Your take on Terrain Parks?

[thetrailboss]

OK...confession...I've been trying some smaller elements ever since my instructor at Sunday River encouraged us to try out Whooville and other small parks. I used to have a negative opinion, but the jumps and quarterpipes are kind of fun! You won't catch me trying to ride rails though..we were talking about that the other night at the AZ gathering at Nashoba--how do skiers/riders not damage their stuff riding rails?

It's fun watching more experienced folk hit the parks and do tricks...Pat's Peak has a great park which one can see from the Valley Double (great seats for watching folks hit the park).

Your favorite parks? Comments?

Also, remember the days when ski patrol used to squash any jumps? Man, that was a while ago! Times change! :wink:

 

[dmc]

I think parks are great!!!

It allows kids(and adults) to trick in a semi-controlled environment...
I can do tabletops and get a 180 off (only on a toeside) in the pipe...

But I find them a little hard for my 41 year old bones...

But - I enjoy freeriding the mountain a ton more then park riding...

 

[hammer]

Pat's Peak has a great park which one can see from the Valley Double (great seats for watching folks hit the park).

If you like watching the terrain park at Pats Peak then you'll really like watching people on the new terrain park at Crotched. It's right along one of the quad lifts and they have some pretty big jumps on it (see the Gallery for a few pictures).

 

[thetrailboss]

Pat's Peak has a great park which one can see from the Valley Double (great seats for watching folks hit the park).

If you like watching the terrain park at Pats Peak then you'll really like watching people on the new terrain park at Crotched. It's right along one of the quad lifts and they have some pretty big jumps on it (see the Gallery for a few pictures).

Yes, that is what I've heard. SB has quite a park at Mt. Ellen...but it is not well laid out since Straightshot (like the only way off of upper and mid mountain) runs through the middle of it. I know that they built another park over on the Sunnyside Double.

 

[bvibert]

I picked other because I think it depends on the area. If they put them out of the way that doesn't interfere with the normal trails then I think they're a good thing. It keeps a lot of people busy in their own little part of the mountain instead of clogging up the slopes, or building their own features wherever they want. What I don't like is when they just basically throw some terrain features on a perfectly good trail. Like this year at my local home mountain they ruined (IMHO) their signature trail by taking up half of it with rails and crap like that.

To each his own I guess. It is fun to watch people who know what they are doing sometimes though....

 

[dmc]

The stogy Killington set is pretty mad that they put a park on Bear... And ruined a lame bump trail...

I think it's funny...

 

[cbcbd]

Parks are a great to have. They provide an environment where you can try new things without having the danger of crashing onto a skier that's just cruising down a trail or a tree. It's fun to try go through it once in a while.

And from a business point of view, if you don't build a park you're just not keeping up with the times and will lose a lot of customers

 

[Greg]

Like this year at my local home mountain they ruined (IMHO) their signature trail by taking up half of it with rails and crap like that.

Agreed. Back in the day, Gunbarrel used to be a great mogul run. It's the only one of two runs at Sundown with any real pitch and they killed it with all that junk on it this season.

I used to tool around in terrain parks (jumps only), but I never had the balls to hit them with enough speed to make the landing zone. I now prefer to seek out natural terrain features such as trail merges (when it's safe) that I can launch off. I do appreciate that the park rats are kept in one general area so I do support terrain parks.

 

[cbcbd]

Like this year at my local home mountain they ruined (IMHO) their signature trail by taking up half of it with rails and crap like that.

Agreed. Back in the day, Gunbarrel used to be a great mogul run. It's the only one of two runs at Sundown with any real pitch and they killed it with all that junk on it this season.

I used to tool around in terrain parks (jumps only), but I never had the balls to hit them with enough speed to make the landing zone. I now prefer to seek out natural terrain features such as trail merges (when it's safe) that I can launch off. I do appreciate that the park rats are kept in one general area so I do support terrain parks.

I haven't been at Sundown in a long time, but it's my favorite CT mountain. It's a shame that they messed with Gunbarrel. Some small mountains just don't have the space to fit in a park but were forced to keep up so I guess they had to compromise existing good trails.

And talking about jumping off trail merges... I remember there being a huge trail merge jump coming into the Exhibition that I loved taking all the time.

 

[bvibert]

The stogy Killington set is pretty mad that they put a park on Bear... And ruined a lame bump trail...

I think it's funny...

Its one thing when you have 200 other trails for people to choose from. When you ruin (again IMHO) 1 of 15 trails (1 of 3 blacks) then you're seriously limiting non-park goer's choices... especially when you run a race down the other half of the trail... :angry:

 

[bvibert]

Agreed. Back in the day, Gunbarrel used to be a great mogul run. It's the only one of two runs at Sundown with any real pitch and they killed it with all that junk on it this season.

