Less than a decade after selling their 17-ski resort portfolio to Vail Resorts in 2019 for $264 million, the Boyd family is planning a comeback. As reported by the Cowboy State Daily, the three brothers — Jesse, Jason, and Joshua — alongside longtime colleague Brendan Ryan, have entered into an agreement to purchase southern Wyoming’s Snowy Range Ski Area. While the agreement is not yet finalized by current owners Aaron and Becky Maddox, all signs indicate that the sale is moving forward.
For the Boyd brothers, the acquisition represents a nostalgic return to form rather than an aggressive business expansion. Before building a 17-resort empire that started with their father Tim’s acquisition of Missouri’s Hidden Valley Ski Area in 1982 — and eventually stretched across the East and Midwest — the family learned the operational ropes at small, regional hills. The brothers made it clear they have zero intention of building another corporate portfolio. They simply missed the authentic, hands-on experience of managing an independent mountain.
“No more empire building,” Jesse Boyd told the Cowboy State Daily. “To be honest with you, we just love the ski industry. We love to ski, and we just miss being around it.” Boyd discovered Snowy Range by chance while driving through the region. He found a 250-acre property nestled in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest that heavily mirrored the community-driven, affordable identity of the regional operations where his family built their company.
Current owners Aaron and Becky Maddox have poured 16 years into the mountain’s revival, making the decision to hand over operations deeply personal. “That experience is why we felt so comfortable saying yes,” Becky Maddox told the Cowboy State Daily. “We knew it would be in good hands.” Where the Boyd family brings decades of resort management wisdom, Ryan is a master of snowmaking systems. Having previously served as Peak Resorts’ Northeast project manager, he supervised a $30 million snowmaking upgrade at Vermont’s Mount Snow and later served as vice president of snow surface management for Boyne Resorts.
While the final details of the sale are not yet specified, the transition represents a win-win scenario for the local, independent ski area. Snowy Range keeps its core, community-driven identity intact. The Maddox family, responsible for reviving the resort since 2010, will remain in the Laramie community, while the legendary ski area gains the backing of some of the most seasoned operational experts in the industry.
The upcoming 2026-27 season brings notable changes to the mountain’s access strategy. Snowy Range has officially joined the Ikon Pass Bonus Mountain Program, providing direct-to-lift two-day access to pass holders. Despite the Ikon partnership, the daily culture under the new owners will stay anchored to the independent, community-first values that have defined the Wyoming hill for nearly two decades.
Lifts are scheduled to start spinning for the winter season on December 4.