SNÖBAHN Opening Second Colorado Facility

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann And Bode Miller Scheduled To Appear

• Cam Burns
• Updated:Mar 1, 2024

SNÖBAHN is opening a second facility in Colorado.

The company, which runs a sort of skiing and riding gym in Centennial, is opening another outlet in north Denver—Thornton to be precise.

There’ll be a ribbon cutting on Friday, March 8 at 10 am. The new facility will officially open to the public the following day, Saturday, March 9 at 10 am.

The location of the new 38,000-square-foot facility in Thornton is 14200 Lincoln Street.

City of Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann will speak during the ribbon cutting and SNÖBAHN ambassador Bode Miller is scheduled to appear.

SNÖBAHN’s facilities boast treadmill-style ski slopes on which a skier or rider can slide indefinitely.

Founded in 2016 by Sadler Merrill, who attended and then graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder and competed on the university’s freestyle ski team, SNÖBAHN’s MO is to build muscle memory quicker than you can at a traditional ski resort, thereby improving your skiing and riding more quickly

According to company literature:

• “SNÖBAHN can teach 14,000 people annually, with 98 percent of customers developing into lifelong skiers and snowboarders.
• “Three half-hour sessions at SNÖBAHN cost less than the typical lift ticket at most major ski resorts—the affordability of SNÖBAHN is unmatched.
• “SNÖBAHN has provided year-round training for Colorado race teams such as Denver University, Team Summit, Loveland, Team Breck, and the Winter Park freestyle comp team.
• “SNÖBAHN also partners with local organizations and schools by offering free education and training to further lower barriers to entry.”

It’s SNÖBAHN’s numbers related to chairlift and eating time (!!!) that grabbed me.

“The average person spends a little more than an hour actually skiing or snowboarding when purchasing a full day lift ticket,” noted SNÖBAHN’s website. “The rest of the time is spent in lift lines, waiting for group members, resting or eating on the mountain. For someone who skis less than 20 days a year the ability to improve under this format is slow, inconsistent and extremely challenging.”

According to a SNÖBAHN spokesman, a typical hour of continuous skiing or snowboarding on SNÖBAHN’s revolving slopes at the average speed is the equivalent of skiing more than 20,000 vertical feet. Mirrors at the base of SNÖBAHN’s slopes offer immediate feedback on technique and positioning.

SNÖBAHN ambassadors Miller and Erik Schlopy explain (in the video below) one of the great aspects of the company’s model: you don’t have to wait until the end of the day to review (via video) your position and technique.

SNÖBAHN currently operates a facility at 6955 South York St, Suite 404 in Centennial, Colorado

The new 36,000 sqaure-foot facility in Thornton includes four revolving slopes for indoor skiing and snowboarding, and a skate/scooter/BMX park with a big air jump crafted by the team for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

by Cam Burns

https://www.powder.com/region-colorado/sn%C3%B6bahn-opening-second-colorado-facility