Mt. Hood Meadows
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Mt.Hood Meadows!!
Board Parks
Vista Park(Big)
This park is located in the upper snowfield that is right off the lift of the Vista Chair. It has pro style features. Right now there is three large jumps back to back. You have a great view of the park from the lift so bring your A game! This park is very scary, the jumps go as the following.
- 35 foot, wedge step-down
- 40-50 foot, wedge step-down
- 35 foot, step-up
All of these jumps can be seen from the lift, so you can easily see what the landings are like and see how much speed you need to take off the lips to clear to where the landing starts. The only problem is the location of the park. It is on the upper snowfield of Vista chair, so if it's windy or stormy the jumps are closed because of safety hazards. But, if you hit Meadows on a nice day or after a new snowfall than you can find meadows pro's like Sammy Carlson, and the park crew going huge!!.
Vista Park(lower)
This is the largest and most varied park at Meadows. It has numerous handrails, and three jumps all of different lengths and styles. As in the picture above don't forget about the 500 foot long in-ground superpipe at the end of the park. It's a must ride before getting on the Vista Express lift and hitting the run over and over again. If your a rail monkey than this is where to go. I will list some of the feature:
- 25 foot long double barrel handrail
- 35 foot long flat-to-down flatrail
- two 20 foot long C-rails, left and right, UHMW sliders
- 35 foot long S-rail, single bar handrail, Gnarly
- 20 foot flat box, 2 foot wide.
- Bread boxes of various length
- 35 foot slant down double barrel, fast
- 30 foot slant up-to-flat, Mt hood signature rail.
- two 15 foot boxes one flat and other gapped to down, scary
Let's not forget about the kickers though, they have two large kickers back to back. They both have a large side and a small side. Both vary in length for 15 foot gap to 30 foot gaps. These kickers are way to fun with steep landings and easy take offs, they are nothing like the ones in the Upper park. If you really want to progress in one day as an all around snowboarder than this is the place go!
Hood River Park
OK kids, here it is!! The most of fun park i've ever rode, is also their most varied and longest on the mountain. It has a total of 9 jumps and three rails, all in a row. This park is located on the far right-hand side of the mountain located at the top of the Hood River Express Chair. When riding up the chair you can see to the right all the features to your right of you and it is easy to judge speed and distance from the chair. This park is the most perfectly set up park I've rode in a long time. If you watch the X-games it's just like that, only a quarter of the size. All the jumps are back to back to back with three rails breaking up the flow in the middle of the run, but if your on your game than you can go from the top of the park to the finish with no stopping and waiting for any jumps. This is why people love the park, the only wait is at the top and the rest of the park all yours, like a ride up and down and through the woods to the end. No, waiting for each jump like on the other side of the mountain.
This park is also an Intermediate park, with a couple of large gaps at the end, but nothing like the huge ones on vista. I love this park because it's like a roller coaster of jumps, they have so many types and they offer anywhere form 15 to 35 foot gaps, which is perfect for all day blitzing. I'll give the layout. Drop in:
- First jump- *20 foot wedge table, easy
- Second jump- *25 foot wedge table, hit this fast
- Third jump- *25 foot wedge table, but long landing and very poppy, watch out
- Fourth jump- *30 foot long take off, to long landing, my favorite jump for tricks, very floaty and forgiving
- Into rail one- *35 foot double barrel rail, a large gap to this rail, you have to hit with speed
- Then rail two- *15 foot flat-to-down kink bread box, favorite rail on whole mountain
- Rail three- * 6 foot tall pyramid rail, didn't these go out in the 90's, skip it
- Fifth Jump- *35 foot large wedge table, you drop way down on this, keep all speed up for next hit
- Sixth jump- *30 foot very tall TRUE table, this is the best jump for soaring and grabbing, so much air, so little effort
- Seventh jump- *30 foot or 15 foot huge drop down canyon jump, scary at first because you drop into a canyon, way fast
- Eighth Jump- *25 foot step-up out of canyon, this is hard to hit
- Ninth jump- *10 foot TRUE table, a little play jump for people to try fun tricks without getting hurt
That is the overview of what a run is through the park. This is an all-around fun place to be all day. When it's stormy or windy this is the only place to hit jumps out of the weather, the run it is on is narrow and guarded by a ridge and huge tree on both sides. This setting adds to the roller coaster feel to this park. It gets a little crowded on the weekends at this park sometimes, but stick it out and ride Hood River chair all day, you will have a blast over there. The Hood River Park is now closed due to lack of snow. It was good while it lasted but, now the snow is gone. The hot Spring season, which felt more like Summer, has taken a toll on the snow. The lower spots of the mountain have too many bare spots, which makes it unsafe to ride on. But, on the upside, Mt. Hood Express, Buttercup, Vista, and Cascade are still open. There is plenty of snow on the top of the mountain, so keep riding.
