'Freeriders' take to air at Utah's terrain parks

First there were bumps, then giant-size moguls, and now rails, boxes, A-frames, spines, teeter-totters, jumps and hollowed-out halfpipes.

All are, at different times in the skiing/snowboarding evolution, intended to bring thrills and chills to those now referred to as "freeriders."

The newest features are found in terrain parks. The creation of terrain parks at ski areas hit several years ago, but have only become popular here in Utah in the past few years, noted park creators Jim Mangan of Park City Mountain Resort and Jim Baker of Snowbird.

Terrain parks, as the name suggests, are areas within the boundaries of a ski area where unusual forms grow from beneath the snow to create some pretty unusual forms.

Skiers and snowboarders, in turn, use these features to slide, slip, jump and glide across.

These features range from straight rails, something along the lines of railings between stairs, which riders slide along, to the "Gap Jump" at Park City that is open only to freeriding pros and photographers looking for the spectacular.

"I'd say we open it to pros every other week for photos. You see the shots in all the major ski and snowboard publications," said Mangan. "It identifies (Park City Mountain Resort) and is an example of the commitment we've made (to developing world-class terrain parks)."

The three parks at PCMR are consistently rated among the top three in the country. The parks at The Canyons have also received national recognition.

Parks were developed to interest the younger skiers and snowboarders, said Baker.

"Last year the talk was to go big . . . big jumps with lots of air and big features," he added. "We looked at the trend and the industry and backed off . . . we've found people like smaller jumps — more floaters than kickers. We concentrated more on rails and smaller features for the intermediate riders."

Park City developed three different parks, one for each level — beginner, intermediate and expert.

Mangan was actually brought to the resort in 2002 to put some life into the resort's parks. Today, the resort is recognized as a "leader in the industry."

Each feature received as much time and effort as needed, he said, "To make it perfect, I look at a run and make sure it is conducive to the feature I want, that is, it is the right size and design to fit the level of the park.