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Is Vail Resorts mandating changes in their parks or something?
I keep seeing bits of info that lead me to believe Vail resorts is scaling back terrain parks at their resorts. I hear about long time park crew members leaving places like Keystone and Breckenridge due to poor management/direction that vail is taking parks in. Feel like I heard something about them scaling back on xl hits. Also saw rip freeway on a few posts...
Just have to say the breck park crew is still killing it and I really appreciate what they've been able to get some so far this year, even though it is a weird year. I wish I could like Copper, I really do, but their park run is sooooo flat.
katrinaJust have to say the breck park crew is still killing it and I really appreciate what they've been able to get some so far this year, even though it is a weird year. I wish I could like Copper, I really do, but their park run is sooooo flat.
I’ve heard from quite a few that copper’s jumps are a bit odd.
theabortionatorWe'll see with mt snow and big boulder. I'd love if they kept the parks up to the caliber they were but idk. I wouldn't be surprised if they go on a decent decline.
I have been skiing at Big Boulder for at least 10 years now and I was SUPER nervous about their IG presence change once Vail took over. Besides Mount Snow and 7 Springs, Boulder is the premier park mountain on the east coast. I was there yesterday and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of features. Not being able to see what they've built and only getting updates from the JFBB instagram every other week is super frustrating, but I haven't lost faith in Big Boulder yet. The rail set up flowed just like it would any other year, the only main change I noticed was that they didn't repaint the rails and everything felt sticky opening day. They've been blowing hella snow and it looks like love (arguably the best park run there) is gonna open before the new year (rarely happens). Praying that Vail doesn't completely kill the BB vibe. ALTHOUGH it was super nice to not have wait in a 40 minute line on freedoom early season laps, people are clearly going elsewhere but whatever more laps for me and my crew.
TOAST.No features tomorrow, sorry. Apparently the marketing dept didn't get that memo. Not sure why but as of now no park until monday. Mostly same crew ad last year minus the manager.
some dude on instagram put up a picture of the j bar park and it actually looks pretty stacked. hopefully they build up fife and drum park soon
drumbumocdpKeystones park is a joke so far. RIP A-51.
I think you're being a bit pessimistic here, UT and CO have had one of the driest Decembers I've seen in years, we're absolutely struggling for snow in UT and its almost January, the park will get better when there is more snow.
Woodward to the rescue. Not gonna lie keystone A51 was fucking stack last season too bad it had to end a month early. Not sure about it this year but copper park always fun but not sure og A51 will ever be topped
I really hope I am. But they have LOADS of
snow made. The rail alley is now a green run for beginners and ski school. 6 flat boxes and 6 of those kinda no lander baby jumps. Maybe four pieces of metal and three very small mid line jumps. Totally understand the weather hasn’t been killer, but Breck is doing way more. Don’t have to talk about copper because they are full send in the park scene now.
Just very nervous that this is the beginning of Key SERIOUSLY cutting back on the park. Way more so than pervious seasons. Hoping they are saving their budget for January-March...
hows the PC park doing?
eheathI think you're being a bit pessimistic here, UT and CO have had one of the driest Decembers I've seen in years, we're absolutely struggling for snow in UT and its almost January, the park will get better when there is more snow.
drumbumocdpI really hope I am. But they have LOADS of
snow made. The rail alley is now a green run for beginners and ski school. 6 flat boxes and 6 of those kinda no lander baby jumps. Maybe four pieces of metal and three very small mid line jumps. Totally understand the weather hasn’t been killer, but Breck is doing way more. Don’t have to talk about copper because they are full send in the park scene now.
Just very nervous that this is the beginning of Key SERIOUSLY cutting back on the park. Way more so than pervious seasons. Hoping they are saving their budget for January-March...
hows the PC park doing?
