A terrain park is an outdoor area that contains terrain that allows skiers and snowboarders to perform tricks. Terrain parks have their roots in skateparks 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 park was copied soon in other resorts. Today most resorts have terrain parks, with many having multiple parks of varying difficulty. Some resorts are almost exclusively terrain parks such as Echo Mountain Park in Idaho Springs, Colorado, USA and Snow Park in Wanaka, New Zealand. In Colorado there has been a recent trend for defunct resorts such as Squaw Pass (now Echo Mountain Park) to be reopened, catering to terrain park users.
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Terrain parks (in the United States and Canada) have designations with respect to safety similar to standard alpine slopes. They differ in their designation and degrees of difficulty. They are identified with orange ovals to differentiate them from standard slopes, and are further distinguished by Large, Medium, or Small features. While features vary between resorts, commonly Small features will be short jumps and rails that are even with the slopes surface, Medium will be 10 – 30 foot jumps along with jibs requiring small jumps to get on top of, and Large will include 30 – 90 foot jumps along with complex jibs and large vertical pipes.
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 resemble outdoor items used when snowboarding in urban areas (stair rails, benches, tables, etc.). In the park these consist of:
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.
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 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:
Terrain park only areas, which are similar to regular resorts are becoming more common, and are increasing in popularity. These areas typically have jumps and features on all trails and are generally smaller than most resorts. While their size may be less than that of larger resorts these areas are more appealing to terrain park riders as they are typically cheaper, have more extreme, or uncommon features, and have music played over loud speakers throughout the area. These areas are generally rider owned and operated. Some examples can be seen from Echo mountain park (www.echomtnpark.com) and 540 central board park (www.540Central.com). Mount Snow, Vermont has the only all mountain park face on a mountain called Carinthia. With three other faces of the mountain, Carinthia attracts thousands of riders to this destination in Southern Vermont to throw down their tricks.