A little hill.
A lot of possibility.

Guests arrive, ride, ski, visit the village and head home throughout the day. A guest can leave because the planned visit ended, energy ran low, lifts closed or the drive home takes time. An early departure is not automatically a failure.

At closing, read the operating result, satisfaction and the day’s activity. Overnight work prepares snow, grooming and lift condition for tomorrow. In Build the Mountain, your crew makes daily operating decisions; in Build and Run, those calls are yours.

At winter’s end, the season review closes the books. There is no separate off-season building period. Keep an operating reserve as you grow: a larger hill has more to earn and more to pay.

Skiers use connected terrain even without named runs. A lift top needs a continuous skiable descent, and beginners need terrain they can actually handle. A gap, steep pinch or thin patch of snow can break an otherwise promising route.

To name a route, choose Build → Terrain → Lay out a run. Draw downhill, review the terrain work and price, then name it and choose the posted difficulty. The Trail Board lets you inspect and manage your routes.

The sign is a promise. Posting a green sign on a steep slope does not make it easier; guests following that sign can struggle and fall. Glades retain trees and offer a different challenge from cleared runs.

Depth keeps a route open. Snowfall builds the base; settling and thaw reduce it. Quality changes the ski. Fresh snow, corduroy and ice affect the experience. Grooming improves the surface, but it does not replace missing snow.

Guns cover ground; intensity sets output. Ordinary snowmaking coverage works from the base uphill. Add guns to extend reach. Raising intensity makes more snow inside the current reach. Check the Snowmaking overlay after expanding terrain.

Snowcats have limited nightly capacity. Priority runs receive attention first, but marking every run priority does not create a bigger fleet. The Snow talent branch adds targeted tools such as Trail Guns, Night Shift and Half and Half.

Protect your useful core before spreading equipment thinly across the whole mountain.

Weather changes turnout, fair ticket value, snow and lift availability. Thaw attacks cover, especially low down. A storm brings snow but can close open-air lifts. Enclosed and all-weather lift types have different limits.

Regional wind holds affect chairs and quads; the current Wind Watch talent lets those lifts run at half rate during a wind hold. Surface lifts stay close to the ground but can still close in storms. Read the lift’s current status.

Across a career, warming makes low, southern hills less reliable. Higher, colder mountains bring opportunities along with new operating costs and terrain challenges. Snowmaking helps when conditions allow; it is not a cure for every warm day.

A lift is useful only if guests can reach the bottom and ski a viable route from the top. Check its operating status before replacing or expanding it.

Surface lifts suit short routes. Chairs and quads move guests across more terrain; their speed, seats and line length affect the ride and queue. Gondolas add enclosed transport at a larger cost. Telemixes and funiculars are specialized options whose availability depends on the mode and mountain.

A lift quote includes terminals and distance. Preview the whole line before buying. Longer and larger is not always better: operating costs, aging and maintenance continue after construction.

Talents change the equipment you use. Six-Pack refits quads overnight; Express speeds chairs and quads; Lift Barn slows lift aging. A talent that helps a gondola will wait for a gondola.

Each venue has a job. Cafes and restaurants feed guests; chalets offer a stop on the mountain; shops handle equipment; a school supports lessons; bars and lounges catch the departing crowd. An inn sells overnight stays. Rinks and other activities add reasons to linger.

Guests choose suitable venues based on need, access, hours, room, budget and preferences. A full or unreachable room cannot serve them. Similar venues may divide the same customers rather than create new demand.

Concepts and grades

Food and drink concepts change price, serving speed, capacity and appeal. The base menus include Burger Shack, Farm to Table, Crunchy & Healthy, Bakery & Coffee, Craft Taproom and Cocoa & Cider Hut. The Food tree adds Steakhouse. Eligible venues can improve from Standard to Well-kept to Beloved; shops and schools do not use those grades.

Look at the business, not just the building

Read visits, revenue and staff costs in the inspector. Direct contribution is revenue minus that venue’s staff cost, before taxes and shared hill costs. Ski schools also need instructors. Inns need guests willing to book at the offered rate; inspect vacancies and priced-out guests before expanding.

Après music and promotions can improve spending and visits. The new Nights branch adds shows, hockey, later service and headliners. Learn the talent, then check the facility and operating conditions it needs.

Who chooses the menu? In Simple, your crew picks venue menus and the venue card names the current one. In Build and Run, you can choose available concepts; changing an existing venue can cost money. A website preview does not unlock a concept in your save.

Demand is how many guests want to come. Access and capacity determine how many can have a good day. Reputation, weather, prices, the lodge and the offer on your mountain all play a part.

More marketing cannot repair a disconnected descent. More lift capacity does not by itself guarantee more arrivals. If the hill feels crowded, inspect the actual queues and usable terrain before trying to attract another crowd.

In Build and Run, review ticket value alongside the day’s conditions and activities. In Build the Mountain, the crew handles operating calls while you shape the mountain they have to work with.

Operating net tells you how the day’s business performed. Cash flow also reflects money spent building and other cash movements. A useful construction project can make cash fall on a profitable day.

Recurring costs include staff, lift operations, maintenance and snow work. New venues and equipment add obligations. Before buying, keep enough reserve to survive quieter or warmer days.

Use the business inspector to compare current-winter results with the investment. Start with an underused room or an unnecessary open lift if costs are winning. Debt and interest add pressure; loan availability also depends on your founder.

Build the Mountain (Simple): you place the lifts, trails and village. Your crew handles daily operations and chooses talents overnight. You still decide what kind of mountain they run.

Build and Run the Mountain (Complex): you make the operating and talent decisions. Availability depends on your purchase or entitlement; the in-game switch explains access. Both styles use the same career.

Career grows from your first hill into a portfolio. Sandbox is for experimenting. Daily Challenge has its own rules; career talents, lodge bonuses and Village Character do not apply there.

Use pause whenever you want time to plan. Select a building, lift or guest to inspect it. The Build menu shows the tools and options currently available to your hill.

For lifts, choose the bottom and then the top station. On touch screens, use the placement confirmation to finish. Read the preview’s warning if a site is invalid.

Open the System menu for settings, saving and feedback. On desktop, Esc opens the menu; on mobile, use the upper-left menu. Control prompts adapt to your device.

For cloud saves, use the same account on both devices and allow the latest save to finish uploading before switching. Keep the original device’s data intact if the wrong progress appears.

The System menu also lets you download and import a save backup. A backup is worth making before troubleshooting. If progress is missing, contact support before overwriting the copy that may still contain it.

Get help with saves or a technical problem.

Your founder changes the tools, restrictions and goals of the career. Difficulty adds a separate layer of economic pressure. Read each selection card before deciding.

For example, the Liftie repairs broken lifts overnight but cannot take a bank loan. The Preservationist rewards a standing forest and makes clearing a more consequential choice. Choose a founder whose tradeoffs sound interesting to you.

Meet the founders.

The career begins on a small, warmer hill and opens routes toward higher, colder mountains. A new property is another operating business, not just a larger blank canvas.

Talents stay with your career, but a hill still needs the facilities and terrain that put them to work. A great racing school on one hill does not create a race course at the next.

When you leave a hill, its caretaker calculates daily earnings or costs from the mountain you built and the conditions it faces. You can return to improve it. Keep the whole portfolio healthy as winters pass.