Worst Parks you’ve ever been to

I talk a lot of shit about my local’s parks but it’s actually pretty good. 4 parks and about 40+ features a time ain’t bad. Only problem is they never switch up the park so its the same features all season

Bridger is horrible. They put the park under the beginner lift, on one of the only bunny slopes on the mountain. This means the park is flat so no speed, and there are a million kids and beginners everywhere to avoid. The rails are pretty meh and jumps are poorly built, especially considering the lack of speed. I know some park crew there and it's not their fault, the management just doesn't give a fuck. Pretty sad.

Most parks these days are light years ahead of what places had in the past. Places you to build some straight up sketchy shit.

With more on the internet and social media it's easier to compare places than ever. If you ride a small hill with a small park it's easy to get down on it because it's not mammoth, copper, northstar, whistler, etc, but you shouldn't.

The mountains with huge parks have huge park budgets. Like 5-10 dedicated park cats a night, 6-10 day staff every day, huge snowmaking budget and the right systems to deliver it, etc.

Your small park with 1 dedicated cat a night or possibly even 1 cat that grooms the park and then has to groom trails, 1-3 day staff guys, way smaller snowmaking budget etc isn't going to be a mammoth.

Now there are mountains that don't do good builds, don't maximise what they do have, and some build some sketchy stuff. I've seen some pretty sick parks get knocked just because they aren't as big as the huge parks out there.

I'll say Gore. It's been sketchy, its been fun, I'll always love the place. Something about it.

Also that down flat rail a few years back still gives me a chuckle.


Snow ridge(which i also got nothing but love for) had a pretty sketchy park 6 years ago the only time I rode it.

Battleship box had a gansta lean. Was linda fun because you had to hit it like a slant feature. But for having only like 3 features up and it being cold it wasn't very good.

Also closest I've come to hitting a cat on open terrain in the park there once.

I still got love for those parks though. Some of those the dude who grooms the park grooms the whole mtn and maybe they have 1 guy there a day to rake.

Idk, I've had some pretty good setups where i was the only person though.

I wouod say be stoked that the industry is changing. The same way social media gets people bummed that their park isn't as sick as another spot, parks are getting nore legit across the board. Less sketchy wildcard features and more parks that don't look like death.

castles park is pretty bad, tiny, not super well built, and not maintained at all.

Julian0Only problem is they never switch up the park so its the same features all season

Yup that’s park crews fault

i got 1 park, it has 3 boxes and 2 rails if were lucky. we got a stall feature this year which was hype. the jumps usually don’t have enough speed but i saw a 9 somehow on one this year. could be worse

I always complain about the jump size at Holiday Valley, but then I see people spin 7s off the Mardi Park baby kicker and shut up about it...
In all honesty Moonshadow was well built this year towards the end. I've seen my share of HV jank though, especially when it comes to those beginner features.

weastcoastYup that’s park crews fault

eh depends. Not out of the question that management thinks it's a waste of money

A pic of the classic gore DF rail. Had a gap on as well. Honestly better off driving to albany and hitting an urban rail

Never ridden Hylands but this setup always cracks me up. Seems like their parks are usually pretty good though.

Hickory Hills. Could have potential to be a local, skate park vibe with the ropes and in town though.

weastcoastYup that’s park crews fault

They spend half the season making a boardercross course that is only used for those races good ole snowshoe baby

shinbangclanI always complain about the jump size at Holiday Valley, but then I see people spin 7s off the Mardi Park baby kicker and shut up about it...
In all honesty Moonshadow was well built this year towards the end. I've seen my share of HV jank though, especially when it comes to those beginner features.

