ФРИЙСКИ И БОРД ПРЕЗ ЛЯТОТО. Вече е юни, след най-лошата и най-топлата зима в новата история на Тахо. Голф игрищата в най-големите курорти в района бяха отворени още през януари. Скуо Вали легендарните Fingers вече не ставаха за каране на ски в края на февруари. Но дребничкият планински курорт Boreal с 500 фута денивелация /1 фут = 0,3048 метра/, намиращ се на едва двадесет минути от върха Донър, беше домакин на официалното откриване на новия Удуърд Тахо с неговия обслужван от лифт снежен терейн-парк. Фън-паркът на екшън спорт кампа Woodward Tahoe съдържа петнадесет препятствия, сред които и петдесет-футов money booter, airbag и перфектно-шейпнат 22-футов superpipe. Както се казва, Боговете сигурно са полудели...

Новият Woodward Tahoe action sports camp в курорта Boreal Mountain Resort отвори врати в събота, 9 юни 2012, с напълно функциониращ снежен фън-парк. Photo by Ryan Dunfee

Оказва се, че изграждането на терейн-парковете е достиганало такива нива на изобретателност и находчивост, които се прилагат в същите тези паркове. Маркетинг директорът на Boreal Джон Слотър споделя, че идеята им е дошла преди около три години, когато персоналът на на куорота се върнал от ваканцията си през май и видял обилно количество сняг, запазил се все още върху земята в първата седмица на юни. Най-ниската точка на Boreal е с надморска височина 7200 фута - цели 1000 фута по-високо от тази на Скуо Вели, което спомага за по-дългото запазване на снега. През същата година се провежда първото публично откирване на летния ден, с толкова добър фън-парк, колкото е бил и зимата. През следващото лято, след историческите снеговалежи възлиза на 770 инча през сезон зима 2010/11, Boreal беше домакин на летен лагер от 20-ти до 24-ти юни, като фън-паркът съдържаше няколко jib-а, линия с два скока, airbag jump и един 18-футов pipe. Това лято, терейн-паркът на Boreal е отворен изцяло, до върха.

Халфпайпът в Woodward Tahoe. Photo by Ryan Dunfee

In building a park for the inaugural summer snow camp of Woodward Tahoe, the newest branch of the growing franchise and featuring Woodward’s signature bunker stocked with foam pits and skate bowls and trampolines, the challenge was considerably greater.

Photo credit: Danny Kern

Despite the resort being the only one in Tahoe to eek out enough snowfall in the spring to equal their season average — 400 inches in Boreal’s case — natural snow wouldn’t do it alone. So, with good snowmaking temps, Boreal turned the snow guns on well into March, quadrupling their average annual snowmaking output from ten million gallons to forty million. Then, as soon as the mountain closed in April, the park crew led by veteran Eric Rosenwald spent one hundred hours in the snowcats farming the snow all the way to the dirt, and pushing it all in between the walls of Boreal’s 22-foot in-ground superpipe. Once the pipe had been filled deep enough to make a flat walk from wall to wall, the crew let the snow glaze over and freeze, utilizing the protective pipe walls as something of an incubator.

Photo credit: Danny Kern

Knowing that any cat work with the snow would accelerate the melting, Woodward Tahoe staff waited until last Monday — five days before Woodward Tahoe’s grand opening — to push the snow into an elaborate park. But after all that, doesn’t having a 22-foot superpipe, usually the most snow-intensive feature out there, seem a little optimistic?

“Our competition — Windells, High Cascade — they all have 22-foot superpipes,” Slaughter said. “So we had to have one.”

A skier at Woodward Tahoe slides a rail at Boreal. Photo by Danny Kern

While the halfpipe is only expected to last for another two weeks before being taken down to supplement the snow on the rest of the park, Slaughter expects Woodward Tahoe skiers and snowboarders, as well as a couple pros such as the Inspired Media crew, will be shredding real snow through the first week of July. Slaughter hopes that their performance this summer, along with the brand-new training facilities at The Bunker, will entice the best athletes to make Woodward Tahoe their summer training grounds in the lead up to the 2014 Olympics.

By Ryan Dunfee
Teton Gravity Research | June 11th, 2012

Woodward Tahoe is Officially OPEN!

Monday, June 11th, 2012. The day started off early with the Boreal Summer Shred, where anyone with a lift ticket could access the Woodward Summer Terrain Park, including the 22’ superpipe, 2 jumps, Bag Jump and almost 20 rail features.

At 11:45 a large crowd gathered around the main entrance of The Bunker in anticipation of a traditional ribbon cutting. Boring. What they got instead was Nate Wessel charging out of the building on his BMX bike and bunny hopping right through the caution tape. By the time the tape hit the ground there were people lining up to be the first to step through the main entrance and really see what The Bunker has to offer.

Photo credit: Danny Kern

Oh, I did I mention athletes? Yeah, they were all there too – in force. Tanner Hall, Hannah Teter, Ryan Nyquist, Tony Hawk and his Birdhouse Crew, Sammy Carlson, Chas Goldemond, Mike Vallely, Mike “Rooftop, Escamilla, Todd Richards, Anthony Napolitan, Brandon Dosch, Drew Bezanson, Henrik Harlaut, Phil Casabon, and the twelve year old, Tom Schaar, who recently landed the first ever 1080 on a skateboard at Woodward West. Just to name a few...

Photo credit: Danny Kern

The next five hours consisted of an action sports induced blur that included public skate, BMX and trampoline sessions, pro demos on the Launch Pad, indoor skatepark, East Campus mini-ramp and the trampolines, tours of the facility and musical performances from several killer DJ’s and artists.

Photo credit: Danny Kern

The afternoon’s activities wrapped up around 5:30pm, giving us only a few short hours to clean the campus, get some sleep and prepare for the first day of camp the very next morning. Bring it on.

Woodward Tahoe
www.woodwardtahoe.com
Monday, June 11, 2012

  Tweet