Though skiers initially
saw snowboarders as little more than irksome insects on fat wood cluttering
up their slopes, they eventually made room for their counterparts,
who were not going away. Some even "deserted" to the other
side when they discovered just how fun and challenging riding could
be. To accommodate the invasion, ski areas around the country began
restructuring their geography to provide inviting terrain parks. Colorado
has several.
Breckenridge was one of the earliest ski areas in the country to accommodate
riders of the rails and half-pipes and celebrated its terrain park's 20th
anniversary in 2004. Breckenridge boasts five parks and four pipes.
By far, the most popular park at Breckenridge is Freeway Terrain Super Park,
with rails and fun-boxes galore, and of course, a glorious halfpipe. The park's
high altitude often makes for early season opening and late season closing.
El Dorado Terrain Park is Breckenridge's newest and the perfect learning
area for future groms and rippers, with a Ski and Ride teaching area and a self-learning
area, both accoutered with rails, boxes, and half-pipes. Trygves Terrain Park
is also great for the newbie with small jumps, rails, boxes, and a half-pipe.
Beginners can take part in Ski and Ride classes, and learn to stomp like a pro.
From here, one can graduate to Gold King Terrain Park, where everything is a
little bigger, but small enough to gradually increase skill and confidence.
Gold King is good for refining skills before stepping up to the real "king"
of Breckenridge: the above-mentioned Freeway Super Park.
Finally, you can thank God you're a hucker-boy (or girl) when you check
out Country Boy Pipe: one long, smooth half-pipe down the whole length of the
trail. You'll think you've died and gone to Shred Heaven.
Arapahoe Basin has the distinction of being home to North America's highest
park – Treeline Terrain Park – meaning its season lasts longest: from
October through June (and sometimes July). That's a long time to jib, and
a lot of places to do it on down rails, kink rails, straight rails, trapezoid
rails, 30 and 40 foot jumps, boxes, and the occasional skier.
In Aspen, Snowmass lives up to its name in the extreme, with three terrain
parks on its 4,500 acres of terrain: Little Makaha, Midway Intermediate, and
Pipeline. Little Makaha is for beginners learning the rails with small and medium-sized
boxes, rails, rollers, and bumps. Midway Intermediate Park is next in the progression
from face planter to true blue jibber, and you haven't quite made it until
you can stay upright at Pipeline Park, air-grabbing your way through elements
intended to challenge the most confident board betty or bro; elements such as
the Super-pipe: 420 feet of sweet accumulation with walls 19 feet high. You
may never come down.
Want culture? Then its Buttermilk in Aspen, where the ESPN Winter X Games are
scheduled to take place until 2010. There's the Crazy T'rain Park
and the X Games Super-pipe for skilled shredders, and the S3 Park for newbies
and wannabes.
Copper Mountain has four parks, including kid-friendly Kidz Terrain Park, with
mini-everything: rails, boxes, jumps, and pipes. Here, beginners can face plant,
biff, and bail until they're ready to rock on more challenging topography.
Speaking of which, Catalyst Terrain Park, while maintaining some beginner's
features, also offers medium-sized elements where newbies can watch and emulate
their further-progressed peers, who are doing the same with experts flying high
on an 18-foot quarter-pipe. At the end of the Catalyst is the 430-foot long
Super-pipe with the 18-foot walls and 16-degree pitch you've been waiting
for.
Vail is ever on a quest to offer topnotch recreation for riders and their sticks.
Thus, it offers three terrain parks: Mule Skinner, Bwana, and the daddy of the
three, Golden Peak. Mule Skinner and Bwana offer everything on a small scale
and are good for learning the basics and watching a parent or two attempting
to navigate a rail inches off the ground before the inevitable, slow-motion
fall. No parents allowed, however, on the super-pipe at Golden Peak Park, where
pros and locals zigzag down 18-foot high walls, or jib over a variety of objects
including boxes, rails, tables, and maybe trees.
Monarch is the little mountain that could. Though smaller than many of its
counterparts, it is devoted to providing the snowboarder with a decent riding
experience. Ricochet Terrain Park is an excellent place for beginners to feel
discrete and uninhibited as they learn the basics on beginner and intermediate
flat and rainbow rails, trapezoids, kinks, spines, tables, and boxes. The Event
Zone is a step-up for the intermediate and advanced to ride on larger and longer
rails, boxes, jumps, and spines.
Perhaps a drum roll is needed when introducing Keystone's A51 Terrain
Park. Recently upgraded, A51 now covers 66 acres and features a new, exclusive
area for beginners, called The Incubator. Newbie jibbers and riders can hit
the rails, boxes, and bumps in preparation for the park's newest features,
which include 51 rails and boxes, a super-pipe, and the popular BBQ Rail, a
rainbow rail jibbers can't wait to burn up. Best of all, A51 is open at
night, making it Colorado's only nighttime park.
Winter Park has three terrain parks: Discovery, Kendrick, and the Super-pipe,
each progressively more challenging with all the jumps, rails, and boxes you
could want. The 450-foot long, 18-foot high walled Super-pipe has neat amplitude
banners to inform the rider how much air he's grabbing, and has a half-pipe
for a neighbor.
Finally, take a good long breath and pray the Shredder's Prayer before
flinging yourself down the Maverick Super-pipe at Steamboat Springs. The Maverick
is the longest super-pipe in North America, measuring in at 650 feet with 15-foot
walls and a 17-foot transition into a 50-foot quarter-pipe. Amen!
