Adventure Playgrounds

One of the first rules of being a good host is to have something for everybody. That can be a challenge at ski areas in the summer, when the offerings tend to be less comprehensive than they are during the winter months and adventure activities—such as zip lines, ropes courses, or downhill mountain biking—aren’t suitable for very young kids or, perhaps, for older folks or people with disabilities. What’s a ski area operator to do?

Enter an old-school concept: the playground. While the word might evoke images of swings, sandboxes, seesaws, slides, and jungle gyms, the concept can take on new elements within the context of a ski area property. Playgrounds can incorporate adventure-park features reduced to a manageable size and height for the kindergarten set. And in many cases, these same features can appeal to elderly participants, people with physical challenges, as well as older kids or adults who want to share the experience with members of the family too young to take on bigger activities.