Solitude added terrain parks for the first time in a long time last winter. The Main Street #SoliParks has become a stable of our terrain park offerings. We’ve also had features on Upper Tude Dudes, Easy Street, and North Star. Are you wondering what the direction of our park programs is? Watch the latest Amber’s Updates for insight into why we have done what we have done and what could be coming down the road. As we improve our snowmaking systems, that will also enhance our parks.
Tyler Sites is our terrain parks manager at Solitude; he comes to Solitude from Palisades Tahoe. Tyler has an engineering background, and a lot of physics goes into building terrain park features. The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) has a guidebook we follow when building jumps and features. The length of a jump takeoff is the same as the gap, and the landing is twice as long as the gap.
Skiing and riding “Park Smart” is important for everyone who enters our parks. Start small, make a plan, always look, respect, take it easy.
The Main Street park is in its second year. It currently has small and medium features with no plans to add large features. This season, features from the old Eagle Express towers are new in the Main Street park.
The Upper Tude Dudes park is new this year. It is currently a beginner park. All of the jib features in it are ride-on.
As we continue to improve our snowmaking, we will have more consistent park offerings. While we liked the location on Sunrise last year, it took a lot of natural snow to open that location. As we continue to have parks at Solitude, we will continue to refine them and optimize locations.
To catch up on previous Amber’s Updates, visit https://blog.solitudemountain.com/category/ambers-updates/