To elaborate on this. Hv used to have two amazing cat operators. Pat Morgan and Chris Perks who would build a pipe, a 3 pack of 30-45ftrs and a 3 pack of 20ishft jumps. Both left for their reason which exactly I don’t know. I do know towards the end of their times at hv. Their budgets were cut and their freedom size wise for setups was also cut down, the park was even moved before perks left. Into the bad parks sections. Hv has cut and or ran over upwards of 10 rails in the past 3 years. Scrapped perfectly good features and even features gifted to them by Gatorade and red Bull. Eh hem cutting the Gatorade doghouse/cannon in half. Lots of boxes in the park is my personal complaint. They have had terrible jumps the past seasons. I think this has to do mostly with the location on lower foxfire. It’s really meant for a 3 pack of 10-25ft jumps maybe 30. They shoot for two 10-20s with 2 lips on each knuckle. They put all their parks snowmaking money the park crew gets into a bordercross course on moonshadow. Which is usually built well and maintained because of being a Noram Host the park few seasons. Fiddlers has been rideable since it was moved there in 2015. (Fiddlers is our kinda mix of everything park). As quick as I am to Hate on hv manage and our cat operator. This year and aspects of last was pretty good not to mention every year we have a top to bottom park off an express lift by the first week of January every year. This year we didn’t have a Noram so jumps were moved to moonshadow. Moonshadow is right next to fids and a wide slope with a decent grade that gets a bit steeper towards the last 3rd. Hv blew a good 3-5ft base across the whole run then built two 20-25ft tables. Then later blew more for a 35ft table with a really long naturally steep landing. Fiddlers had 20-25features in it till close along with jumps, hips, rails and rails on trannys. Mardi park had nice progressive features easy to learn stuff on even if the milk jug was dumb af how it was setup. Now here’s where the problems with management and the cat operator come in and bad aspects of the parks. The 35ftr wasn’t pushed even when easily 20 grand plus of snow was blow for it. I talked to the park crew and they were all willing to cut the lip and test it and make sure it was safe but management told them they didn’t think it would be a good decision safety wise. Our cat operator is lazy and set a down flat as a slight down to up. His solution was to cut the up off then leave the metal shavings and excessively short tall down tube there. We had rails fall over when hitting them. And our cat operator ran over a box. He also doesn’t think it’s worth the time to push for a knuckle wide enough to drive a cat around the lip. This wouldn’t be a big deal but he cuts the sides of the jumps. Me and friends have fallen off the side of the jumps 5-10ft onto our backs when we carve off the lip. Even with all these issues HV hand crew manages to make it all good enough to be super fun to ride. Plus it takes longer to ride the park than the lift which is sweet along with being able to hit 15plus features a run. They’ve started buying rails from coastal jibs and who ever is picking them is doing a good job because they’ve all been more unique features to our hill. Overall 7/10 it’s a treat to have all this only 30minutes away. I can’t not respect the powerhouse tiny little 750ft of vert hv has become. 60 trails, huge snowmaking system, 4 express lifts and 5 lodges.

My home mountain used to have a pretty okay park. Used to even have a pipe wayyy back in the day. Slowly they put in less and less features each year and now we got nothing. :' (

Julian0I talk a lot of shit about my local’s parks but it’s actually pretty good. 4 parks and about 40+ features a time ain’t bad. Only problem is they never switch up the park so its the same features all season

my local has 12 rails total so that sounds like a dream

Snowbasin

vishnusidelippermy local has 12 rails total so that sounds like a dream

My mountain has a fuck ton of money and has the potential to have amazing parks. Your mountain is probably killing it with 12 rails ngl

vishnusidelippermy local has 12 rails total so that sounds like a dream

We got about 100+ Rails and boxes laying around in great condition never used. We also have 2 cats strictly for park and a zaugg

NotaskibumSnowbasin

It’s not horrible, but there’s always some 3 year old stopping the tow rope every 5 minutes

