Snowcat Ridge, Florida’s first snow park, closes for season
Snowcat Ridge, the Sunshine State’s first and only snow park, is closing its slopes and snow-filled igloo Jan. 19 as the park wraps up its opening season.
The Dade City attraction, which opened for about two months during the holidays, features a 60-foot tall, 400-foot long snow tubing hill with single, tandemand family-style snow tubing. The closure was announced through the park’s Facebook page.
“It’s the final two days to ride the slopes!” read a post on the page dated Jan. 17. When commenters asked why the attraction was closing early, Snowcat Ridge offered the following response.
“We are closing for the season on January 19th as we are a seasonal event and we are going to be making some upgrades to our attractions to make them even better next season,” said the park’s reply on Facebook. “We are going to reopen in November of this year!”
Ticket dates were originally listed online through March 28, though attraction operators said Snowcat Ridge was designed to be a seasonal attraction because the slopes and “Arctic Igloo” contain real snow and ice.
Snowcat Ridge CEO Benjamin Nagengast previously told the Sentinel that his park would become difficult to operate with temperatures in the mid-80s and above. However, Central Florida’s average highs are currently in the 60s and 70s during the region’s mild winter.
Still, Snowcat Ridge’s first months of opening have borne witness to a feat that some once thought impossible.
“There’s been nothing of this scale and size in Florida, an alpine snow park,” Nagengast said during the attraction’s opening. “A lot of folks didn’t think this was possible.”
Stay tuned to Snowcat Ridge’s Facebook page and website for more information and 2021 future opening dates: snowcatridge.com.