state and the purchase of land to expand the parking lot for Kanarra Falls in Iron County.
“These projects are investments in Utah’s future,” Patrick Morrison, recreation program director for the Department of Outdoor Recreation, said in a statement. “The impact of these projects will be felt for generations.”
Of the regional projects, Mapleton City received the largest grant — $1.5 million — for the construction of a regional bike park. The city, located just northeast of Spanish Fork, initially requested $2.7 million toward the project, which is expected to cost $6.2 million. The commission — which mostly consists of state, county and city leaders — leaned heavily on project and funding recommendations made by regional committees that vetted the applications.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Wayne Niederhauser, at left, prays at Snowland ski area in Fairview Canyon on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
This is the third year the commission distributed the grants, but just the second year of soliciting the help of regional recreation councils. The Division of Recreation said the locally led approach is the first of its kind in the nation.
“This program continues to demonstrate,” Morrison said in a statement, “how effective collaboration can be when local, state and federal partners come together.”
Snowland received more money than all but three other projects, one of which was the state’s own Outdoor Recreation Planning Assistance program ($2.5 million). Lange said all $1.46 million would go toward a surface lift, likely a T-bar or J-bar, that will be installed for the 2026-27 season. That is part of Phase II of the reopening plan.
The state previously gave Snowland a $1 million grant for the Phase I projects that will allow it to open its lifts to the public this winter for the first time since 1980. Those endeavors included building a parking lot, bathrooms and berms to keep people from sliding into Cottonwood Creek or State Route 31.
Lange estimates the nonprofit has been given some $350,000 in in-kind donations, such as electrical work and a snowcat donated by Snowbird. It has also applied for a $600,000 grant from the R6 Community Council to expand the 800-square-foot log cabin lodge on the 25-acre property. However, Lange said his group still needs to raise about $150,000.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brent Lange at Snowland ski area in Fairview Canyon on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025.
“We’re going to make you proud,” Lange said he tells Morrison every time the state gives Snowland a grant. “We will make you proud.”
The first Snowland Ski Resort operated from 1964 to 1980. After it closed, Wasatch Academy, a private boarding school, took over the permit from the Manti-La Sal National Forest to use the hill to train its ski and snowboard teams. The school donated the cabin to the nonprofit and is letting it operate Snowland under its permit this season.
Wasatch Academy will continue to use the ski hill Monday through Thursday. Snowland will be open to the public Friday through Sunday and during the holidays, likely into March, Lange said.
The nonprofit’s primary operations goal this winter is to work out the kinks.
“We’re just going to give it a taste,” he said. “We might be open 20 days this year.”
And, as promised, on all of those days lift access will be free.
That likely won’t be the case in future seasons, but the nonprofit has committed to keeping lift tickets inexpensive. Lange reiterated that the purpose of Snowland’s revival, of all this labor, isn’t to make money. It’s to create a hub for several central Utah communities.
“We just want to make the communities we live in better than we found them,” Lange said. “Just add on good stuff that’s family friendly, that unifies and brings people together and teaches and helps. That’s what we are.”