Lee Canyon adds nearly 100 new jobs, echoing Nevada’s outdoor recreation boom

Published November 6, 2025 by Tyler Schneider in the Las Vegas Weekly

Economic diversification has been a stronger focus since the pandemic exposed the flaws of Nevada’s reliance on gaming and tourism. The state has since taken steps to bolster emergent industries like manufacturing, energy, and logistics, while policymakers have their sights set on courting film studios through agreeable tax incentives.

Underneath those efforts, however, another sector has been quietly booming—and it’s been right under our noses this whole time.

“Las Vegas has always held a space for outdoor recreation, but it’s just become a lot more popular, widespread and mainstream now,” Lee Canyon events coordinator Johnny DeGeorge says. “I think the biggest message is that we’re kind of on the edge of explosive growth.”

The most recent numbers from the Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation seem to support his assertion. From 2022 to 2023, the Silver State’s outdoor recreation economy grew by 12.8%—the fourth highest in the U.S.—including an annual job growth rate of 5.8% that outpaced all but Alaska. This amounted to $8.1 billion in value-added GDP in 2023, or 10th among all states. 

Locally, this surge can be seen in places like Lee Canyon, a ski resort and recreation area roughly 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Since 2019, the mountain has seen more than $18 million worth of investments beginning with the construction of a new 10,000 square-foot lodge that year. It went on to expand to a year-round programming schedule in 2021, followed by the introduction of a new downhill mountain bike park in 2022. Other infrastructure improvements, like new state-of-the-art chair lift systems, are ongoing.

According to Lee Canyon HR coordinator Ari Brundrett, these additions have facilitated the need to hire nearly 100 new and 300 total seasonal jobs this winter. It’s reflective of a larger trend in which Nevada gained more than 17,000 outdoor recreation jobs from 2020 to 2023. 

“We’re opening more lifts, so the big need is really for more lift operators. But we’re also looking for ski and snowboard instructors, people to work in ticketing, rentals, retail, food and beverage, and smaller departments like mountain maintenance and snow operations,” Brundrett says. 

To fill these positions, Lee Canyon hosted the first of two local hiring fairs on October 25, with a second planned for November 8. More than 100 attended the first session, which Brundrett says led to at least 50 new hires. She and DeGeorge are among 50 year-round staffers.

“If we have a really booming winter season with lots of snowfall, we might even do another push for hiring later,” Brundrett says, adding that there will likely be opportunities for some seasonal part-timers to grow into year-round gigs in the future. 

For DeGeorge, Lee Canyon’s growth is just one local indicator of Nevada’s ascent within the notoriously active greater Mountain West. A 2020 UNLV study on the region’s outdoor recreation economy placed our state far ahead of New Mexico, just behind Utah and at around half the output of both Arizona and Colorado. But it’s been making massive gains. 

“In places like Denver, outdoor recreation is really considered somewhat of a normal way of life. Here, it’s almost been more like a subculture,” the Valley native and avid mountain biker says. “But I think it’s been transforming more toward the front over the years, because outdoor recreation is just much more noticeably present now than it was when I was growing up.”

In part, Nevada’s rise can be traced to a relatively recent emphasis on creating more resources for outdoor recreation businesses, including the formation of the Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition in 2018 and the Nevada Legislature’s decision to establish both the Nevada Division of Recreation and the Nevada Outdoor Education and Recreation Grant program in 2019. 

Coalition executive director Mandi Elliott tells the Weekly the sector may also stand to capitalize on concurrent economic and cultural shifts like consumer backlash over high prices at Strip resorts and the proliferation of outdoor-centric social media influencers.

“We benefit those who are just getting tired of all the neon lights,” she says. “People are feeling so inundated with technology, advertising, AI and the corporate grind that many of them are really craving touching grass.”

On the flipside, Elliott acknowledges that some of those same factors that have contributed to Las Vegas’ tourism slump—like the Trump tariff policies and a sustained exodus of Canadian visitors—also pose some threats to its outdoor business landscape. 

She cites one Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition member who manufactures yoga mats that has had trouble sourcing affordable rubber, a material that doesn’t grow in the U.S., plus other members who are “fearful” over the Trump administration’s efforts to put some of the state’s more than 50 million acres of public land up for sale. 

Still, Elliott believes the collective “rising tide” of Nevada’s outdoors economy will be enough to overcome those unknowns. For one, mountain biking has seen a massive “revival” lately. And as a frequent climber herself, she’s personally seen more “attention around the incredible climbing crags” that can be found throughout the state.

There’s a lot to look forward to. The Nevada Division of Outdoor Recreation is planning to release data for 2024 by year’s end, followed by an updated 10-year Nevada Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan in late 2026.

DeGeorge, who organized Lee Canyon’s inaugural mountain bike racing series over the summer, is optimistic about what the numbers will yield. 

“There are so many places in the West that are recognized as outdoor hubs, and I think Vegas is really kind of in that book now,” he says. “And the main contributing factor is that passionate individuals are leading the charge.”