"When I first got here, we opened either at Christmas or a week and a half before," Soldier Hollow Operations Manager Bill Pierce told KUER this summer. "Right now, our goal is we've been opening at Thanksgiving, and the goal now is to get to somewhere between the 5th and 15th of November."
The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation's current pass page now puts a date on that goal. Early-season skiing at Soldier Hollow is projected to open November 5, 2026. That is about seven weeks ahead of the old Christmas openings Pierce described. The snow for it was made last winter and has been sitting at the base of the Nordic center ever since. In practice, the first ski decision of the season now lands before the valley has seen any real snow.
Snow that waited out a 95-degree July
In late July, KUER reporter Sean Higgins stood next to the pile as afternoon highs in the Wasatch Back hit 95 degrees. Under the cover, the temperature was closer to 35. "From a science standpoint, we basically made a glacier," Pierce told the station. "And we protected the glacier with insulation on top, and then a geotech fabric that's very similar to the thickness of a heavy wool blanket." Below the pile there are a few more inches of foam insulation, and a waterproof cover goes over the top.
Here is how it was built, according to KUER's reporting:
- Cost: a $300,000 proof-of-concept led by the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation
- Production: Pierce's crew made the snow over 18 days during the coldest part of last winter. The pile used about one-third of the venue's total water use that season
- Size: KUER described about 50,000 cubic feet, "roughly the size of an ice skating rink." The Park Record and KSL each described it as the size of a football field
- Expected melt: about 20% in the first summer, with a goal of closer to 15% in later years
The first year is expected to lose the most snow. Pierce explained that Utah ground doesn't stay cold long enough to freeze permanently, so the pile is meant to turn the soil under it into permafrost. "So then the second, third year we aren't getting thermal melt from the bottom," he said.
Snow storage has a long history in Scandinavia. There, crews push snow into shaded forest and bury it under wood chips. Chief Operating Officer Calum Clark told KUER the foundation looked at that method and "quickly decided that that was not a good return on investment," citing the labor involved and Midway's lower latitude, warm summers and intense sun. Pierce says the blanket method is the first of its kind at a Nordic venue in North America.
Why a lower-elevation venue needed it
Soldier Hollow sits lower than the alpine resorts around it. Its best snowmaking nights come later in the season, after Deer Valley and Park City Mountain have already started their guns. The Park Record explained it this way on October 6: the stored pile lets the venue skip a step. Once it's cold enough for snow to stay frozen, crews only have to move snow that already exists.
General Manager Luke Bodensteiner was more cautious than the pass page. "We hope by the middle part of November that we've got some snow that we're skiing on," he told the paper. "But again, it depends on what Mother Nature throws our way." So November 5 is a projection, and mid-November is the hedge.
One loop, split by the clock
The early-season terrain is small. Pierce expects the snow that survived summer to cover a 2-kilometer loop. Bodensteiner told the Park Record that the pile holds enough for one trail. At peak season, Soldier Hollow usually opens about 10 kilometers.
Because the November snow is limited, the foundation splits the day between high-performance sessions for training athletes and public sessions. The public window moves depending on the day of the week:
| Day | Public session | High-performance session |
|---|---|---|
| Weekdays | 10 a.m. to noon | 8 to 10 a.m. |
| Weekends and holidays | 8 to 9:30 a.m. | 9:30 a.m. to noon, shared with Team SOHO |
Premium Annual Passholders can ski the public sessions automatically. They can also buy high-performance access for $25 a day, or $85 for four or more days. Passholders who aren't on a team must wear a bib during those sessions, with a $15 deposit. On weekends, public skiing ends at 9:30 a.m., so a Saturday on early snow means an early start.
The decision arrives before the snow does
Everyone else starts later. Regular passholders and day-ticket buyers can use the trails beginning November 30, the Monday after Thanksgiving. If the loop opens on schedule, Premium pricing covers the stretch from November 5 through November 29. Regular passes have an early-purchase price for anyone who buys before November 15. No early-purchase price is listed for Premium passes.
| Pass | Regular, before Nov. 15 | Regular, Nov. 15 on | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult | $185 | $235 | $265 |
| Youth | $90 | $115 | $130 |
| Senior | $110 | $135 | $170 |
| Family | $325 | $400 | $440 |
For an adult buying before November 15, early snow adds $80 to the price. From November 15 on, the gap drops to $30. That's because the regular price goes up and the Premium price stays the same. For a family pass, the early-snow premium is $115 before the deadline and $40 after it. On the timeline, the pricing cutoff falls inside Bodensteiner's "middle part of November" window. Depending on the weather, someone buying around that date may or may not have seen the loop open yet.
The foundation's own guidance is that an annual pass makes sense for anyone planning to ski more than eight times this winter and who wants early-season snow. Every annual pass covers trail use through October 31, 2027, whatever the purchase date. Summer access to the biking, hiking and roller-ski trails is included, along with buddy day passes and a 10% retail discount. Annual passes aren't refundable, and no refunds are given for long lines or bad weather.
How the rest of Midway's early winter falls in behind it
With the ski date moved up, Midway's early-winter calendar now runs in this order:
- October 19, 10 a.m.: 2026–27 tubing tickets go on sale. Soldier Hollow uses variable pricing by date and time.
- November 5, projected: early-season skiing opens on the stored snow for Premium passholders.
- November 14: last day to buy a regular annual pass at the early-purchase price, which applies to purchases made before November 15.
- November 28, Saturday: Midway's new Christmas on the Square begins with the traditional Town Square tree lighting. The city says more activities and a schedule are still to come.
- November 30: regular passholders and day-ticket buyers can use the trails.
- December 18, weather dependent: tubing opens on what Soldier Hollow calls the longest tubing lanes in Utah, 1,200 feet with a magic carpet back to the top. The season is scheduled to run through March 13, 2027.
The tree lighting now comes after skiing has already started. Under the old Christmas-opening pattern Pierce described, the trails would still have been closed then.
Ice Castles skipped Midway for the 2025–26 season, and KUTV reported last October that the company was reworking its build process. As of October 9, the Ice Castles site still says its locations announcement is "coming soon." It hasn't confirmed or ruled out a return.
What the pilot is testing beyond this November
Clark connected the project to a hard season. "Having our worst season on record certainly gets you to sit up straight and think about how you can deliver a sustainable venue," he told KUER. Soldier Hollow hosted cross-country and biathlon in 2002 and expects to host them again in 2034. During the 2002 Games, the backup plan was to truck snow down from Strawberry Reservoir, about 2,000 feet higher. KUER reported that if this pilot works, emergency snow could be stored on-site years ahead of time. For Midway, the near-term effect is an earlier first run on the 2 km loop, as long as November gets cold enough for the snow to stay frozen once the blanket comes off.
The first morning of corduroy laid beside brown November fields should make a good photograph. Miriam Noel keeps up with the Heber Valley through seasonal moments like this one, and she's happy to talk about how the trails around Soldier Hollow fit into the year. Schedule a personalized consultation.
