Snow King Mountain
Snow King Mountain is a summer and winter resort in the western United States, in Jackson, Wyoming. The mountain is Jackson's original 1936 ski hill, located on the southeast edge of the city, and was the first ski area in Wyoming. Locals sometimes refer to Snow King as "The Town Hill," and it offers skiing, hiking, an alpine slide, and a planetarium.
History
In 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps created a switch-back horse and hiking trail to the top of the mountain and the trail became one of Snow King's first skiing racecourses. The Jackson Hole Ski Club was established in 1937, and two years later lift-served skiing began on Wyoming's first ski area with the addition of a rope tow. While previously named Kelly's Hill or the town hill, it was officially named Snow King in 1938. The first chairlift was installed in 1946, a converted ore tram from Salida, Colorado that utilized single-chairs instead of ore cars. In the 1950s, the single-chairs were replaced with double chairs.In 1978, The Rafferty double was constructed on the east slopes of the resort near the Snow King Hotel. A double chairlift was installed in 1981 and known as the Summit lift.
In the summer of 2014, after almost 35 years of service, the Rafferty Double chair was removed and replaced by a Doppelmayr quad chairlift going four hundred feet higher than the prior lift. The Summit lift was uninstalled in 2021 and replaced by a gondola lift. Manufactured by Leitner-Poma, each gondola car can ferry eight passengers from the base of the mountain to the summit.
In 2025, the hotel at the base of the mountain, Snow King Resort, was sold to Castle Peak Holdings for an undisclosed amount, purportedly around $84 million USD. There are plans to renovate the hotel and potentially expand the hotel by adding more wings to the building.