Community asks Sun Valley for play terrain
Petition drive mounted
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
A petition circulating around the community asks Sun Valley Co. to
construct a terrain park and half pipe on Bald Mountain for skiers and snowboarders.
Both features have become popular mountain play areas at winter resorts
nationwide, particularly among younger skiers and boarders. A half pipe is a snow-created
version of a skate board half pipe, and a terrain park consists of various shapes and
sizes of jumps, kickers and play-oriented terrain.
Local residents are calling for Sun Valley Co. to construct a half
pipe and terrain park for skiers and snowboarders. Two seasons ago, Sun Valley maintained
a half pipe (pictured above) on Dollar Mountain, although it didn’t rebuild it the
following season. Express photo by Willy Cook
Although the petition has not yet been turned over to Sun Valley Co., it
has amassed over 700 signatures.
Sun Valley already owns the expensive grooming equipment, called a half
pipe grinder (HPG), necessary to build and maintain a half pipe. Two seasons ago, the
resort built a half pipe on Dollar Mountain, but scrapped the feature after only one
season.
Sun Valley Co. general manager Wally Huffman said the half pipe was
removed from the resort’s terrain offerings because the slope it was on was too steep
and because it required an extra snowcat on Dollar Mountain.
"This mountain (Bald Mountain) is not lacking for space," said
Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation snowboard coach Andy Gilbert, who’s been coaching
on Baldy for eight years. "They just need to do it and try it and see that it works.
[Parks and half pipes] are wide-spread. They’re everywhere."
According to an article in Transworld Snowboard Business, a
snowboarding trade magazine, 78 percent of United States ski resorts have terrain parks
and 58 percent have half pipes.
"We need to pay attention to what’s going on," Gilbert
said. "We’re 10 years behind."
Gilbert’s freestyle snowboard team has grown to 30 local kids over
the past several years. He said he takes the team to competitions at other resorts where
the kids compete on half pipes and terrain parks without having had the opportunity to
practice at home.
Some have even left the area to go to resorts where they can practice
their sports, Gilbert said.
Gilbert said everyone with whom he’s talked is in favor of the idea.
"I’m up there preaching to the converted," he said.
Huffman, however, isn’t completely sold on the idea.
"I doubt very much that this season we could get anything done,"
he said.
Huffman countered Gilbert’s assertion that Bald Mountain has plenty
of terrain to accommodate the play features. He also said creation of a park and half pipe
could require moving dirt during summer months, something that may require an
environmental study by the U.S. Forest Service, from whom the resort leases the mountain.
Gilbert disagreed.
"At this point, we want anything. Give us three mounds of snow, and
we’ll shape them," he said.
Huffman said he was annoyed that he hasn’t heard from members of the
community personally, but heard about the issue from a reporter.
"No one contacted me," he said. "They need to have the
courtesy to communicate with me directly."
Direct communication has occurred with the resort’s management in the
past, however.
Last spring, the city of Ketchum, Blaine County Recreation District and
the city of Sun Valley wrote letters to Sun Valley Co.’s owner, Earl Holding,
requesting the play features on the mountain.
"As you know, the baby boomers who comprise much of our current
skiers are aging and the ski industry is looking to young skiers and snowboarders as their
market for the future. I think a terrain park and half pipe on Bald Mountain can be a
great attraction to this young market which can be the key to our future growth in
attracting skiers and snowboarders to Sun Valley," Ketchum Mayor Guy Coles wrote to
Holding and Huffman.
Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber of Commerce executive director Carol Waller
said she agrees with Coles’ remarks.
"It’s definitely something we’d like to see happen,"
she said. "We’re at a competitive disadvantage."
According to Freeze Magazine publisher and former Sun Valley Ski
Team member Michael Jaquet, a terrain park and half pipe on Bald Mountain could help Sun
Valley accommodate a growing niche in the ski industry’s target market.
"Sun Valley Co. needs to recognize what’s happening in the
industry," Jaquet said. "It’s not too late to jump on the band wagon and
attract young people.
Every year Sun Valley operates without a half pipe and terrain park,
Jaquet said, is "a year of lost p.r. and lost impression."
