David Meeker

Table of Contents 2018 Terrain Park Contest BREAD & BUTTER CATEGORY FEATURES CATEGORY EVENTS CATEGORY EVENTS 1. SUN’S OUT GUNS OUT WinSport, the Winter Sports Institute at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, held the inaugural Sun’s Out Guns Out rail jam last April as a creative way to end the season—the hill closed for the season an hour after the event concluded. The two-day event brought out intermediate and advanced skiers and snowboarders from Calgary and beyond. It took one cat operator and fo…

Table of Contents 2018 Terrain Park Contest BREAD & BUTTER CATEGORY FEATURES CATEGORY EVENTS CATEGORY BREAD & BUTTER 1. TRANNY FEST SPRING PARK The Tranny Fest Spring Park at Thredbo, Australia, was originally built for a snowboarding event. Once the event concluded, everyone from “grommets to grandpas,” skiers and snowboarders, dove in to ride it, so the resort kept the park up for the last three weeks of the season. The setup consisted of three transition zones: a main bowl and transition area…

Table of Contents 2018 Terrain Park Contest BREAD & BUTTER CATEGORY FEATURES CATEGORY EVENTS CATEGORY BREAD & BUTTER 1. TRANNY FEST SPRING PARK The Tranny Fest Spring Park at Thredbo, Australia, was originally built for a snowboarding event. Once the event concluded, everyone from “grommets to grandpas,” skiers and snowboarders, dove in to ride it, so the resort kept the park up for the last three weeks of the season. The setup consisted of three transition zones: a main bowl and transition area…

Table of Contents 2018 Terrain Park Contest BREAD & BUTTER CATEGORY FEATURES CATEGORY EVENTS CATEGORY FEATURES 1. HARVESTED JUMPS “This feature is nothing out of the ordinary, but the story behind it is,” said Tyson Pollard, terrain park supervisor for Mt. Buller, Australia. This jump set, each about 14 meters, was built this year in what Pollard calls a previously abandoned but “picture perfect” location. Australia’s north-facing slopes lose snow quicker than other aspects, and due to recent lo…

Table of Contents 2019 Terrain Park Contest EVENTS FEATURES BREAD & BUTTER 1. Ash & Steel Mount Snow, Vt. Carinthia Parks at Mount Snow collaborated with Snowboy Productions on this five-day-long event. The one-of-a-kind transition and jib park was riddled with wood, metal, and snow features throughout the trees of Carinthia’s Prospector park; much of the wood and metal used was recycled from the local forest and old lifts. With two snowcats, several diggers, and the Snowboy team, the entire par…

Table of Contents 2019 Terrain Park Contest EVENTS FEATURES BREAD & BUTTER 1. Opening Day ParkThe Rock Snowpark, Wis. “Early season in the Midwest is special,” says The Rock Snowpark mountain ops manager Ryan Ruffing. Everyone is eager to get out on snow, and it doesn’t need to be huge jump lines or elaborate rail gardens—just about anything will do. Relatively new ownership (as of 2017) and a new mountain ops and park crew made last year’s prep for opening at The Rock an exciting time. The te…

Table of Contents 2019 Terrain Park Contest EVENTS FEATURES BREAD & BUTTER 1. Buttercup Wall RidesMt. Hood Meadows, Ore. Sustainability is one of Mt. Hood Meadows’ core values, and these two wall rides were built with that in mind. Park crew members John Ogletree and Jared Scholz built them, using leftover lift towers from the original Buttercup chairlift, which was replaced in 2017. They cut the towers in half lengthwise and used them as coping at the top of the walls. Plus, they made the fra…

The Big SNOW indoor ski and ride facility showcases a radical and instructional approach to the learn-to experience. By early February, Big Snow American Dream had garnered more than two billion media impressions since it opened Dec. 5. For good reason: North America’s first year-round indoor ski dome is newsworthy. It’s a unique attraction attached to a three-million-square-foot retail and entertainment complex—aka, a mall—in New Jersey. Its grand opening featured Olympic gold medalists Lindsey…

New ownership, a dedicated crew, and a sustainable vision have Saddleback Mountain primed for success after a 5-year closure. After a tumultuous five-year closure, Maine’s Saddleback Mountain is reopening in a big way this winter. New ownership has invested a staggering $18 million in maintenance and capital improvements since it acquired the resort in January 2020, and a dedicated team has worked tirelessly to get the mountain back on its feet. It’s a story we all need right now. The Saddleba…

After years of tweaks and changes, both PistenBully and Prinoth have reached greater uniformity across their model lines, aiming to make life easier for operators and mechanics. “The highly competitive marketplace for snow grooming equipment is at something of a crossroads … “The long-developing focus for this is the level of technological sophistication that is appropriate for the market. The complex equation still includes a host of such standby variables as fuel capacity, weight-to-horsepowe…