Blue Mountain Park Report

[method9455]

Went up to the park today to check out the Sidewinder park, pictures and commentary to follow. This is not perfect, I have a bad memory, and I'm guessing on sizes.

 

Riders left to right for the options

Upper Sidwinder

#1 - 40' x 12" Flat box or 30' x Double Barrel Flat rail

#2 - Transfer box or 15' x 12" Flat box drop to 20' x 12" Flat box or 40' Double Barrel Flat rail

#3 - Roller coaster 2' wide box or medium flat down box

#4 - Down-flat-down box or Down-flat-down double barrel rail

#5 - Right handed hip

#6 - Step down jump, 15' and 10' ramps

#7 - Tabletop jump - 20' and 15' ramps

#8 - Tabletop jump - 20' or Swingset box

#9 - Tabletop jump - 25' or Butter Bus

#10 - Wallride

#11 - Octagon pylon or 30' step down jump

#12 - Staircase

 

Lower Sidewinder

- Bunch of banked turns

- Small table top jump (10')

- Round pylon

 

Terrain Run -

#1 Minipipe

#2 Butter box

#3 Ride on rainbow box

#4 Ride on flat-down

#5 Mailbox spine

 

Come around

#1 Small table top jump (10')

#2 Butter box

#3 Flat down

#4 4' Wide rollercoaster box

#5 Rail? Don't remember probably a flat rail

#6 Flat rail? I don't remember this either I just know there where two rails at the end

[toast21602]

that pretty accurate... give or take 5 feet on each jump.

[snownskateguy]

Double Barrel Flat rail

Double Barrel Flat rail

Down-flat-down double barrel rail

 

4-6 inch wide flat bars... double barrel is different.

good report otherwise, park was fun today. last table before the wall was the best, and i was disappointed by the stepdown.. too flat & short. oh well, theres time to improve.

[method9455]

View from the entrance. Go back to cleaning the steps blue! I'd rather watch the idiots get their gear ruined, now they just walk up it and clog it all up.

First two rails, the one of the left was great. The one on the right has potential but I couldn't get enough speed for it, as it was it didn't work for me and it was un-touched most of the day.

Another view

Second option, the one on the left is the flat - drop - flat. I don't have a picture of the transfer box. I didn't like the flat drop flat, I think it should be flat - drop downslope even if just a little, it was hard to get smooth when you fall so abruptly and there is no angle on where you are landing. A flat with a 12" drop to a down would be better. Transfer box was eh, I mean what can you do? 180 or 360 the middle, maybe pop and air with an indy or a shifty, its so wide that its not fun the rest of the way, so I was taking far right most of the time.

Flat down or a super wide roller coaster, never hit the roller coaster but the flat down was decent although it left A LOT of paint on my board. Not that I care about my park board, but you could see it in the landing too.

These where the $$$$ for the jibs. Setup nice, smooth, good positioning, I love the choice of box or rail of about the same size/type, you can work up across. The only jibs that I felt where perfect.

I took pictures of the lip, see Blue mountain, THIS is how you setup a gap on rail. You can do it!

Right hand hip, it was icy because of the shadow, I avoided it.

First jump, didn't really take a picture from a good angle almost forgot, I took all these pictures in one run so I was just rolling through. This jump had good pop to it, it looks smaller than it feels with the ramp. Decent landing in the morning, bomb holed on the right in the afternoon.

1 2 3 line of tables, this was the best part of the park. I hit the bus once to say I did it, but the swingset wasn't worth a run when the jump line was there, the last one is especially good.

View from the lift

Wallride was decent actually, one of the better setup wall rides I've hit.

Octogon pylon, not sure what to do with it, I just went up and came down fakie, didn't reach the top, i dunno how I feel about it.

This is the last jump, good ramp, feel like the gap is too short and the landing is too short, its like the ramp for a 50 footer on a 30 foot jump? I dunno.

