This story originally ran in the October 2008 issue of Freeskier (V11.1).
Photo: Chris O’Connell
CANADA OLYMPIC PARK, ALBERTA
TICKET PRICE: $40
VERTICAL DROP: 393’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: N/A
SKIABLE ACRES: 90
More a training facility than a resort, the Canada Olympic Park has some epic facilities. Last year, C.O.P. housed one of only a couple 22-foot superpipes in all of North America, a serious nod to its dedication towards pipe riding. Next
season will no doubt see the 22-foot monster being supplemented by an improved jump line to train on. Located minutes from downtown Calgary, C.O.P. is home to most of the city’s park skiers and teams, attesting to the facility’s dedication to building a top-notch park on a hill shorter than most Westerners’ driveways.
BOREAL, CALIFORNIA
TICKET PRICE: $44
VERTICAL DROP: 500’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 400â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 380
Olympic-caliber superpipe. Mountain-wide terrain parks. Night riding. 100+ features. A new, more efï¬cient snowmaking system. It’s like a terrain-park sandwich composed of ingredients that park enthusiasts love. Boreal, located a mere 10 minutes west of Truckee, is one of the premier places to ride park and pipe in the Tahoe area. The resort has recently made its mountain 100-percent park and is not backing down on its pursuit of excellence in that ï¬ eld. By employing a new quad, installing new night lights and a new Zaugg pipe cutter, Boreal is proving its dedication to creating an outstanding terrain park. And by offsetting 100-percent of its carbon output, it’s doing its part to help the environment.
COPPER MOUNTAIN, COLORADO
TICKET PRICE: $79
VERTICAL DROP: 2,601’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 300â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 2,465
Early season park? Check. First superpipe open in North America each year? Check. Solid showing of event dedication with the US Open? Check. Opening
a winter Camp Woodward for skiers and snowboarders to train and learn? Check. So if Copper wasn’t already your destination of choice to ride park (especially early season), it deï¬nitely should be now. Set to open this coming January, Woodward, known as the leader in BMX, skateboard and inline camps, will now host skiers and snowboarders in a revolutionary indoor facility that will include halfpipes, jumps and rails. Check out more at:
MT. TREMBLANT, QUEBEC
TICKET PRICE: $64
VERTICAL DROP: 2,100’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 150â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 631
Mont Tremblant, located a couple hours north of Montreal, Quebec, is a little slice of Intrawest-built heaven in the Northeast. With architecture and planning
resembling that of Whistler (but on a smaller scale), Tremblant has everything a destination skier wants, including a huge mountain (630 acres is massive
for the East), a couple great terrain parks, a rowdy party scene, and… a movie theatre, in case the next Batman ï¬ lm comes out while you’re on vacation.
Photo: Jay Michelfelder
BEAR MOUNTAIN, CALIFORNIA
TICKET PRICE: $51
VERTICAL DROP: 1,665’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 100â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 748
If you love park and pipe, Bear Mountain is the place for you. If you live in LA and love pipe and park, even better. Bear Mountain boasts more than 700 acres of jump, jib and pipe mania. With 150 jumps, 80 jibs, numerous signature features (like natural step downs) and “The Scene†rail area at the base, you’ll
have no problem getting your grind tight. Bear is smack dab in the middle of board culture USA, and therefore skiers are outnumbered by snowboarders roughly 10 to 1. But really, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as blowing past the crowd of 50-some-odd yo’d out boarders sitting on their asses above the big kicker wondering whether or not they should hit it, while you toss a cab seven without blinking an eye.
NORTHSTAR-AT-TAHOE, CALIFORNIA
TICKET PRICE: $74
VERTICAL DROP: 2,280’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 350â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 2,490
Northstar has long been renowned for having a killer terrain park… and it just got better. With the recent collaboration with industry terrain park leader Snow Park Technologies, Northstar has become a certiï¬ed SPT spot. That means new, uniquely built features, and a terrain park design that puts the 90+
features to good use on exhausting park runs. The AST Dew Tour certainly took notice and is hosting the ï¬nal stop of the competition here in February. But Northstar isn’t a one trick pony. Opening new advanced terrain on Lookout Mountain this year, Northstar has over 2,600 acres of steep and deep to satiate the most die-hard skiers.
THE CANYONS, UTAH
TICKET PRICE: $79
VERTICAL DROP: 3,190’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 355â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 3,700
The Canyons has constructed a dedicated park crew and a series of features to give the ï¬rst stop on Highway 224 some terrain-park cred. With a 20-foot
picnic table, a replica staircase rail, a skate-infl uenced quarter pipe with a plastic carpet surface and an up-dip-down box, the Canyons is pushing the creative envelope and giving its riders a variety of options when shredding the big park. Oh, and the Canyons also boasts 3,700 skiable acres of terrain, so it’s not a bad idea to check out the rest of the mountain, too.
WINTER PARK, COLORADO
TICKET PRICE: $79
VERTICAL DROP: 2,610’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 330â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 3,060
The Rail Yard at Winter Park only gets better with age. From horse jibs to BMX-style jumps through tight trees, the creativity of the park crew at Winter Park
is apparent. Led by Bob Holme, the youth marketing director and a big kid at heart, the Winter Park terrain park game has been signiï¬cantly stepping up over the past few years. With the addition of Dark Territory and the 22-foot pipe
that gets constructed the last few weeks of the season, Winter Park has started to play with the big boys in the terrain park world.
Photo: Chris O’Connell
SUMMIT-AT-SNOQUALMIE, WASHINGTON
TICKET PRICE: $48
VERTICAL DROP: 1,025’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 435â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 350
The Northwest is not often known for its parks but rather its hefty snowfall, big lines, and clouds. But The Summit at Snoqualmie is different. A high-speed quad lets you spin laps seven days and six nights a week through the main park. And with the area’s only Zaugg-cut superpipe, over 60 jibs, a sound system in the park and a host of park-specific events, Snoqualmie is making a run to be the best in the Northwest. If, for some reason, you get sick of sessioning the park, or it happens to be dumping in typical northwest fashion, you can walk across the street to the lifts at Alpental using the same pass to get a healthy fill of pow shredding and backcountry action.
WHALEBACK, NEW HAMPSHIRE
TICKET PRICE: $40
VERTICAL DROP: 700’
ANNUAL SNOWFALL: 110â€
SKIABLE ACRES: 85
Evan Dybvig was the mastermind behind the seemingly simple Whaleback concept: Create a year-round action sports facility. In the winter, the facility would provide round the clock skiing and snowboarding, while in the summer, it would have a huge playground for skateboarding, BMX, mountain biking and paintball.
Four years ago, the concept became a reality and Whaleback was born. This year, the ski and snowboard season at Whaleback is better than ever with the Jib Port, an area of the mountain that is accessed by a surface lift, and new for this year, a park in the woods created from natural features. For kids on the East, this could be paradise.