PC park is firing, they're building the 2nd jump in the two line and blowing snow on the pick line and for the superpipe. PC cut a park this year but TBH its mostly rails and like 2 medium jumps so not a huge loss and it'll likely be back next year.
eheathPC park is firing, they're building the 2nd jump in the two line and blowing snow on the pick line and for the superpipe. PC cut a park this year but TBH its mostly rails and like 2 medium jumps so not a huge loss and it'll likely be back next year.
Young_pattyI remember hearing on the Powell movement that building a super pipe could cost upward of 100k in snow, fuel, paychecks and equipment so makes sense many hills are scaling back on building huge parks. Just the end of another era I suppose
when you factor in the pipe cutter snowcat attachment the actually cost of a super-pipe is well over 1 million dollars. I remember reading that in a freeze mag years ago.
I personally don't have any problem with less XL features, but it does suck for those youths on the come up trying to learn.
I wish someone would let my local hill know how important jibs are. it's almost January and we still don't have any setup yet.
eheathPC park is firing, they're building the 2nd jump in the two line and blowing snow on the pick line and for the superpipe. PC cut a park this year but TBH its mostly rails and like 2 medium jumps so not a huge loss and it'll likely be back next year.
Any word on Pickaxe? I just skied king con the other day and it was just a flat groomer to temptation, not even any whales up to potentially turn into jumps. It was really sad to see. Seems like they aren't even trying and I'm worried it might be Transitions V2 where they've just decided to scrap it all together. Pick Axe is the main reason I buy a PCMR pass, I'm not good enough to hang with the pros at 3kings, little kings is for the kids and the features are too small to do much on, pick axe is the perfect goldilocks zone.
CyanicenineAny word on Pickaxe? I just skied king con the other day and it was just a flat groomer to temptation, not even any whales up to potentially turn into jumps. It was really sad to see. Seems like they aren't even trying and I'm worried it might be Transitions V2 where they've just decided to scrap it all together. Pick Axe is the main reason I buy a PCMR pass, I'm not good enough to hang with the pros at 3kings, little kings is for the kids and the features are too small to do much on, pick axe is the perfect goldilocks zone.
They're going to build it, I just wouldn't expect it for a few weeks, they just needed to get the run open ASAP.
Holy shit this made me mad. It appears vail is becoming self aware about what they’re doing but hey at least little timmy won’t have any scary rails and park skiiers in his way
Should probably just close boulder permanently. They need all new lifts and will never make the money back to recoup that investment with or without park. Vails targeted demographic already skis Camelback or blue anyway.
ski_salmon69
Holy shit this made me mad. It appears vail is becoming self aware about what they’re doing but hey at least little timmy won’t have any scary rails and park skiiers in his way
eheathPC park is firing, they're building the 2nd jump in the two line and blowing snow on the pick line and for the superpipe. PC cut a park this year but TBH its mostly rails and like 2 medium jumps so not a huge loss and it'll likely be back next year.
Bummed to hear that about Transitions, was looking forward to lapping it for a change of pace on my trip out there. Looked chillin last year. Does that lift that has direct access to Pickaxe ever stay open? Have only ever been to PC once and I had a blown up knee at the time so not familiar with their park situation, but I remember that lift wasn't running.
BagOTricksBummed to hear that about Transitions, was looking forward to lapping it for a change of pace on my trip out there. Looked chillin last year. Does that lift that has direct access to Pickaxe ever stay open? Have only ever been to PC once and I had a blown up knee at the time so not familiar with their park situation, but I remember that lift wasn't running.
No and pickaxe hasn't even been touched yet, but king kong laps are the best, fuck eaglet.
TOAST.Should probably just close boulder permanently. They need all new lifts and will never make the money back to recoup that investment with or without park. Vails targeted demographic already skis Camelback or blue anyway.
Honestly blue is looking better w every day tbh. I dipped from blue to jfbb when they perma-closed sidewinder but now their IG is saying they're building a top to bottom park again? Too bad I dropped too much on an epic pass to want to spend another 100$ or whatever tf blue is charging for a day pass now to check it out.
eheathNo and pickaxe hasn't even been touched yet, but king kong laps are the best, fuck eaglet.
