A Fourth Winter Without Sleeping Giant: Where Cody Skis, Skates and Climbs This Season
When the closest lift-served hill on the North Fork Highway is busy planning tubing runs for summer 2027, where does a Cody skier go in December?
Mostly to places kept open by volunteers and donations. The commercial ski operation that used to anchor a Cody winter is now a summer project. The winter options still within easy reach of town are a set of groomed trails that a volunteer crew keeps up, an arena run for the community, and a few dates on the calendar. Each of those has a deadline or a dependency attached, and several land in the next few weeks.
Sleeping Giant had been closed for three straight winters when Cowboy State Daily reported in February that Dallas-based HMH Capital was in advanced talks to buy it. The company plans to reopen it as a summer recreation park in 2027. HMH vice president Brent Hargrave told the outlet he had studied the numbers and did not think the area could support a ski resort that pays its way. He pointed to thin natural snow, the cost of snowmaking, and seasons that have stayed warm too late. He told Cowboy State Daily that skiing is not ruled out for good.
"If we find that there's a way we can do it in the future that's profitable and popular, we'll do it."
At a public meeting in Cody that month, the Powell Tribune reported that summer was the company's immediate focus and that any building on the ski side would depend on summer operations succeeding. The plan as presented includes:
Cowboy State Daily reported the investment at $4 million in the first year and $10 million over five years.
The latest public update came in June. The Powell Tribune reported that HMH had closed on the purchase of the lease and facilities from Cody entrepreneur Nick Piazza, and that the U.S. Forest Service still had to sign off on the sale. District Ranger Casey McQuiston told Park County commissioners that the agency wants anything built there to fit the "character of the North Fork corridor." The paper reported that he named zorbing as one proposal the Forest Service had turned down. The new business is registered as Sleeping Giant Adventure Park, and the earliest possible opening was given as Memorial Day weekend 2027. Nothing published since then announces skiing or other winter operations there for 2026-27.
That puts this winter's North Fork skiing a little farther up the highway.
Farther up the North Fork, Pahaska Tepee says its trails are groomed for classic and skate skiing and are free to use. It asks skiers to donate to the Park County Nordic Ski Association. Pahaska itself closes for winter, so there is no restaurant and no rental shop. Bring your own gear, food and water. A 2024 Cody Yellowstone listing describes the system as up to 19.2 kilometers of classic track and skate lane groomed by the association.
The Park County Nordic Ski Association is an all-volunteer membership group, and it maintains and grooms those trails. Its trail reports show how much the season depends on snow. One of them described widespread thin and melted-out spots and said Middle Fork and Outlaw/Haul Road were in the best shape. It also said the group would keep maintaining the trails as long as skiers stayed interested. The warm, thin conditions Hargrave cited against lift skiing showed up on the volunteer-groomed trails too. Here, though, the people deciding whether to keep grooming are skiers themselves.
On the Greybull River side, the picture is less settled. Cody Yellowstone has described the Wood River Valley Ski Park near Meeteetse as having 25 kilometers of groomed trails, plus lodging and ski and snowshoe rentals. Right now, though, the Meeteetse Recreation District's conditions page reads "Grooming Operations are Suspended for 2026 Season." The notice doesn't say whether that covers the coming 2026-27 winter. The same page still welcomes skis, snowshoes and pets and asks snowshoers to stay to the side of groomed track. Check that page before you load the car.
So between the two Nordic areas closest to Cody, one depends on volunteer grooming and the other has its grooming suspended. That makes the North Fork group's biggest fundraiser more than a social night. The association's 14th annual Taste of Trails is set for February 20, 2027, and tickets go on sale December 1. Cody Yellowstone's event listing calls it the group's largest fundraiser.
The one winter venue in Cody that doesn't depend on snowfall is Riley Arena and Community Events Center. Its schedule listed a public skate on Sunday, October 25, from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. Posted prices are $5 for adults, $3 for students, $2 for skate rental, and free for children 4 and under. Sessions shift around games and practices, so check the calendar before you go.
Those games and practices fill much of the ice. The Park County Youth Hockey Association has 2026-27 registration open and links straight to the arena schedule. A family that used to spend winter Saturdays at the Giant can spend them at the rink for a few dollars a skater.
For lift-served skiing, Hargrave himself mentioned Red Lodge as the nearby alternative in his interview with Cowboy State Daily. Red Lodge Mountain's 2026/27 adult season pass costs $929 through October 31, 2026, and goes to $1,129 starting November 1. That's a $200 increase, and the cutoff is this Saturday. Pass age brackets are based on the skier's age as of November 15, 2026. This season's pass adds Kelly Canyon and Monarch Mountain as partner resorts. Red Lodge hasn't posted an official opening day yet.
The South Fork has a winter event of its own that doesn't need a groomer or a lift. The Wyoming Ice Festival runs December 31 through January 3, 2027, and registration opened October 15. The festival describes hundreds of documented ice and mixed routes in the South Fork Valley, the Clarks Fork Valley and the Big Horn Basin, with clinics for all levels. It's a natural fit for someone who skied Sleeping Giant in its last good years and wants a different kind of winter on the mountain. It runs over New Year's weekend, and clinic spots fill on a sign-up schedule, so register early.
The in-town part of the season starts before most of the trails have snow. In date order:
November 1. Red Lodge Mountain adult pass goes from $929 to $1,129.
November 28, 4 to 8 p.m. The Cody Cowboy Christmas Stroll and Lighted Parade fills Sheridan Avenue with retailers, live music and treats. The parade starts at 6 p.m. and runs east from 9th to 15th streets.
December 1. Taste of Trails tickets go on sale.
December 5 and 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West Holiday Open House has free admission, live entertainment, cookies, hot chocolate, Santa, door prizes and a coloring contest.
December 31 through January 3. Wyoming Ice Festival on the South Fork and nearby valleys.
February 20, 2027. Park County Nordic Ski Association's 14th annual Taste of Trails.
Memorial Day weekend 2027, at the earliest. The planned opening of Sleeping Giant Adventure Park, pending the Forest Service sign-off described in June.
Until then, the North Fork's groomed snow comes from the volunteer crew's grooming and the donations that pay for it. A donation to the Park County Nordic Ski Association or a Taste of Trails ticket directly supports the trails you'll ski this winter.
Winter tests rural property the same way it tests a trail system. You find out which lanes drift shut, how far the barn is from the house when it's ten below, and whether the drive to the North Fork trailhead or the Riley Arena parking lot is easy or a slog. Clay Schafer spent years working on horse properties across Wyoming and evaluates land with those conditions in mind. If you're thinking about acreage around Cody that works in January as well as July, Premier Horse Property can help you compare the options. View Horse Properties.
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