RESORT BLOG

NAME: Smugglers Notch
Web: www.SMUGGS.com
Season: Nov-April
Tickets: All day $58, 1/2 Day $44
Vertical Drop: 2610
Top Elevation: 3640′
Terrain Parks: 3
Superpipe: 1
Lifts: 8 total: 6 Lifts, 2 handle bars
Acres: 1000+
Snowfall: 24 feet
Parks: 7 out of 10
Terrain: 8 out of 10
Town: 4 out of 10
Vibe: 9 out of 10
Who you might see: Burton employees testing new gear, Vermont up and comers, East coast Freeriders
CLOSEST SNOWBOARD SHOP: No School Snowboard Shop

Smugglers Notch “SMUGGS” is the spot you should visit in Northern Vermont if you are looking for some epic freeriding. Its a super cool “grass roots” resort that has some great terrain to be ridden. This is the closest resort to Burlington Vermont and is a super easy drive to get there. The mountain has a weekly snowboard event that is Jam Format. This simply encourages snowboarders to ride hard and work on new tricks in a no pressure environment. If you head to Burlingto, or Northern Vermont make sure you go ride Smugglers Notch, and check out the woods run “Shakedown” its sick.

Web: www.goremountain.com
Season: Nov-April
Tickets: All day $64, Weekdays $55
Vertical Drop: 2100
Top Elevation: 3600
Terrain Parks: 1
Superpipe: 0
Lifts: 11 total- 8 passenger Northwoods Gondola, 2 Quads, 1 High-Speed Triple, 1 Triple, 3 Doubles, 3 Surface lifts.
Acres: 344
Snowfall: 150 inches
Parks: 3 out of 10
Terrain: 7 out of 10
Town: 7 out of 10
Vibe: 9 out of ten
Who you might see: Albany Locals, New Jersey visitors, Vermont explorers, and family riders

For the New York freerider, Gore Mountain is one mountain that should be on your “must ride” checklist. The mountain holds snow in some tucked off runs for days after the powder has all been ridden.  So go get it. The people at Gore mountain were all super polite and they seem to have a good crew of up and coming snowboarders that visit on the weekends. They have a terrain park that is located at the Ski Bowl Park and will be open for night riding.  If you are looking for a mountain to escape the school atmosphere, city life, or just rip a sick NY mountain check out Gore. Gore is More.

Spot Check: Park City, Utah
photos and words by George Crosland

Utah is a state full of some of the lift served mountains in the US. If you have not made it to Utah to ride, it should be on your list of places to go. The place is sick, from downtown Salt Lake rail jams to the Wasatch to the Northern resorts; Snowbasin and Powder Mountain. Out of the whole state Park City sticks out though. Park City is the only place where a ski resort town really exists. Most of the areas in Utah are just that – areas, insane riding but no real town. Park City is a real town with history, a cool downtown and lots of good places to eat; like Breckenridge, Aspen, Sun Valley and so on. The riding? Oh, yea, Park City Mountain Resort drops down right into town so it is the only real full on destination resort/town in Utah.

Not just a cool town Park City is the most well rounded resort in Utah; good freeriding, great groomed runs, and the best terrain parks in Utah (the world?). Hey at $77 (Brighton is only $55) for a full day ticket, Park City had better give you the goods and they do.

The mountain is not as steep as other nearby resorts, say Snowbird but there is enough to keep you interested. You are going to start out on the Payday lift or the town lift (and so is everyone else) and go from there with a lot of terrain to cover. King Con, Silverlode and Motherlode have some insane mid-level cruising and tree runs. Thaynes and ski team lifts have some really nice black diamond runs. The real gems are located off McConkey’s and Jupiter lifts though. Both of those lifts serve up nice double black runs. One of the drawbacks of Park City is that it is located on the backside of the Wasatch Mountains and does not get the same amount of snow as say Snowbird. This is also nice because all the powder whores head to Snowbird while Park City can have fresh tracks all day. Try riding the Jupiter lift and riding Portuguese gap on a windy day or hiking up to Jupiter peak for pow.

Let us not forget about the parks, the best in the state, heck some of the best in the world. Pick and Shovel (Three Kings lift), Payday (Payday lift) and lower Jonsey’s (Bonanza lift) are great for all levels of riders. Kings Crown (Payday lift) is where Marc Franc, Aaron Bittner, Shaun White and others will be lappin. Upper Jonsey’s is closed to the public (while were there) and where they open up for photos shoots and stuff, pros only. Park City was also home to the Olympic Pipe so you know that thing is tight.

Whether you are on a week long family trip to Park City or sleeping in your car in Park City, check out Park City. Of course, do not forget Sundance a cool experience and the slopes are not too crowded during the event. Discount tickets can be found at Supermarkets in Salt Lake too.

Web: www.parkcitymountain.com
Season: Nov-April
Tickets: All day $77, half day $60
Vertical Drop: 3100’
Top Elevation: 10,000
Terrain Parks: 4
Superpipe: 1
Lifts: 4 high speed sixers, 2 high speed quads, 5 triples, 4 doubles, one magic carpet
Acres: 3,300
Snowfall: 355 inches
Parks: 8-9 out of 10
Terrain: 8 out of 10
Town: 9 out of 10
Vibe: 7-8 out of ten
Who you might see: Marc Franc Montoya, Aaron Bitner, Erin Comstock, Scotty Arnold, Shaun White, Jeremy Jones, Stevie Bell, Drew Fuller, Louie Vito and way more
Events: World Superpipe champs – March 10, Roxy Chicken Jam – March 24

Alright! We are finally getting started one these Blogs and updating them as much as we can.

This past Sunday the 28th I was able to make a quick stop through Bear Mtn on my way home to Mammoth. Bear has really been on top of their game this season. After a great opening with almost 35+ jumps and rails, new snowmaking equipment and help from a few small storms the whole mtn is in great shape and almost all the runs are open. Currently Bear has a 2 - 4ft base and grand total of 144 jumps, rails and other features, not to mention they have the only superpipe in so cal.
Sunday morning we rolled up around 930 luckly found a parking spot up top and didnt have to ride the cattle car from the bottom lot since everything was full. After a few laps found the crew busted out the camera and we had a rad day of shredding. If you havent already been to Bear you definaly need to go check it out. You will have a great time, guarenteed. I know im coming back.
-AM

There is no doubt that the resort that resides on both Nevada and California is anything less than Heavenly. The resort has a large number of awesome obstacles to ride and usually has them set up perfect. This christmas break/new years we decided to do a check up on the snowboard park on this South Lake Tahoe resort.

Here are some pictures taken Dec. 29th 2006 of the large snowboard park Heavenly usually has set up. It may be the lack of snow, it may be that their are a large number of beginner riders in the area but Heavenly currently is not taking advantage of their snowboard park. Hopefully once they recieve a little more snow, or the christmas break is over they will get their park in full effect.