The
Guide to Terrain Parks
Facts and
Figures of Note
Intrepid skiers have always jumped. If the terrain didn't
supply a natural launch site, they'd pile snow and make one. Then, snowboards
came along and, following in skateboarders' footsteps, riders not only jumped,
but they began sliding over everything from logs to banisters to picnic tables
- you name it, they found a way to get some air. Resorts were slow to accept these
behaviors, but finally the lightbulb went on: why not provide special places to
let folks ride the rails? And so the terrain park was born.
Basically, a
terrain park is an area arranged with features laid out for skiers and riders.
Those features can range from jumps made of snow to rails, halfpipes, superpipes,
and other structures built to launch off or slide over.
Originally many
of these playgrounds were snowboard parks, but eventually riders discovered that
the terrain could be tackled on skis too, and equipment makers marketed specialty
skis with both ends upturned - twin-tips. Snowboard parks became terrain parks,
and resort managers saw that the quality parks were becoming family vacation destinations.
In response, more money was dedicated to terrain park creation.
Terrain
park enthusiasts have become a vital ski/snowboard subculture, and parks accommodate
all levels. Ski/ride schools incorporate them into their lesson programs. They
serve as a venue for competitions. Major ski and snowboard magazines cover terrain
parks, and resorts like Colorado's Breckenridge Ski Resort, Keystone, Vail, and
Steamboat and Vermont's Killington have gained recognition for their facilities.
A park-and-pipe lingo has developed as well, giving labels to features (tabletop
jump, S-rail) and stunts (McTwist, alley-oop).
This park passion may befuddle
nonparticipants, but all snowsliders now understand that terrain parks are integral
to the resort experience. Merely seeing the innumerable airborne park practitioners
from a chairlift makes that plain.
— Mitch
Kaplan
Free
Ride
Winter Park Resort was the first operator to build a free urban terrain
park. Located in downtown Denver at Ruby Hill, it's open daily from mid-January
through mid-February.
1990
The
year in which, according to Transworld Snowboarding, Vail Resort officially
became home to the first terrain park.
What's
it Take?
The Breckenridge Resort park department employs 18 full-time staff
who work 720 hours weekly, or 16,560 hours per 23-week season. Six grooming machines
operate eight hours nightly in the parks. That's 7,728 hours per season.
500
Feet
The length of Steamboat's superpipe, which is 56 feet wide and features
18-foot walls and 22-foot transitions.
1.5
Million
The average number of runs that riders make through the park/pipe
system at Denver's Winter Park each year.
Back
to Nature
Killington Resort and Burton Snowboards joined forces to create
the Stash, one of just five all-natural terrain parks in the world.
40
Acres
of terrain park at Quebec's Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, which is home to three
snow parks (Progression Park, Intermediate Zone, and Adrenaline Park) and one
massive 492-foot superpipe with 18-degree angles.
You're
Special
Vermont's largest park, at Stowe Mountain Resort, has its very
own trail, plus a separate rail park that's built for early- and late-season skiers/riders.
Get
Schooled
Want to learn how to shoot 50-foot gaps, or tail-grab 15 feet
off the ground? Go to school.
- Steamboat Resort's Mavericks terrain
park offers all-day park-and-pipe camps for intermediate to advanced skiers/riders
on Tuesdays and Thursdays. First graders to adults are welcome.
-
The Vail Snowsports School conducts park lessons daily for all, from first-timers
to virtuosos.
- The freestyle camps at Woodward at Copper uniquely
combine on-snow training with indoor sessions in the Barn, a 20,000-square-foot
facility outfitted with Snowflex jumps, foam pits, a spring floor, trampolines,
and skateboard features.
- The name of Killington's two-day
weekend program says it all: Learn to Fly.
- Also in Vermont, at Smugglers'
Notch Resort, FAST (Freestyle Awareness Safety Training) trains instructors
how to best use the parks, heightening safety awareness for teachers and students.
- Take a Telluride Adventure Lesson and you can opt to spend
all day in that resort's parks.
- Breckenridge's two-day Women's
Park and Pipe Snow Camp for ages 14 and up takes place in early February.
-
Beaver Creek's ski school offers enhanced park instruction, with teachers
who specifically focus on park-style riding and skiing.
Getting
There: Continental offers seasonal service, from December through March, to
these and other ski locations from its hubs in Houston, New York/Newark, and Cleveland.
To book your ski vacation, visit Continental Airlines Vacations at covacations.com.
Photographs:
Courtesy of Killington Ski Resort; Sherri Harkin/courtesy of Winter Park Resort;
Chris McLennan/courtesy of Vail Resort; courtesy of Breckenridge resort; ©Steamboat/Larry
Pierce; Justin Cash/courtesy of Killington Resort; Cody Downard/courtesy of Beaver
Creek
