Hey,
I ride myself and just got back from LIberty Mountain last night, just went up for the day. The terrain park there was set up pretty nice. They have a lot of features. Three main lanes of travel with big kickers, rails, c rails, flat boxes and table tops. They also have another lane wide left with a nice flat box and 25 foot step down. I thought that was one of the better parks i have seen in this area for a while. The problem with it, is that there were tons of kids who probably should not have been in the park, so you ended up waiting about 10 minutes or so to get in line to hit the line you wanted. All in all, great park once you get up there since the lift line was long which took you to mid station. They also have a j bar set up for the park. But all in all, pretty good. I maybe be back next week.

at 7S the beginer park is open. They just got finished rebuilding the alpine meadows park and have a few jumps, rails and other stuff. Its on their snow report website and regualrly updated:

Arctic Blast Childrens Park Open with no features!

Santa's Beard Terrain Park 1-10'x2' box; 1-10'x1' box; 1-Dance Floor; 1-Rainbow rail; 1-Tabletop

"The Spot" Terrain Park 1 medium jump; 30'triple barrel; 30' flat down...safety park pass required plus area ticket. Check at the bottom of "The Spot" for the safety park pass.

Last weekend whitetail had a number of rails set up. They had a rainbow box, up-flat rail, c box and one good size table top. Most were hitting the kickers and jumping off to the sides, me include because I still don't feel confident on rails. The table top landing was like a solid plate so landings needed to be clean. The only gripe I had was that to hit the table with enough speed to clear it you had to keep trucking from the top of the park to the take off. What usually ended up happening was that you would get messed up by someone approaching slower or beginning their approach further down. I ended up aborting more times than I hit it. It's hard to call a drop at the beginning of the park for a feature at the end. I've always felt that Angel Drop was too shallow for a park.

Liberty's park looked good on Sunday although they had most of it roped off for a competition so the only elements for other users were a flat box and a flat down box. I still somehow managed to botch the flat box which is unusual even for me. The section they had for the comp looked like it had 2 kickers, 6 rails and 3 boxes

Tucker, what is T-Line running for park features this year?

Did they ever get that t-bar/rope-tow in?

There are pulley's and a lift shack in place for the rope tow...I guess only time(or Tucker) will tell if a rope tow will be available.

If Whitetail is in good shape with the rest of the mountain, i.e. just about everything open, and all they are doing is thickening the base then why haven't they blown a lick of snow on the pipe? Snowpark looks like it's in good shape but the pipe looks a little lost. They didn't open it last year, are we looking at a repeat this year?

As of today at 7S, only Santas Beard park is open. The other parks are closed for heavy duty snowmaking and building. With any luck, we'll see all parks AND pipes open this weekend stacked with all the new features we bought.

To the many, many non park riders out there: Why not stop into your local ski/board school and ask for a park lesson? There are many of us ready to show you how much fun parks can be in a safe manner. If you don't play in the parks, you don't know what you're missing. They really spice up your riding experience, especially in the terrain starved Mid Atlantic.

hey Matt, why don't you just go buy a set of blades?

Hmm... operation drum up my bizznass may be succeeding. The nordica beasts ARE twintips!

Because I'm straight.

Not just my business, all instructors business. Too many people stop taking lessons after "beginner". We can open your eyes to a whole new playground, be it better bumps, trees, steeps, crud or terrain parks.

Call and set it up, I'll introduce you to the park scene on those Beasts. Book at least 2 hours and we'll make some headway. We might even get the old patroler out there with us some day, lol.

Never...I say NEVER! I like the bases and edges of my skis to remain in tact.

I took a park lesson at Snowshoe. Made a big difference, need more though. It was mostly hitting jumps, no rails. I might get a park lesson in Utah this coming week. Sometimes it takes someone telling what you kind of know but need to be pushed into doing. For example at Snowshoe the tables are a pretty good size. On the approach it's easy to get intimidated and slow down so you don't go too big. As a result you end up eating your knees when you land on the upsloping face of the knuckle (the landing section is sometimes called the knuckle). This tells your mind that if it's this bad going slow it must be horrible if you go fast. The instructor at Snowshoe told me, go fast, and when you think you are going fast enough go faster. So there I am plowing ahead dreading what this landing was going to be and honestly it landed smooth because I cleared the knuckle and landed on the downslope face. I still struggle with my approach speed but I feel more comfortable tackling that stuff now.

I agree. Even today they say it's on their snowmaking objectives but by the same token there isn't a gun near it. It's not like the weather isn't suitable, now is the best time to blow on it. Does it have to do with the groomer. From what I understand the three Snowtime resorts share 1 groomer (might be why when it is open it's only cut once per season). I just find it odd when all the other resorts put such emphasis on it, 7 Springs for example, and WT seems blow it off (okay pun intended).

This from the man who says core shots are a badge of honor?