WoFlowzTo elaborate on this. Hv used to have two amazing cat operators. Pat Morgan and Chris Perks who would build a pipe, a 3 pack of 30-45ftrs and a 3 pack of 20ishft jumps. Both left for their reason which exactly I don’t know. I do know towards the end of their times at hv. Their budgets were cut and their freedom size wise for setups was also cut down, the park was even moved before perks left. Into the bad parks sections. Hv has cut and or ran over upwards of 10 rails in the past 3 years. Scrapped perfectly good features and even features gifted to them by Gatorade and red Bull. Eh hem cutting the Gatorade doghouse/cannon in half. Lots of boxes in the park is my personal complaint. They have had terrible jumps the past seasons. I think this has to do mostly with the location on lower foxfire. It’s really meant for a 3 pack of 10-25ft jumps maybe 30. They shoot for two 10-20s with 2 lips on each knuckle. They put all their parks snowmaking money the park crew gets into a bordercross course on moonshadow. Which is usually built well and maintained because of being a Noram Host the park few seasons. Fiddlers has been rideable since it was moved there in 2015. (Fiddlers is our kinda mix of everything park). As quick as I am to Hate on hv manage and our cat operator. This year and aspects of last was pretty good not to mention every year we have a top to bottom park off an express lift by the first week of January every year. This year we didn’t have a Noram so jumps were moved to moonshadow. Moonshadow is right next to fids and a wide slope with a decent grade that gets a bit steeper towards the last 3rd. Hv blew a good 3-5ft base across the whole run then built two 20-25ft tables. Then later blew more for a 35ft table with a really long naturally steep landing. Fiddlers had 20-25features in it till close along with jumps, hips, rails and rails on trannys. Mardi park had nice progressive features easy to learn stuff on even if the milk jug was dumb af how it was setup. Now here’s where the problems with management and the cat operator come in and bad aspects of the parks. The 35ftr wasn’t pushed even when easily 20 grand plus of snow was blow for it. I talked to the park crew and they were all willing to cut the lip and test it and make sure it was safe but management told them they didn’t think it would be a good decision safety wise. Our cat operator is lazy and set a down flat as a slight down to up. His solution was to cut the up off then leave the metal shavings and excessively short tall down tube there. We had rails fall over when hitting them. And our cat operator ran over a box. He also doesn’t think it’s worth the time to push for a knuckle wide enough to drive a cat around the lip. This wouldn’t be a big deal but he cuts the sides of the jumps. Me and friends have fallen off the side of the jumps 5-10ft onto our backs when we carve off the lip. Even with all these issues HV hand crew manages to make it all good enough to be super fun to ride. Plus it takes longer to ride the park than the lift which is sweet along with being able to hit 15plus features a run. They’ve started buying rails from coastal jibs and who ever is picking them is doing a good job because they’ve all been more unique features to our hill. Overall 7/10 it’s a treat to have all this only 30minutes away. I can’t not respect the powerhouse tiny little 750ft of vert hv has become. 60 trails, huge snowmaking system, 4 express lifts and 5 lodges.

The level of analysis here is remarkable

dognutscastles park is pretty bad, tiny, not super well built, and not maintained at all.

Are you talking about Castle Ab? It looks way better than it was in 2017 when I was there. I just wish they had some features somewhere at the bottom of the main mountain.

7 Springs was absolute dog shit.

BigRock Mountain in Mars Hill, Maine is a special place. I love the place, but the park is meme level bad. Ever hit a teeter-totter rail?

yeah probably is better than 2017 idk i did not ski there then. yea it is too bad both parks are on the beginner lifts.

skiP.E.I.Are you talking about Castle Ab? It looks way better than it was in 2017 when I was there. I just wish they had some features somewhere at the bottom of the main mountain.

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1003107/trim-27290D9C-B788-4494-A8C8-72B1DD14FED2-MOV
hickorys park was embarrassingly bad this year

Buck hill i had a fatass rant thread its been good before but when i went it was just so shittytotally not worth like 45 bucks

Moved to Southern Utah so I chose to ski Brian Head this last season and to be honest the park was much better than nothing however I think I'm just used to Brighton.

The rails were fine my main critique was that they changed the park too much. like the variety was good but the first time they would put a feature in it would be pretty poorly build like the lip was much higher than the rail or just a super poppy lip onto the rail, so after like a week of hitting them the lips would naturally fix themselves and kinda form to the rails only for the park crew to rip the rail out after about a week just to build it in a shiter spot.

Also no jumps this year which is exactly what I was looking forward too. I've always been a jump guy so that was a pretty big let down

I definably don't blame the park crew for most of it tho, Brian Head just changed ownership and supposedly the new management is trying to make it a "family" resort and they don't like the "dangers" posed by a terrain park. So I'm pretty sure the park funding went to basically zero because they weren't even given a Cat ever they just had to tell the guy who was grooming to come through every once in a while and I think in total he hit and broke about 4 features over the season

ReturnToMonkeyBridger is horrible. They put the park under the beginner lift, on one of the only bunny slopes on the mountain. This means the park is flat so no speed, and there are a million kids and beginners everywhere to avoid. The rails are pretty meh and jumps are poorly built, especially considering the lack of speed. I know some park crew there and it's not their fault, the management just doesn't give a fuck. Pretty sad.

what bothers me most is that they have a massive fucking selection of quality made rails that just sit

SchulaceIt’s not horrible, but there’s always some 3 year old stopping the tow rope every 5 minutes

Huh? I can understand how little kids get chairlifts to stop but a rope tow? Can't you just, like, step off to the side? Tbh I didn't even know those things stopped