So last I heard pickaxe was going to be built end of January. That has come and gone. It's starting to feel like they aren't going to build it this year. Between no Pickaxe and no Transitions, Little Kings is ridiculous by mid day. It's a terrible mix of skiers hitting their first jumps ever and exploding on the knuckle and skiers that really should be in a medium park, except there is no medium park. I guess I should be happy to be skiing at all, but I literally buy my pass to PCMR specifically for Pickaxe, to have it not be built at all just feels like a huge middle finger from vail.
a_burgerIt says a lot that whenever Vail takes over a resort with a strong park scene the leadership responsible for said park gets the boot
This is exactly what happened at Keystone... Lead cat operators and leads/managers who had been dailing things in for years where either fired, or not offered the positions they deserved.... Instead, upper management fuck-sucks who have zero freestyle/park background where brought in from Utah to be "yes men", and agree with rob katz and his bois that the parks need to be turned into family fun zones.
The.FishTo be fair, the xl parks probably aren't the best return on investment since only about 1% of skiers are skilled enough to hit them. They also take a crap ton of snow and cat hours to build. Why bother spending money on something if almost nobody will use it?
Kind of true. The worst is when so few ppl are hitting the big line that the park crew just lets them sit and deform in the spring and they dont do anything. High altitude resorts like copper breck and keystone have an advantage tho bc their shit wont start deforming until at least april, but if the park crew at park city or mammoth didnt do maintenance on their jumps in march april they would start melting and deforming pretty bad.
that being said i would be surprised if breck got rid of freeway. Breck is the mecha of spring park action. If brecks park pusses out like literally where the fuck will all the upcoming park phenoms go?
when they open up the big line and everyone around the world is standing up top ready to drop in to get used to hitting big jumps for the first comp of the year. Lapping the park and watch the big line jus be going off. the era before doubles were really being done. more big sw9 and sw10 and tall t everywhere lol. gotta love that era
Yung_Gnarleythis thread is making me feel really lucky to have gotten to lap keystone and breck when they had the XL parks still. Keystone's especially. They had some of the most absurd setups
Splurged on a mid week tic at Carinthia and ngl was dissapointed aside from the spring like conditions. You can clearly tell Vail has put parks on the back burner and limited the crew. So much wasted space and lack of features on the trails compared to years past where it used to be packed full of jibs. Nitro on fleek as always but still feels so stale and empty. It's a shame Fools Gold is literally just grommet, it has a super dope flow and could be loaded. Killy might be jumping leader board
Wasn't really paying attention to this until now when its getting into prime terrain park film and spring shred time. Yeah I think A51 and Breck are both way way below normal on build out. Also, the A51 instagram account has 1 post from this season. It seems like they may be building bigger A51 jumps (its roped off with snowmaking sort of?) Bahhh.
BKWasn't really paying attention to this until now when its getting into prime terrain park film and spring shred time. Yeah I think A51 and Breck are both way way below normal on build out. Also, the A51 instagram account has 1 post from this season. It seems like they may be building bigger A51 jumps (its roped off with snowmaking sort of?) Bahhh.
I’ve heard rumors about Vail looking to buy my mtn. But we’re mostly owned by 2 or 3 people that founded it and the rest is privately traded. I’m hoping as long as the people who founded it are alive they won’t sell out to vail.
The parks at all these places still look sick to me, from seeing edits and photos. Maybe some less creative builds, and maybe I'm just not as excited about big features as I used to be. I definitely believe Vail would cut park budgets though. Could it also be a matter of less staff and less customers this season due to COVID? I mean, even if there are the same amount of people using the park, I could see resorts using the pandemic to justify cutting back on features and spacing things out more.
