Snowmass Recreation Center serves as community cornerstone, third space

Snowmass brandishes a recreational hub that serves as more than a place for sport, but one that fosters intergenerational camaraderie. 

“You could have a 65-year-old playing pickleball against a 16-year-old,” said Andy Worline, director of Snowmass Parks, Recreation & Trails, about the Snowmass Recreation Center.

Founded in 2006, the Snowmass Recreation Center has become a community cornerstone in which people of all ages can find their place and build relationships, an asset overlooked across the country as Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy declared two years ago the nation has fallen into an “epidemic of loneliness.”

The 18,000 square-foot facility sees individuals in their 70s and 80s consistently playing pickleball, children as young as 6 months partaking in swim lessons, and students frequenting the basketball gym after school to shoot hoops.

“This is a space where people know they can come,” Worline said. 

Last year, the center saw 79,234 total visits by the public. It had 6,512 visits recorded this past March and 7,494 in March 2024.

For a $15 day pass, adults can access the 2,550 square-foot gymnasium, the only public gym available in the upper Roaring Fork Valley, in addition to the climbing and bouldering walls and three outdoor pools. The pools include a 25-yard, two-lane pool and a waterslide. Children can enter the building’s facilities for $10. 

The center also includes an upstairs fitness and cycling space as well as a downstairs weight room. 

Immediately outside the building, the public can access soccer and softball fields, basketball court, skatepark, two playgrounds, two sand volleyball courts, two tennis courts, eight pickleball courts, and a fishing pond containing 100 rainbow trout.

“You can kind of have this a la carte menu of third spaces to choose (from),” Assistant Town Manager Greg LeBlanc said. 

Coming up this summer, the public can also expect a seven vs. seven coed soccer league from June 2 to Aug. 11, a softball league from May 28 to Aug. 13, and mountain biking clinics. Registration opened March 17 on the town website: tosv.com. The center will also offer group fitness classes, Les Mills RPM, a dynamic cycling class, and More Yoga! Participants can register online or by calling the front desk at 970-922-2240. 

Six-month to 12-year-old children can take group swim lessons Monday through Thursday starting June 9, while people of all ages can begin private lessons June 2. The center will offer a number of children’s summer camps as well as children’s T-ball, fencing, and mountain biking from June to August.

In the colder months, the center provides futsal, three-on-three basketball, pond hockey, indoor pickleball, and youth camps. 

It is open nearly 360 days per year, from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday; and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. A 20-visit punch card costs $125 for ages 2 to 17, and $240 for ages 18 and over. A year costs $475 for ages 2 to 17 and $725 for 18 and over.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.