The Olympic venue Midway
The 2002 Olympic Nordic venue above Midway, still open to the public
Soldier Hollow, the venue that stayed
Built on the hillside above Midway for the 2002 Winter Games, kept open ever since as a public Nordic center, and one of the venues assigned to the 2034 Winter Games for biathlon, cross country and Nordic combined. In between it runs the longest tubing lanes in Utah under floodlights, a rifle range an ordinary visitor can book, two golf courses, and a sheepdog championship over Memorial Day weekend.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Soldier Hollow is the cross country and biathlon venue that Midway built for the 2002 Winter Games, about four miles southwest of Town Square inside Wasatch Mountain State Park. Unlike most single purpose Olympic sites, it never closed. The Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation runs it as a public facility, so the hillside that held twenty thousand spectators in 2002 now sells tubing sessions, biathlon lessons and golf tee times, and it is one of the venues assigned to host Nordic events again at the 2034 Winter Games. Do not confuse it with the Utah Olympic Park above Park City, which is the ski jumping and sliding site half an hour away.
Soldier Hollow by the numbers
2002
the Games it was built for
1,200 ft
the length of each tubing lane
30,000
square feet of Nordic center after the recent addition
2034
the year Nordic events are assigned back to the hill
In winter
Skinny skis, a rifle range and a hill lit up after dark
Nordic skiing is the point of the place. Trails are groomed for both classic and skate technique and carry automated snowmaking, which in a valley that has had warm winters is the difference between a real season and a rumor of one. The venue has said plainly that without snowmaking the season here would run under thirty days.
Biathlon is the unusual one. Very few public venues in North America will hand an ordinary visitor a small bore rifle, walk them through the range protocol, and let them ski a loop and shoot, and Soldier Hollow does it in both seasons. It is a booked experience with an instructor rather than a walk on.
Then there is the tubing hill, which is what most of the valley actually turns up for. Lanes twelve hundred feet long, a conveyor lift that replaced the old rope tow, two hour sessions starting on the hour, and floodlights so the last runs of the night happen in the dark. Sessions are priced by the day, cheaper midweek than on a weekend or a holiday, and they sell out in holiday weeks, so book ahead and check the current rate when you reserve.
| Winter | Summer | |
|---|---|---|
| The main draw | Groomed Nordic trails, classic and skate | Mountain bike and e-bike trails from the same base |
| The thing to book | A two hour tubing session, on the hour | A biathlon experience or a summer camp |
| What it costs | Tubing priced by the day, cheaper midweek | A summer trail pass, day rate |
| The hazard | Race weeks close parts of the venue to the public | Afternoon thunderstorms build over the Wasatch |
| The base | Day lodge and cafe open, rentals on site | Sport Discovery Center reopens for the season |
The Sport Discovery Center closes for a shoulder season in spring and reopens around the start of May, which is the usual pattern. Call 435-654-2002 rather than assuming the in between weeks are covered.
The other half of the year
Sheepdogs in May, bikes and golf all summer
The Soldier Hollow Classic sheepdog championship runs over Memorial Day weekend, with preliminary trials Friday through Sunday from around eight in the morning and the championship round on the Monday. More than three hundred Rambouillet sheep are worked on open, unfenced hillside, which is a far harder test than a fenced trial field and is the reason handlers travel to it. Around the competition runs a festival with shearing, agility and working dog demonstrations.
Through the rest of the summer the venue rents mountain bikes and e-bikes, sells a day trail pass, runs adventure camps, and keeps the biathlon range going with air rifles and laser systems as well as the real thing. The cafe at the base is open through the day in season.
The two golf courses are on the same ground. Gold and Silver opened in July 2004 to a Gene Bates design and take their names from the medals, with Gold playing over 7,500 yards from the tips at par 72. The state park page sets all four of the valley's public courses against each other.
In the ranking
Tubing and the sheepdogs
Both make the ranked nine, with the session prices, the arrival timing and what to bring to a hillside with no shade on it.
The ranked listHanded over
The alpine resorts
Lift served skiing at Park City and Deer Valley is that town's subject and is written up from that side, passes and traffic included.
Park City on skiingFor buyers
Living next to a venue
What an event calendar four miles from Town Square actually does to a week, and how the two towns in this valley differ.
Midway or HeberWhat 2034 changes
The building has started, and it is mostly about water
Salt Lake City and Utah were awarded the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on 24 July 2024. Soldier Hollow keeps the disciplines it ran in 2002 and adds two more, and the work to get there is already visible on the hillside.
The assigned program is biathlon, cross country skiing, Nordic combined, para biathlon and para cross country skiing. That is more than the venue ran in 2002, and it is the reason the trail work matters: biathlon and cross country need genuinely separate networks during the Games rather than a shared loop with different signage.