Either way, something we can all do is spam positive feedback on sick builds and only go to the resorts where you like the park or you don't think it's gone downhill.
skiP.E.I.The parks at all these places still look sick to me, from seeing edits and photos. Maybe some less creative builds, and maybe I'm just not as excited about big features as I used to be. I definitely believe Vail would cut park budgets though. Could it also be a matter of less staff and less customers this season due to COVID? I mean, even if there are the same amount of people using the park, I could see resorts using the pandemic to justify cutting back on features and spacing things out more.
Either way, something we can all do is spam positive feedback on sick builds and only go to the resorts where you like the park or you don't think it's gone downhill.
It's been stated multiple times in this thread that vail has cut budgets across the board because of COVID, people just like to complain and make assumptions.
DolansLebensraumKind of true. The worst is when so few ppl are hitting the big line that the park crew just lets them sit and deform in the spring and they dont do anything. High altitude resorts like copper breck and keystone have an advantage tho bc their shit wont start deforming until at least april, but if the park crew at park city or mammoth didnt do maintenance on their jumps in march april they would start melting and deforming pretty bad.
that being said i would be surprised if breck got rid of freeway. Breck is the mecha of spring park action. If brecks park pusses out like literally where the fuck will all the upcoming park phenoms go?
Copper, Key, and Breck's big line didn't stay Nice in the spring due to "high altitude", its because the park cat opps "fluff" or reshape take offs nightly, and winch landings regularly.
They have scaled back pretty far after our home resort got bought out by vail 2 years ago. "Mini" park was the only one open this year. The bigger park was closed due to "not enough snow" Could have easily threw some rails or just a few features over there but they decided against it. Park crew essentially worked in lift ops all year...
eheathIt's been stated multiple times in this thread that vail has cut budgets across the board because of COVID, people just like to complain and make assumptions.
Across the board Vail has. een decreasing parks though. They put some money into Afton alps. I think keystone built them features. Idk how successful their park was though. Don't here much about it.
Look at Beaver Creek. They had a lretty sick lark and now I think they're down to one baby park. I guess they built some little jumps and had to tear them down. That park program is a dumpster fire at this point.
Honestly that park was more fun than Vails a lot of times.
closeyetfar11Really sad this year. I feel as though Copper now takes the crown for CO park skiing.
I so badly want to live copper but the landings are so glad and my old knees can't take it. I'll stay at breck, the park is fire and they may not have 80-ft jumps in freeway anymore but 50ish ft jumps are plenty for me and the rail line is dialed.
katrinaI so badly want to live copper but the landings are so glad and my old knees can't take it. I'll stay at breck, the park is fire and they may not have 80-ft jumps in freeway anymore but 50ish ft jumps are plenty for me and the rail line is dialed.
Idk, i get that you hate copper but all the times ive gone there it's been fire.
I woukd say plu or minus would be the tubes and the style theyre set up. A lot of taller features. I dig it though.
Copper's park is the best in the game right now and the only spots on the same level are Mammoth and Whistler. Everyone keeps saying how next year will be different with Vail so we will see. As far as that past 2 seasons Keystone has gone downhill and this year their park is fucking garbage compared to what it used to be. I'm hyped I got to lap there every week prior to 2018 back when A51 was the shit. The park had such a nice flow which I don't think breck has. Also lapping the park at Breck sucks as the double takes forever and same with the other lifts. As far as right now Ikon is the shit and Vail sucks as far as having mountains with a dope park.
PeteMahnCopper's park is the best in the game right now and the only spots on the same level are Mammoth and Whistler. Everyone keeps saying how next year will be different with Vail so we will see. As far as that past 2 seasons Keystone has gone downhill and this year their park is fucking garbage compared to what it used to be. I'm hyped I got to lap there every week prior to 2018 back when A51 was the shit. The park had such a nice flow which I don't think breck has. Also lapping the park at Breck sucks as the double takes forever and same with the other lifts. As far as right now Ikon is the shit and Vail sucks as far as having mountains with a dope park.