Staircase, same as always, they need to make the ramp wider you can't hit the rails from the outside. So I wanted to front board the right box and as a goofy rider, no ramp for me to do it with. It is also really damn short, but it always has been.

Pylon again, you can do the mini table on the left and hit the side but if you want to get high on it you have to go straight at it

Minipipe, pretty beat

[Kyle]

o my god. i'm so pumped for monday now. excellent job park crew. looks like a excellent park

[mollyskeez]

i think i might actually have to try out blue again this year. i went twice last season which werent very good experiences but it looks dif. this year ill have to try it out.

[snownskateguy]

good pics. agreed the dfd rail and box were nice, i would like them better if they were set up a little more urban though.

 

keith, whatever happend to that new downrail that you said would be at the top of sidewinder? disappointed it wasn't in

[method9455]

They definately could use some streetstyle setups, they definately could use some round rails, and some down rails. As far as I can tell there are no down rails in the whole park except flat-downs and the stair case, that is a bit of a disappointment. I was really looking for a single barrel streetsytle down rail today to work on my front boards but didn't get one.

 

This is the way I saw it.

 

The last time I was the year before last year, and this is twice as good or more than that setup, it is the best setup I've ever seen on sidewinder in person or in pictures

 

Come around is eh, the last two rails could be spaced out some more but its fine

 

There are still 4 circus rails (both rollercoaster boxes, trasfer box, the swingset) but largely they have moved on to more stock stuff, and in all but one case there is another option that is stock next to it so you can avoid them all, which is a big improvement. The bus I don't think is circusy it is fun. The cement mixer was a lot of crap about nothing, it doesn't resemble a cement mixer at all, I like it. I like it better than the octagon one too. The rails setups where all fine except the stair case disappointed me that it wasn't wide enough to hit from the outside, that is an oversite. They could definately be improved by making the gaps bigger but there where none that I was saying WHAT WHERE THEY THINKING? Like I did two years ago.

 

The flow was decent, about as good as you can expect for Sidewinder. The only part that didn't flow for me was the end of Come Around, those last two rails as soon as I did one I was stopping hardcore to slow down enough for the next, but Sidewinder was good.

 

Sidewinder's jump line was super sweet. Do that every year, from now on, ever. The ramps can be tweaked here and there but that section is just so perfect for it, and a jib line on the right side is nice. If anything swap out the swing set for an easy box, if people aren't using the jump line it is because they are intimidated or fell on one and had to bail from the rest so put in something easier there instead of on the same level. That goes along the lines of how you have the dfd box and dfd rail next to each other, so more skill levels have something to do. It was nice to see his/hers ramps on almost every jump.

 

I really liked the upper part two, from the start to the wall ride is great. Is it perfect? No, but if it where me I'd put the start of the lift right after the wall ride and lap that all day.

 

The jump after that is ok but it has a short landing in my opionion, it is do able but I'd rather see the big jump in the park have a longer landing. I don't know where else you would put it though. It works, but I felt like the combination of how big that ramp is and how short the landing is, some people are going to shoot out into no where land and kill themselves. The deck/landing is no bigger than the first jump in the park, except the ramp is 5x bigger.

 

Overall, I was happy. But I also would say that Boulder edges it out a bit. Its not night & day, but if sidewinder and boulder opened the same day, I would still take boulder. But I think boulder was the same last year and this year, and Blue has improved a lot. So that is a good sign for Blue.

 

Oh and it was super icy till about 11 today, the worst ice I have seen all year, but then it softened up and was decent, I won't hold that against them though last night was a bitch for weather.

[Boarder1x9]

blues lookin pretty sick right now. deff gotta head up this year, awesome report man.

[snorovr]

There is a 40 foot single barrel rail that two of the guys on Crue built. It is by far one of the nicest rails to come out of Blue, and those guys deserve huge props for it. I can't wait to see when it comes out to play... Kinda bummed it wasn't out already. There is a lot of space on the lower part of upper sidewinder by the staircase.

