This Utah ski resort is turning its slopes into an art show

There’s an artistry to skiing and snowboarding that comes with a blend of technical skill, creativity and style as skiers and riders choose unique lines down a mountain, seamlessly integrating natural features into their runs.

Powder Mountain has plans to add to that living art with a series of permanent installations on its northern Utah slopes, effectively creating a skiable outdoor museum.

“Collectively, these new works create pockets of wonder and introspection throughout the mountain. They’re sited with great intention, working in harmony with their natural surroundings,” Alex Zhang, chief creative officer, said in a press release.

“The idea is not to distract from the natural beauty of the mountains or the ski experience, but to enhance them and create seasonally dynamic moments for those who are inspired to seek them.”

Art on the slopes

Powder Mountain will unveil two new permanent artworks in the first phase of the project ahead of the 2025-26 season:

Nancy Holt’s “Starfire” comprises eight ground-level fire pits arranged to mirror the Big Dipper constellation and the North Star. When lit in the hours before and after sundown, the flames create a terrestrial map of the night sky. “Starfire” was first installed on a small island in Ship Creek in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1986, and again later that year in Anchorage’s Delaney Memorial Park as part of the “Sky Art Alaska” exhibition.

The Powder Mountain installation marks the first long-term presentation of the rarely seen work. Holt’s foundational “SunTunnels” is a permanent sculpture in Utah’s Great Basin Desert.

“Phase of Nothingness–Stone Stack" is a 20-foot-tall arc of eight rounded boulders stacked in balance and tension, forming an alpine cairn frozen at its tipping point. Cairns are small stacks of rocks used to mark hiking trails.

The monumental sculpture by the late Japanese artist Nobuo Sekine was conceived and drawn more than 50 years ago but never realized to scale. It was first imagined as a small model for an exhibition in Italy in 1970 and proposed but never built as a public monument in Rome.

Powder Mountain also unveiled two contemporary works commissioned specifically for the resort:

• EJ Hill designed a series of colorful works for the newly upgraded Timberline and Paradise chairlifts, including the glowing neon text “At the edge of the earth lies a love song” on the terminal at the base of the Paradise lift.
• Kayode Ojo created an immersive installation of faux-crystal chandeliers suspended by chains from trees in a forest grove. The work resembles a necklace thrown into the trees from a nearby chairlift, a common sight at many ski resorts.

How to see the Powder Mountain artworks

“These new works expand Powder Art Foundation’s vision for a site-responsive, year-round art experience in the alpine landscape rooted in adventure, ecology and long-term stewardship,” Matthew Thompson, Powder Art Foundation artistic director, said in a press release.

“By bringing foundational land art works by underrecognized but deeply influential artists to a much wider audience, and providing significant opportunities for younger artists to make ambitious outdoor works, we are broadening the story of land art to include a diverse range of artists, materials and approaches to working in and with the landscape.”

Skiers and snowboarders can access the artworks with a lift ticket or Powder Mountain season pass in the winter. Access will be free and open to the public in the summer and fall on hiking and biking trails.

Next year, Powder Art Foundation will break ground on a new trailside pavilion that will house several immersive artworks integrated into the architecture. The works include a 1970s Bruce Nauman installation and James Turrell’s 2011 Apani, which was originally commissioned for and displayed at the 54th Venice Biennale, a contemporary art exhibition in Italy.