Separate networks need snow on all of them at once, which is why almost every item on the build list is about water. A nineteen thousand square foot addition took the Nordic center to around thirty thousand square feet. A water pond and pumphouse project broke ground in 2025, and a snow storage depot was excavated the same year. The automated snowmaking, currently around sixty stick guns and ten fan guns that cover roughly ten kilometers of trail in a two week window, is being expanded to make snow on far more of the network at once.
The venue also hosts a run of major races along the way. It has been awarded a BMW IBU World Cup biathlon in March 2029, another in a long line of World Cup and championship events it has held since 2001. Luke Bodensteiner, a former Olympic cross country skier, now runs the venue.
Two Olympic Games, thirty two years apart, on the same hillside four miles from a town square of six thousand people.
An event venue four miles away is a traffic fact, not just an amenity. World Cup weeks, national championships, the sheepdog weekend and Swiss Days all put more cars on the same small grid of valley roads, and the access route to Soldier Hollow runs past a limited number of Midway streets. It is a genuine part of the picture on the southwest side of town, in both directions: harder on an event Saturday, and a large part of why the address is worth what it is. Look at a specific street on an event weekend before deciding how you feel about it.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Keep reading
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Homestead Crater
Fifty five feet of tufa, sixty five feet of water, and a tunnel blasted in 1996.
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Swiss Days
A harvest festival from 1947, and a town hall built out of pot rock.
Read the guideMoving here
Midway or Heber City
Three miles apart, one school district, and two very different rulebooks.
Read the guideThe companion
Midway, in one place
The crater, the Olympic venue, the park, the festival and two addresses.
Read the pageQuick answers
The venue, answered
Inside Wasatch Mountain State Park on the southwest side of Midway, Utah, about four miles from Midway Town Square by road. The day lodge address is 2002 Soldier Hollow Lane, Midway, and the number is 435-654-2002. It is often described as being in Heber Valley, which is true of the valley but not of the town: Heber City is three miles east of Midway and the venue is on Midway's side.
No, and they are easy to confuse. Soldier Hollow is the Nordic venue at Midway, which ran biathlon and cross country skiing in 2002. The Utah Olympic Park is above Park City and is the ski jumping, bobsled and skeleton site, with a museum, a summer bobsled ride and a completely separate program. They are about half an hour apart and neither substitutes for the other.
Biathlon and cross country skiing, with Nordic combined cross country legs run there as well. The venue was purpose built for the Games and drew twenty thousand spectators onto the hillside for the men's relay. Rather than closing afterwards, it passed to the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and has operated as a public Nordic center ever since, which is unusual for a single purpose Olympic site.
Biathlon, cross country skiing, Nordic combined, para biathlon and para cross country skiing, after Salt Lake City and Utah were awarded the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on 24 July 2024. That is a wider program than 2002, which is why the venue is building separate trail networks for biathlon and cross country and expanding its automated snowmaking to make snow on all of them at once.
Sessions are two hours and start on the hour, and they are priced by the day, cheaper midweek than on a weekend or a holiday. The lanes are twelve hundred feet long, the longest lift served tubing in Utah, and a conveyor lift replaced the old rope tow. The lanes run under floodlights after dark. Book ahead in holiday weeks and check the current rate when you reserve.
Yes, as a booked experience with an instructor rather than as a walk on. The venue runs biathlon sessions in both winter and summer, using small bore rifles as well as air rifle and laser systems for beginners and younger participants, and the instructor covers the range protocol before anyone shoots. Very few public venues in North America offer it, which is part of why the site is worth knowing about beyond race weeks.
Memorial Day weekend. Preliminary trials run Friday through Sunday from around eight in the morning and the championship round is held on the Monday. More than three hundred Rambouillet sheep are worked across open, unfenced hillside, which makes the course far harder than a fenced trial field, and the surrounding festival includes shearing, agility and working dog demonstrations.
Two eighteen hole courses, Gold and Silver, named for the medals and opened in July 2004 to a Gene Bates design. Gold is the championship layout at over 7,500 yards from the back tees at par 72, and Silver plays shorter and wider. They are state park courses, so the posted rate is lower for a Utah resident than for a non resident and lower Monday through Thursday, with a player pass available for regulars. Check the current green fee when you book.
Mostly water infrastructure, because snow is the constraint. A nineteen thousand square foot addition has taken the Nordic center to around thirty thousand square feet. A water pond and pumphouse project broke ground in 2025 and a snow storage depot was excavated the same year. The automated snowmaking, currently around sixty stick guns and ten fan guns covering roughly ten kilometers of trail in a two week window, is being expanded to make snow on far more of the network.
An Olympic venue four miles from Town Square
A venue that hosts World Cup racing, a national championship calendar and a second Winter Games is a real asset and a real traffic pattern, and which of those it feels like depends on the street. That is exactly the kind of question that has to be answered on the ground rather than on a map.
Send me the street and a partner agent here can tell you what an event Saturday feels like.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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