Terrain park

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This terrain park begins with three jumps.

S-rail at the bottom of the same terrain park at Timberline Lodge ski area

A terrain park is an outdoor area that contains terrain that allows snowboarders and skiers to do tricks. Terrain parks have their roots in skateboard parks and many of the features are common to both. One of the first in-bounds terrain parks was the "Snowboard Park" built in 1990 at the Vail resort^[1]. The success of the park was copied soon in other resorts. Today most resorts have terrain parks with many having multiple parks of varying difficulty. There are still other resorts that are almost exclusively terrain parks such as Echo Mountain Park in Idaho Springs, Colorado, USA. In Colorado there has been a recent trend of formerly defunct resorts such as Squaw Pass (now Echo Mountain Park) and St. Mary's Glacier (now Eclipse Snow Park) are being reopened as resorts catering to the terrain park.

1 Difficulty
2 Jibs
3 Jumps
4 Vertical
5 See also
6 Notes

[edit] Difficulty

Terrain parks (in the United States) have designations with respect to safety similar to standard alpine slopes. They do however differ in their designation and degrees of difficulty. Terrain parks are identified with orange ovals to separate from standard slopes and are further distinguished by Large, Medium, or Small features. While features vary from resort to resort, commonly Small features will be very short jumps and rails that are even with the slopes surface, Medium will be 0 - 10 foot jumps along with jibs requiring small jumps to get on top of, and Large will include 5 - 90 foot jumps along with complex jibs and large vertical pipes.

[edit] Jibs

Jibs are any type of fixture which can be ridden with the board/skis either parallel or perpendicular to (ground), ridden while spinning around on (buttered), or ridden and jumped or tricked from. Many jib features closely resemble everyday outdoor items which are frequently used when snowboarding in an urban area (stair rails, benches, tables, etc.). In the park these features consist of:

Rail: A metal bar, either rounded or with a small flat surface, which a skier or snowboarder can slide across (called "jibbing").
Funbox: Similar to a rail, but wider with a ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) surface. May or may not have metal edges. Compare Funbox, for skateboarding.
Trees: used as natural surfaces and can be found either on or off the trails.

Rails and boxes have many different shapes and sizes: straight, sloped, curved (often called a "Rainbow"), or kinked. Rails, especially rainbow, will also be seen curving over obstacles or vehicles.

Park Bench and Picnic Table: A funbox type feature that resembles a park bench or picnic table. The edges are made of metal rails and the surfaces of UHMWPE. These features provide multiple surfaces to ride.
Mail Box: A large diameter metal pipe of varying length that's cross-section resembles a mail box.
Wall ride: A vertical, or near-vertical, wall-like surface made of UHMWPE. Most wall rides have another similar surface at the top that is angled down towards the wall, but more perpendicular to the ground (like a sideways funbox attached to the top of the wall ride)

[edit] Jumps

Jumps in terrain parks can range from five feet to ninety feet and will vary park to park and resort to resort. In contrast to jibs, typically being manufactured off-site and constructed of steel and plastic, jumps are most commonly constructed entirely of snow or snow with a base of dirt. Tricks such as grabs and twists or spins are often performed while in the air from a jump. Types of jumps in a park may consist of:

Tabletop: A jump that looks somewhat like a table or trapezoid in which you take off from an incline (the lip), clear a flat part (the table), and then land on a downslope (the landing)
Step-down: A jump in which the landing is lower than the takeoff
Step-up: A jump in which the landing is higher than the takeoff
Gap: A jump that has a large gap in between the take off and landing, instead of a table
Hip: A jump with one landing, which is perpendicular to the take off
Spine: A jump with two landings, which are perpendicular to the take off. Similar to a hip, but with a landing on both sides

[edit] Vertical

Half-pipe: A downhill trough with vertical lips on each side. It resembles a half of a cylinder. See also: Superpipe
Quarter-pipe: A vertical lip with the intention of the snowboarder or skier to launch straight into the air and then land back onto the same lip.