[method9455]

The rails this year where definately nicer than they have been in the past, by a lot. I'm not huge on the colors but whatever, the construction was good, everything slid very well nothing felt sticky at all and I hit every box/rail they had out, nothing was bent or crooked either. The first rail on the right is off center but its kind of unhittable right now for snowboarders, not enough speed for it after you turn

[Park Crue]

Thanks for a logical,informative and well written report Method.

Just so you shreds know, our park will be progressed upon on a diaily basis. As we blow more snow, the features will take on a different shape. We have more jibs to install. Also this weekend is special. We have a lot of traffic thru the parks and as such have constructed them to "accomodate" all the noobs,and their grandparents too !! The lips will also be made more difficult with bigger gaps. But for now, most everybody passing thru can have some sort of fun as opposed to just being a gaper.

You should all check out the rail jam on Sunday morning. New snowboard and other mad prizes for steeziest slides. And only $5.00 to enter. Registartion on sidewinder from 8AM to 9AM.

[toast21602]

niiiiiice. today was the best day i have ever had in a park at Blue, the jumps were PERFECT. i wish i could have stayed longer today, oh well. i hope the whole park isnt going to be closed tomorrow morning...

[Tyler]

what time do you think the park will open back up after the comp? im debating between jfbb or blue for tomorrow...

[snownskateguy]

You should all check out the rail jam on Sunday morning. New snowboard and other mad prizes for steeziest slides. And only $5.00 to enter. Registartion on sidewinder from 8AM to 9AM.

 

which rail(s) will be used for the jam? or maybe the whole top section?

[Park Crue]

Only 2 rails will be roped off for the comp. The rest of the park will be open.

40' Flat box and step down flat boxes.

hopefully we will have a lots of gapers. (Audience).

[method9455]

Just a thought for the hip with the shadowy/icy landing, the worst thing that happens to a hip is if it gets a super icy/chunky landing it really blows out the knees. If you moved it to the right hand side that shadow would be sunny all day and it would be super soft/fun. It doesn't flow as well for the jump line though. What else can go in a corner like that? A c-box? I don't think the hip will soften up ever, I dunno. Mount Snow has a situation like that in their park, and they put a wall ride there, but instead of setting it up like a quarter pipe like the one you guys already have it is setup so that you hit it from the side, kind of like the pros do on street wall rides. So instead of going up you are going across, and there is like a bowl on the exit so you come off into a banked snow berm, and it would shoot you right into the jumps if you did it right. I'm not sure if that would help the issue. The hip flows well but the sun aspect is just an issue, maybe with some traffic it will soften up but if its not getting hit in a bit, there are other things that could get put there.

[toast21602]

i think the best thing to do is to pretend that the hip isnt even there and i use that lump of snow as a starting spot to get speed for the jumps...

[Justin]

I mean theoretically you could hit it and then flow into the jump line if it was built properly. The takeoff is extremely mellow for a hip, if you hit it you would be shot out, you need to be shot up for that thing to not kill you.

[method9455]

I mean theoretically you could hit it and then flow into the jump line if it was built properly. The takeoff is extremely mellow for a hip, if you hit it you would be shot out, you need to be shot up for that thing to not kill you.

 

Yea Mount Snow has a hip just like that, it has the ramp of a jump with the landing of a hip and it shot me out into the flat land and it hurt my knee enough that I lost 2 days of riding when I was up there, it sucked, so I was real warry of the hip at Blue for the same reason.

[snownskateguy]

as long as it stays cold, the hip landing will be solid ice, either from lack of good grooming or it getting scraped off quickly by noobs. just keep it a starting ramp, and they should build it up like 10 more feet to give a little better speed for the jumps, and stretch those out longer.

[Tyler]

my thoughts on the park:

 

i was there all day sunday. i opted out of the comp because it was too windy, but i regret it because it looked pretty fun. besides the ice and wind it was pretty fun.

