Ski Areas Focus On Terrain Parks
A visit to Vermont’s Killington Resort shows just how important terrain parks are.
With more skiers and snowboarders "freestyling," ski resorts have developed more and increasingly sophisticated terrain parks, a huge personnel and monetary commitment.
Terrain park popularity is growing like wildfire. Nearly all ski areas have them. Some devote entire trails to them. Some areas have become park-only sites, or nearly so.
Once magnets only for snowboarders (and originally called "snowboard parks"), they now—with the advent of twin-tipped skis— attract skiers, too.
But, the huge resources, both human and economic, that resort’s put into their parks represents perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the terrain park phenomenon.
Spend a day with Killington Resort’s Jeff Temple, director of operations, and Jay "Rosey" Rosenbaum, snowboard operations supervisor, and significant insight into what it takes to make and maintain terrain parks, halfpipes and Superpipes is revealed.
Killington creates at least seven parks and a Superpipe during the season, including one that's prepared only for early season. Eleven staffers are employed to build, maintain and supervise these installations. Snowmaking and specially qualified grooming personnel also contribute.
Under ideal conditions, Rosey said, creating a park requires two week’s labor: a week of snowmaking, and a week of snow sculpting and elements installation.
Ideal conditions however, are seldom seen.
Park planning begins well before the season. Indeed, to install Killington’s Superpipe two seasons back, Rosenbaum, Temple and others walked Killington's Bear Mountain for two weeks during summer, seeking the ideal spot.
For parks, Rosey said, "We like to select a site with a medium grade or pitch. Wider trails are better and, of course, we prefer trails that are free of lift towers, other obstructions and double fall lines."
With the site selected, Rosey conceives a rough "blueprint of sorts, and then, we start making snow."
"Rosey develops a model of how he sees the park," Temple added. "I figure out where the snow is going to go so we can build the elements. When we have enough snow, we start roughing it in."
Temple must balance parks snowmaking with general snowmaking needs. "On any given day that you're putting snow in the park, there are twenty other places on the mountain you could be putting snow, and they're all up there in importance," he said.
Snowmaking has grown so sophisticated that snow types can be controlled. "We like wetter snow for parks; it sticks together better, and you can get it to where you want to be more quickly," Rosey said. "Then we dust it with dry stuff."
Park elements are "roughed" by grooming machines. They’re hand-finished with shovels and rakes to create the best contours.
In the Superpipe, however, with its 18-foot walls and 430-foot length, a Zaug cutter is attached to a groomer. The Zaug shapes the walls and works across the machine’s front to smooth the wall-to-floor transition.
The Zaug eliminates much hand work, but it’s an $80,000 item attached to a $250,000 machine. And, not just anyone can use it. Drivers must have at least two years experience to work the pipe.
In general, park personnel are "individuals who want to be in these places riding," Rosenbaum noted. In fact, as a final step, staff "get in and ride the stuff" to assure it's right.
Killington crews fabricate their own rails and boxes. Some forty are used, and they’re continually moved to refresh the parks.
All this adds man-hours. Tote it all up—snowmaking, grooming, equipment, elements fabrication and hand-contouring—and you get one huge commitment.
Is it worth it? "Customer demand is a driving force," Rosey explained. "The competition of other resorts demands that we keep pace."
Added Temple, "You have two groups. The high-end riders will go to another resort if they don't find what they want. And, families, who often decide where to go based on what the kids want. We've made a major commitment to having the whole range of facilities. We feel it's a big part of the market."
