Cold Front Coming; Snow Park Set To Open In Dade City Nov. 20

DADE CITY, FL — Unpack the wool scarves and mittens. There's a cold front coming to Pasco County.

A rare sight in Florida is about to become commonplace in Dade City as the Snowcat Ridge Alpine Snow Park prepares for its grand opening in November.

Snowcat Ridge Alpine Snow Park, a first-of-its-kind entertainment venue in Florida, is launching its pre-season ticket sale before it is scheduled to open to the public on Friday, Nov. 20. The snow park will feature a massive snow tubing hill, Alpine Village and a 10,000-square-foot snow-covered Arctic Igloo.

In the planning for more than a year, the snow tubing hill, Snowy Slopes, will be covered with man-made authentic snow. It will soar 60 feet high and plunge 400 feet. A pair of Magic Carpet lifts will whisk riders and their snow tubes to the top of the hill. Guests can ride in a single, tandem or family-style tube down Snowy Slopes.

In the Arctic Igloo, guests can build snowmen or snow castles out of real snow. The 10,000-square-foot Arctic Igloo snow dome will also include a child-sized snow hill for younger guests.

Snowcat Ridge will also feature a magical music and light show on Snowy Slopes each evening, visible from the Alpine Village, which features its own Holiday Market. Visitors will be able to grab food and hot cocoa while relaxing near a bonfire.

The pre-season sale began Friday and runs for a limited time. Use discount code SNOW10 to save 10 percent off the regularly priced general admission ticket.

Tickets start at $24.95. To purchase a lift ticket, click here.

Located next to TreeHoppers Aerial Adventure Park, construction on the massive snow park began last spring.

“We will have an arctic igloo, it’s a big dome that we’re building that’s basically going to have a smaller hill for smaller children and toddlers, as well as a big snow play area where they can even build snowmen,” McDaniel said. “We really wanted to build a unique, one-of-a-kind experience to Florida."

Snowcat Ridge founder Benjamin Nagengast, CEO of Point Summit in Clearwater, has quickly risen to become an innovator in the outdoor recreation industry.

It began 10 years ago when Nagengast opened White River Paintball in Indianapolis, Indiana, featuring the largest paintball field in the country with more than 125 acres.

Around the same time, Nagengast premiered the Indy Scream Park spooky Halloween venue before casting his eye on Tampa Bay for his next project.

Treehoppers Aerial Adventure Park opened in 2005 on a 60-acre tract at 27839 Saint Joe Road in Dade City with more than 100 climbing zip lines, rope bridges and other climbing apparatus perched high in the properties hills, massive live oak trees and 5-acre lake.

That same year, Nagengast opened the Florida version of Indy Scream Park on the Treehoppers property. Scream-A-Geddon horror park is now rated one of the scariest Halloween venues in the state by Florida Haunted Houses.

Nagengast hasn't revealed the total cost of constructing the snow park but there's little doubt this is his most ambitious project to date. In additional to construction and operational costs, the snow park will employ about 100 people, mostly seasonal workers.

No one's more enthused about the opening of the Snowcat Ridge Alpine Snow Park than Adam Thomas, director of Florida’s Sports Coast, Pasco County’s tourism promotion department.

Pasco County rebranded its tourism arm specifically to focus on the indoor and outdoor recreational activities that the county now offers. He said the snow park adds to the diversity of the area’s recreational activities and should "really drive visitors and international visitors here.''