 

(coming down the hill) the right side of the first section was fun. i liked the 2 rails and the boxes would have been nice if you couldve built up more speed. the flat down was decent and i liked the dfd's a lot. i stayed away from the circus crap for the most part. the hip was worthless besides a drop in for the jumps. the next jumpline was ok, the 4th jump was definetly my favorite. i feel like everything at blue was too close together. the top section of sidewinder was way to crammed and the jumpline wouldve been better off as 3 not 4. The big jump in the next section of sidewinder was really nice. i liked the mellow lip and landing stayed good all day. the octagon bonk is actually a lot of fun as well. as for the next part, the staircase needs a wider lip but was still fun.

 

as for the lower park the cement mixer is way bigger than i thought. the minipipe was a sheet of ice. the butter box was fun until i came out from lunch and there was a crater in the landing. the rainbow was ok, the mat was showing after the flat down, and the little mailbox jib was fun.

 

overall i think sidewinder is way to crammed together. it really doesnt have great flow and all the good jibs are over after the top section. blue does build some nice jumps. oh and park crew is pretty weak. i dont think i saw them fixing a lip the whole time when many of the hits needed it. can't complain though, a fun day.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Oakley21

[toast21602]

my thoughts on the park:

 

i was there all day sunday. i opted out of the comp because it was too windy, but i regret it because it looked pretty fun. besides the ice and wind it was pretty fun.

 

(coming down the hill) the right side of the first section was fun. i liked the 2 rails and the boxes would have been nice if you couldve built up more speed. the flat down was decent and i liked the dfd's a lot. i stayed away from the circus crap for the most part. the hip was worthless besides a drop in for the jumps. the next jumpline was ok, the 4th jump was definetly my favorite. i feel like everything at blue was too close together. the top section of sidewinder was way to crammed and the jumpline wouldve been better off as 3 not 4. The big jump in the next section of sidewinder was really nice. i liked the mellow lip and landing stayed good all day. the octagon bonk is actually a lot of fun as well. as for the next part, the staircase needs a wider lip but was still fun.

 

as for the lower park the cement mixer is way bigger than i thought. the minipipe was a sheet of ice. the butter box was fun until i came out from lunch and there was a crater in the landing. the rainbow was ok, the mat was showing after the flat down, and the little mailbox jib was fun.

 

overall i think sidewinder is way to crammed together. it really doesnt have great flow and all the good jibs are over after the top section. blue does build some nice jumps. oh and park crew is pretty weak. i dont think i saw them fixing a lip the whole time when many of the hits needed it. can't complain though, a fun day.

 

from what i hear, they arent done setting things up. i'm pretty sure there are going to be more jibs after the jumpline and wallride. as for your comment on the flow... i think that park was great flow. you can choose a line of rails/boxes you want to hit and then if you want you can go right into the jumps if you dont stop on the hip. 4 jumps later you can either stop and hit the wallride or make a turn and hit the last jump. its a super long run if you dont stop between features or arent cut off.

[Tyler]

from what i hear, they arent done setting things up. i'm pretty sure there are going to be more jibs after the jumpline and wallride. as for your comment on the flow... i think that park was great flow. you can choose a line of rails/boxes you want to hit and then if you want you can go right into the jumps if you dont stop on the hip. 4 jumps later you can either stop and hit the wallride or make a turn and hit the last jump. its a super long run if you dont stop between features or arent cut off.

 

speed was hard to come by for the top part sunday because of how windy it was so that might have something to do with flow. i liked the placement of the big jump last year better, if this year's was just 10 or 15 feet down further it wouldve been perfect, although it was pretty good. oh and i think blue may have the worst gaper problem around in their parks. i dont know if i took a run without being cut off or having to avoid someone on the landings. hell, i was even cut off by ski patrol

[toast21602]

haha yeah. well the park is going to be tweaked on a regular basis according to the park crue. and the last jump is only temp. its going to be bigger and whatnot. and yes, gapers are BAD there... it didnt help that this was such a popular weekend too and the first weekend for the park to open, making it even more popular.