Skiers and snowboarders were soaring into blue skies at Mt. Hood Meadows and Timberline Wednesday as both resorts opened up some monster jumps for the spring season.
Meadows unveiled its 4600-foot Spring Park with perfect conditions for jibbing and jumping April 2nd. The park drops down right under the Vista chair with three jumps in quick succession, giving chairlift spectators a perfect view from above. Top local shredders including Tommy Ellingson, Seth Warner, Ryan Stephens and many others broke in the park with some stylish tricks.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Mount Hood, Timberline opened its huge Spraypaint jump above its advanced Paintbrush Terrain Park to go along with the new designs and features in Paintbrush and Conway’s. Timberline was recently named one of the top 10 resorts in the nation for park shredding by Freeskier Magazine.
Both resorts are vying to attract spring freestyle shredders who flock to Oregon from all over North America in April after other resorts shut down for the season.
Meadows built its Spring Park in collaboration with Snow Park Technologies, and it is long, varied and challenging. This is what the new park contains, from top to bottom:
Down box, down rail, jump, jump, jump, up-rail, up box-top, flat rail, flat-down rail, lift tower, box-to-propane, stubby corrugated bonk, banked box, up-rail, flat-down box ledge combo, c-box to down box-top, propane stall, rail to wall-ride, rail to propane elbow, trails merging break, down picnic table, down box-top, jump, jump, up box, ball, rail to wall-ride, donkey down rail, jump, jump, halfpipe.
Legs tired yet? Well go lap it again!
This cool YouTube video from Meadows, Pierce Hodges, mthoodriders.com and Video-Kid Productions gives an inside view of the heavy labor that went into putting the park together, and early reviews from riders:
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The slideshow below gives you a sense of how much fun park riders had sampling the wares on Day One. If you recognize anyone, pop us a note and we will update captions.
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Not to be outdone, the parks crew at Timberline Freestyle has been cranking away to rebuild Conway’s, complete the double-cork-sized Spraypaint jump and add new jumps and lodge rails to Paint Brush, setting the stage for a Timberline spring shred season that runs through May 26.
This Vimeo edit from Garrett Kopp features some first-rate park-shredding at Timberline’s Paintbrush Park:
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After a spotty snow winter, all three major Mount Hood resorts entered April with their best snowpacks of the season. Skibowl will operate its parks for two more weekends and then close for the season on April 13. Meadows will be open daily through April 27, with two bonus weekends in May. The Timberline spring pass is good through May 26.
Last modified: April 3, 2014