VR nerfed every park in Colorado this year "due to covid" but I wouldn't expect any of them to go back to how they were. What they did at Beaver Creek with Rodeo park was pretty lame and I'd bet they use the same playbook moving forward.
"Look, we dialed it back and we didn't get complaints so that's how we'll keep it from now on"
The only feedback they pay attention to is the surveys that they send out to tourists post-vacation to calculate their NPS scores at each individual resort. Locals and park riders don't get these surveys so of course they wont get complaints about the park situation.
Seeing my first midwest VR resort this season has confirmed it for me that VR does not seem to give a shit about parks at all, at any level. It really is a shame.
PeteMahnCopper's park is the best in the game right now and the only spots on the same level are Mammoth and Whistler. Everyone keeps saying how next year will be different with Vail so we will see. As far as that past 2 seasons Keystone has gone downhill and this year their park is fucking garbage compared to what it used to be. I'm hyped I got to lap there every week prior to 2018 back when A51 was the shit. The park had such a nice flow which I don't think breck has. Also lapping the park at Breck sucks as the double takes forever and same with the other lifts. As far as right now Ikon is the shit and Vail sucks as far as having mountains with a dope park.
You've inspired me to try to go to copper again tomorrow. If for no other reason than the community I think I'll have a good time.
Breck is still hard to beat imo but doesn't mean copper can't also be good. I hope it is, and I hope my old knees can take it.
I went to woodward PC for the first time the other day and it was epic so I'm hoping for a similar experience at copper.
katrinaYou've inspired me to try to go to copper again tomorrow. If for no other reason than the community I think I'll have a good time.
Breck is still hard to beat imo but doesn't mean copper can't also be good. I hope it is, and I hope my old knees can take it.
I went to woodward PC for the first time the other day and it was epic so I'm hoping for a similar experience at copper.
I mean Breck is awesome but personally I would go to Copper over it any day. First Copper's all mountain aspect is extremely underrated as the woods and bowls are amazing plus they don't get skied out super quick. If you know where to go up top in the woods you will most likely always find good snow. As far as the park it has everything; yeah the big three jump line can be intimidating but they still have a smaller jump line plus amazing rail features. the park has a nice flow all the way down and the ThirtyTwo rails at the bottom are dope. Plus they opened the peace park so that should be sick to check out too. There always changing up the features unlike Breck so there's always something fresh to try which is another reason why I'm biased towards Copper.
PeteMahnI mean Breck is awesome but personally I would go to Copper over it any day. First Copper's all mountain aspect is extremely underrated as the woods and bowls are amazing plus they don't get skied out super quick. If you know where to go up top in the woods you will most likely always find good snow. As far as the park it has everything; yeah the big three jump line can be intimidating but they still have a smaller jump line plus amazing rail features. the park has a nice flow all the way down and the ThirtyTwo rails at the bottom are dope. Plus they opened the peace park so that should be sick to check out too. There always changing up the features unlike Breck so there's always something fresh to try which is another reason why I'm biased towards Copper.
Well relative to breck I'm a copper noob so if you're ever down to show a girl around hmu!
Went to copper today, scene was on point, got to see all the homies, super fun! But now my knees are dying from so many flat landings. The number of features and variety is definitely better than breck, and a lot more friendly to beginners, but I still think breck's park is better, at least for me (and my old ass knees).
katrinaWent to copper today, scene was on point, got to see all the homies, super fun! But now my knees are dying from so many flat landings. The number of features and variety is definitely better than breck, and a lot more friendly to beginners, but I still think breck's park is better, at least for me (and my old ass knees).
How serendipitous running into you there! What's better than one @mackcamp's brother? Two of them!
Park crew guy at big boulder posted this. Pisses me off they are closed this early. I know damn well under old management they’d be open every weekend still and would have a sick ass May Day.
