"Somebody had to, and it was us," Antelope Butte general manager John DeVivo told The Sheridan Press. He was talking about the board's decision to give a free season pass to every skier and rider under 18, with no conditions on the parents. In the same interview he said that, as far as he knew, Antelope Butte was the only ski area in the country offering one.
The 2026–27 season will be the third in a row with free youth passes. Two winters of free passes moved the pressure off ticket sales and onto lodge tables at noon, a beginner slope that's hard to learn on, and a mountain short on terrain for skiers who have outgrown the bunny hill. Nearly every project on Antelope Butte's list for this winter answers one of those three problems.
What Two Free Winters Did to the Numbers
The jump showed up in the first season. DeVivo gave The Sheridan Press these figures for 2024/25, the first free-pass winter, alongside the mountain's earlier baseline. The Basin Republican Rustler added the attendance figures from the 2025/26 season, which wrapped up in late March 2026.
| Measure | Before the free pass | After |
|---|---|---|
| Youth season passes | About 250 sold, roughly two years before DeVivo's interview | More than 6,000 signups in 2024/25 |
| Adult season passes | Around 400 in 2023/24 | About 1,100 in 2024/25 |
| Busiest days | An average of 400 skiers and riders per weekend day, two seasons before 2025/26 | A high of 651 in 2024/25, then a record 822 over Christmas break 2025/26 |
The adult numbers show where the money comes from. Free kids bring paying parents. Adult passes nearly tripled in that first season, and DeVivo said total revenue doubled while visitation rose 60%. He described the growth to the Press as "good, measured growth" rather than a weekend flood. Still, the 822-guest day in 2025/26 broke the record set just one winter earlier.
That record came in a thin snow year. The mountain logged 109 inches from Halloween through its final weekend in 2025/26, compared with 150 inches the season before, and it closed about two weeks earlier than planned. It went out with a March Madness weekend that drew more than 850 skiers and riders. The weekend included free skiing, live music, Easter egg hunts, an expanded terrain park and a pond skim fed by Granite Creek.
The Crowd Shows Up at Lunch and on the Bunny Hill
Thousands of young skiers mean thousands of lunches. In the Basin Republican Rustler's season recap, DeVivo said lodge traffic had risen sharply because of the free passes, and weekend lunchtimes were standing room only on most days. His answer was to look at reconfiguring the lodge basement for more seating, and possibly adding another yurt or a separate building for the rental shop. Those were plans as of April 2026. Check what's finished before counting on an extra lunch table in January.
The second pinch point is Happy Trails, the beginner slope. A program built around kids and first-timers depends on a good place to learn, and DeVivo was blunt with the Rustler.
"It's difficult to learn on and difficult to teach on."
The plan is to change the slope's pitch and possibly move the Pole'R Express conveyor lift closer to the creek, which would open up more room and a better angle. Fixing a slope on national forest land is slower than buying a new machine, though. DeVivo said the regrade needs permitting and probably fill dirt brought in to raise the ground, and the Forest Service doesn't want outside material brought onto the mountain. Those issues still had to be worked out when he spoke in April. Treat the new Happy Trails as a project to watch for, not something already built.
The Next Gap Is the Middle of the Mountain
Free passes produce beginners, and beginners turn into intermediate skiers within a season or two. Antelope Butte's terrain is weighted the other way. The Rustler reported that advanced single and double black diamond runs make up most of the existing terrain, and DeVivo called the lack of intermediate terrain the mountain's "Achilles heel."
The mountain is attacking that gap three ways.
- Glading the woods. The Sheridan Press covered the volunteer "tree n' brush" Sundays. Crews of five to 15 people with gas and electric saws, pole saws and loppers worked to widen existing tree routes by several feet. Many of those routes are just six to eight feet wide, and the goal is to give intermediate skiers a safe way to follow tracks into the woods. The work continued this fall, with a volunteer workday on September 26 announced by the Greybull Standard.
- Grooming the steeps. DeVivo told the Rustler he wanted a winch cat, a cable-driven groomer anchored into the granite that can safely groom slopes the current machine can't. "Imagine if we could regularly groom Last Tango from top to bottom, including Heaven's Door and Scott's Bluff," he said. He applied for $500,000 from Wyoming's Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund. The state's list of awarded projects shows the Antelope Butte Foundation received $125,000 to buy winter grooming equipment under a project titled "Increasing Mountain Accessibility and Access for Youth and Beginners." That's a quarter of the request, and the award doesn't say whether the equipment will be a winch cat.
- New terrain, eventually. Looking further out, DeVivo described reclaiming the "Fun Valley" terrain on the west slope and adding another chairlift. That's a long-range idea, not a plan for this season.
Glading and grooming will also put new runs on the trail map. The Rustler reported that Antelope Butte plans to name more of its east- and west-side terrain, with another public trail-naming round.
Cross-country skiers got grant money in the same round. Black Mountain Nordic received $27,210 to upgrade its winter grooming equipment and fund grooming in Sheridan County.
Before Opening Day
Antelope Butte's homepage says it's "Reopening in December," and no exact date has been announced. Last winter's season ran from December 19, according to the mountain's operations page. Here's what's posted for 2026–27 on the official tickets and passes page.
- Kids 17 and under: free season pass. Parents must sign them up and sign the waivers. Kids also ski free on day tickets, but the mountain says the season pass is the easier route.
- The age cutoff: the Rustler reported that age is set on the day you get the pass. A teenager who turns 18 during the season should sign up before the birthday.
- Adults 18 and over: $549 for a season pass, with interest-free payment plans. Adult day tickets are $54 online or $69 at the window, and there are no half-day tickets.
- Indy Pass: Antelope Butte is listed on Indy Pass with no blackout dates.
Hours for this winter aren't posted yet. Last season's schedule gives a fair idea of the rhythm. The mountain ran Wednesday through Sunday plus holiday Mondays, with lifts from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the lodge open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Red's Roadhouse served until 4 p.m., with the grill closing at 3, and Granite Creek Pub & Pizza ran from 11 a.m. until a 5 p.m. last call. Last year's holiday schedule closed December 23 through 25, then opened daily December 26 through January 4. Christmas break is when the mountain set its 822-guest record, so plan for a full lodge if you go that week.
For skiers coming down from the Bighorns, that same stretch is when The Powder Horn moves into its winter amenity season. If grandkids are bringing their free passes to Sheridan over Christmas break and need somewhere to stay between ski days, Powder Horn Realty manages vacation rentals inside the community, six miles from town. Call us before the holiday weeks book up, and Request a Tour if you'd like to see one in person.
