WINTER X GAMES. What a difference a week makes at the WX15 venue. Scaffolding has taken over Buttermilk and security guards are already cracking down on wandering civilians. Most of the Slopestyle features are ready to go -- all of the jibs are in place at the start and a new lollypop jib was added to the second feature. The 12-inch piece of steel with a ball on top wasn't in the original plan, but will create a creative hand plant opportunity. The pipe is looking 100 percent and the massive start structure is almost complete. Frank Wells will be back for a fresh cut on Thursday and the first pipe practice goes down on Sunday night. For the rest of the week, Snow Park Technologies (SPT) will be building the Big Air start and the camera platforms, as well as installing cables and fence lines.

Building the start of the slopestyle course at WX15, photo: Tess Weaver

I met up with X course head designer and builder Corley Howard at the start for a run-down of the 45-feature course that ends with a 90-foot landing on the behemoth that is Big Air.

Corley has been a part of the sport since its beginning, competing in WX Skier X from 2000 to 2003. For the last five years, he's spent 30-odd days in January working 16-hour days building the X Course predominantly solo. The process begins over the summer, when Corley and SPT start panning with Buttermilk in terms of design and snowmaking. His favorite part of the process is the first 10 days on site, when he's free to "make a huge mess." With longer rams and bigger blades on the cats, the building process has evolved as much as the sport has over the last several years.

"I love the free for all -- the bumpin' and shoven'," says Corley. It's not a judged event or even a timed event once you get past qualifiers. Anything can happen. It's luck and strategy. I love the excitement."

The excitement begins right away at the start, which is 500 feet farther downhill than it's been in years past. The X course has been on the same run for four years, so Corley is always looking for a way to mix it up.

"We used the pipe cutter to cut the start and give it some transition and a super steep drop in," says Corley. "It's different than what the athletes have been training for, but that's the point."

The start is followed by a straight run of double jumps into a big table top.

"I love this the most so far," says Corley. "It makes it equal -- the athletes won't be racing for the first turn."
Tess WeaverVIP tent at WX15.

Corley drives the cat into another rhythm section with lots of steep transitions. This year, Corley says, everything is lifted off the floor of the road and the backsides of jumps are steeper, faster and more technical.

We approach a feature and all we see is the takeoff. It's a 35-foot table top that drops to a second landing. Athletes can hit it as a double or jump farther for a triple. There seem to be quite a few blind transitions on this course.

"I like to use odd numbers," says Corley. "Instead of a double double, I throw an odd roller in and change up the rhythm."

We head into three huge banked turns that await the pipe cutter. Next up is the 60-foot road gap. Last year the course gapped to a snow box and gapped off. Tthis year it's similar but there is one gap on and multiple landings on the backside. There is an option to avoid the gap, but the athletes who choose the smaller tables to the side will lose time.

The X course finishes on the 34-degree landing of Big Air, which is about 90 feet in length. The height of the takeoff is 25 feet off the ground. The massive pile of snow has been such an intense project, it's required two cats working all day, every day, since January 4.

The X course is about 80 percent complete and won't be tested until the first day of practice.

"I'm always pretty nervous until I hear feedback from people I know and trust," says Corley.

"There's going to be action up and down this whole thing," says Corley. "It's all about creating opportunity. It's one of those courses you don't necessarily want to be out in front."

By Tess Weaver
ESPN Action Sports
January 19, 2011

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