Pro Features
I've seen them and you wouldn't believe the size of them The pro features are up and they are huge. The Superparks are called Park Dreams. There is a Superpipe right under the Cascade lift. The pipe is always freshly cut and smooth as butter. The Superpipe is called the Arena Superpipe. There are hardly any lines to wait for cause everyone thinks the season is over. But, its still going strong. Their Superpark is right next to the Superpipe. It is called the Cascade Superpark. This park is the real deal. The first jump has a larger take off and a smaller take off to the right. These jumps are perfectly groomed and are smooth. The jump is about 40 feet long and the landing give you enough room if you go too fast. The landing is about 20 feet long and leads to another huge jump. The second jump will launch you high and far. It is about 50-60 feet long and leads to a step up jump. The last jump is the real deal. Its not to be messed with because if you dont make it, you could seriously hurt yourself. The jump is a 50 foot step up. All these jumps should be used only by those who are capable and experienced.
The real Pro features that I was really getting to are the Pro only photo jumps that Meadows built last month. If you get off the Green chair to the left and look directly down the next run you will see a massive transition that takes you up and over a 30 foot tree to a very steep landing. The transtion is about 18 foot tall then the gap tp clear to the landing is at least 60 feet. These feature are only open to pros or very good skiiers and riders that have the supervision of the Meadows ski patrol. No poaching these ones. This is the thris in a series of on going publicity that Meadows is trying to create in top ranked ski and board magazines. At the start ofthe year they had a 40 foot step-up in the upper cascade area, that the landing was a natural windlip. The guys where hitting it at 45+ MPH. The other pro only feature was the 35 step-to down that Sammy Carlson and his boys where hitting, but my friend ask Sammy if he could hit it and the ski partol agrred. He said that you had to take off tfrom that top of the run and not spped check once. It was so fast that he overcleared the landing, but he's a charger and loved every minute of it.
If you are a baller and can get some in's with the patrol than Meadows has your fix for you. These style of jump only pop up every once in a while, then get taken down the next week, so be on the look out and bring your camera!
Late Spring Parks!!!
Bully Park That's right, there are more parks. Just when you the season was over, Meadow's ups the ante and gives you more. They are really making up for last year when they had bad snow. The new park is called the Bully Park. This park resembles the Hood River Park. The jumps are smaller and have less chance of getting broken off. They are about 20-30 feet long and come one after the other. The park reminds me of a skatepark because of everything being back to back. There are also rails mixed in with the jumps. There are about five jumps and 8 rails. The last part of the park has 4 rails back to back. There are boxes, flat rails, down rails, kinked, etc. You name and they got it. Meadows deserves a pat on the back for the efforts that they have put forth in keeping the season going and giving its faithful customers a good park.
OSU Student Photos
This section is a place where current students of Oregon State add photos of good days and fun times with their friends. Please add solid content, so we can all get the stoke of riding and get pumped up for the next time to the mountian. Post photos with where you where and day of photo taken.
Mt Hood Meadows, March 2006 My friend and I getting ready for a beautiful day