I used to tool around in terrain parks (jumps only), but I never had the balls to hit them with enough speed to make the landing zone. I now prefer to seek out natural terrain features such as trail merges (when it's safe) that I can launch off. I do appreciate that the park rats are kept in one general area so I do support terrain parks.

I haven't been at Sundown in a long time, but it's my favorite CT mountain. It's a shame that they messed with Gunbarrel. Some small mountains just don't have the space to fit in a park but were forced to keep up so I guess they had to compromise existing good trails.

And talking about jumping off trail merges... I remember there being a huge trail merge jump coming into the Exhibition that I loved taking all the time.

Its pretty obvious that their main demographic is the park going younger crowd, not the older cruisers. Like was mentioned above though, they need to have terrain features/parks in order to stay in business. Which I think is especially true with the smaller mountains, since they can't grow extra vert to attract people who would otherwise go up North...

 

[Vortex]

I chose other. They help keep trail congestion down. The only time I go into the park is to chase my kids. Parks offer more to the sport by helping bring new paticipants to the industry and allow us to keep going to the mountains.

 

[tekweezle]

keep the terrain park and the half pipe on the lower half of the mountain and that would be fine with me. give them their own lift or rope tow too. for added effecrt, light them up at night for some night skiing and maybe you can have the after school crowd over there.

 

[riverc0il]

i love terrain parks! they keep skiers off the trails i like going down! you won't find me in them though

 

[ctenidae]

I chose other, too. I think they're a great feature- they keep people who are strictly jumping out of the way (landing gets dangerous when it's crowded, I think) of those who aren't, they're fun to watch, and I think they're a pretty good place for honing some everyday skiing skills in a controlled environment. Being able to land well after catching an unexpected bump is a good thing. Plus, they're fun to watch from a lift.
I thinkt eh park at Gunstock is great, though I've only been there at night. Great elements (I don't go anywhere near the rails and such), a variety of jumps, and even I can land them. The lift runs right over top, too, so you can eitehr decide where you're going to try to break something, or watch other people break themselves.

 

[awf170]

i kind of like terrian park, i go in them sometimes, like if there is nothing better to do. But if conditions are good i wont go into them. i cant do much though, i tried rails twice and fell right on my butt and i can go off jumps but all i can do is a 180.

 

[GadgetRick]

Well...

Being a patroller certainly has me look at things like terrain parks differently. Anyway, here's my opinion:

1. Terrain parks are a necessary evil. What I mean by this is, we have, by far, more serious accidents in our terrain park than anywhere on the mountain (on a regular basis that is). We must have the terrain park to bring more people in but it does cause more injuries. There are a lot of reasons for this--read below.

2. Terrain parks can be a lot of fun for people. It gives people a place where they can do jumps and other tricks without causing problems other places on teh mountain.

3. Terrain parks--when run properly--can be a safer environment for people to experiment with various tricks.

Anyway, I'm not against terrain parks. As I mentioned, we tend to have a lot more serious injuries in our park than other places on the mountain. I think there are many reasons for this. The main reason is terrain parks encourage people to try tricks they wouldn't normally try. This is good and bad (of course). The good part is you can try them here in a (somewhat) controlled environment. The bad part is it encourages people who really shouldn't be hitting that kicker and getting serious air to actually try it. When this happens, serious injuries can follow. However, we have had people who know what they're doing hurt themeselves, too. Of course, this is all in the name of getting better at what you do.

So terrain parks are good but I wish there was something we could do to make them safer. I just don't know what that might be...

 

[Treefingers]

i kind of like terrian park, i go in them sometimes, like if there is nothing better to do. But if conditions are good i wont go into them.

Yeah that's basically how I feel; when I got back from Utah my friends asked me how the terrian parks were, I told them there was no way I was even going near them with all the freeriding to do and the terrain to explore. It's actually pretty funny, since I'm a snowboarder, people who don't know much about the sport assume that's all I would do a ski resort here or in Utah. I pretty much take the attitude that terrain parks keep a ton of crowds in a certain small area of the mountain, and off the good stuff

 

[awf170]

ya me too, i just got back from utah and went in the terrian park once the whole week and that was just because it was in the direction i was going.

 

[Skimaine4ever]

I go in them now and then but never on a powder day, I can do a 180 of some jumps but i usually dont, I would do alot better with twin tip skis. I hit flat rails sometimes, but thats about it. I can do most boxes though. I'm not very good in the pipe most likely because I hardly ever go in it. I think parks are fun especially on smaller hills where the runs can get a bit boring if there isnt something like a park to make it interesting. But as previusly mentioned I like natural elements and grinding a snowmaking pipe now and then is fun(and old school).

Greg~