13-March-2008: Stratton's Men of the Mountain Make the Big Push

Stratton's Men of the Mountain Make the Big Push

By Will Riseley

03/12/08

 

Stratton Mountain, VT- The sun has barely risen into the sky, yet the snowcat engines purr and cut the morning stillness as thousands of square yards of snow are pushed, pulled, spread, and shaped across the lower reaches of Sunriser Supertrail.  In two short weeks the work site will be completely transformed into a slopestyle course and twenty-two foot tall superpipe for the biggest and best snowboarding competition of the year: The 2008 U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships at Stratton Mountain!

 

Park and Pipe riding has become a major part of the alpine sports world, attracting thousands of new participants each year.  Terrain parks with unique and innovative design features are popping up at every resort and massive superpipes are taking skiers and riders even higher above the lip.  Many of us have come to expect these features at our favorite mountains but few of us know the scope of the work that it takes to create them.  Nor are many people familiar with the evolution of the pipe since the first one was created at the Tahoe City Dump in 1979.

 

The Tahoe City Pipe as it was called was not even a pipe in the modernly recognized sense, but a one hit feature where early riders, strapped to the deck of their boards by bungee cords, would go to "get radical" and blow off some steam.  Early "pipes" like the one in Tahoe City were just modified natural terrain, barely resembling the modern superpipes of today.  It wasn't until 1983 that the first man-made halfpipe was constructed at Soda Springs in California for the "Snowboarding World Championships".  That first pipe was placed too high on the mountain where the terrain was too steep and the walls were rough and only four feet high, yet this event was a breakthrough in the history of snowboarding and the halfpipe.  The next major advancement came in 1986 when the "Snowboarding World Championships" moved to Breckenridge, Colorado.  The pipe there was built with five foot high walls and was 150 feet long.  The following year the Breckenridge pipe grew to six feet high, 200 feet long, and became the first permanent snowboard pipe at a resort.

 

The history of on-snow terrain parks and slopestyle courses are a bit more ambiguous, though their advent came out of the same skate influenced guerilla movement that created the halfpipe.  Kickers, rails and boxes are three of the major elements that make up the modern day slopestyle course.   Early riders shaped jumps in their backyards and found rails to ride in public parks, shopping malls, and wherever else they existed.  Slowly they were incorporated into ski mountain terrain until they became a standard feature and big draw for many mountains.  The Slopestyle competition, along with the Superpipe and Big Air competitions are the standard elements that make up the modern day snowboard competition.

 

The first halfpipe built at Stratton Mountain in 1988 was created in the summertime by digging into the dirt and excavating the pipe's intended shape out of the ground.  Park architect Lyle Blazedale quickly recognized many flaws in this design and before long had begun to use the modern technique of stacking the flattened areas above the walls, also known as decks, to the desired height and cutting the shape of the pipe from the center.  By 1990, Stratton and Breckenridge were considered to have the two finest snowboard halfpipes in the world.  Over the next seventeen years, Stratton's pipes continued to grow and evolve as pipe cutting technology, snowboard design, and ability levels advanced.  The pipe grew to twelve, then to fifteen, eighteen, to the now twenty-two foot high walls.  Upon completion, this year's superpipe will be 450 feet long and will require thirty-five square acres or enough snow to completely cover the Statue of Liberty!  This is an obviously massive undertaking that would not be possible without the efforts of some of the unsung heroes at Stratton Mountain.

 

Most people know them by the name Groomers, though others may call them Snow Farmers, Mountain Men, or even Groomsmen.  By the time most of us wake up in the morning, many of these guys have already put in three or more hours of work!  During the winter season, you will find the crew out on the hill seven days a week and oftentimes working hours that would make only a bat jealous.  While much of their time is spent smoothing the trails for the upcoming day's skiers and riders, the Stratton Snow Farmers play a huge role in the creation of the mountain's parks and pipes, including the competition grade superpipe necessary for this month's U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships. 

 

Stratton's grooming operation is headed by Al Desroches. Al grew up in central Massachusetts and started skiing at Stratton with his uncle at the age of five.  He thought that golf course maintenance was his calling and spent some time doing just that before arriving at Stratton in 1987 to work as a groomer.  Eight years ago he became the Trails and Slopes Manager and he now oversees the grooming operations for the mountain.  When he is not working crazy hours or home with his family, Al may be spotted skiing or riding on his two favorite trails at Stratton, Spruce and Polar Bear. 

 

While Al oversees the overall operation, none of it would be possible without his team headed by Rick Lawrence, who spends up to twelve hours a day pushing snow, getting it stacked high and placed just right.   While the Stratton team possesses the equipment and expertise to cut a killer pipe, for a major event such as the U.S. Open, Burton has hired two of the top park and pipe specialists, Planet Snow Design and Snow Park Technologies.  Snow Park Technologies will focus on building the diverse array of elements for the slopestyle Course, while Planet is handling the shaping and cutting of the superpipe.  Using the latest technologies and working with the Stratton group, the expert multilateral team will transform one heck of a large pile of snow into competition grade terrain. 

 

Stratton's Snow Farmers have been stacking and shaping halfpipes for thirty years while also playing host to the U.S. Open for the past twenty-three.   For the crew, the building process has been whittled down to a science and despite the occasional battle with the elements, creating a world class park and pipe has become standard practice.  When it is all said and done, and the world's best riders are gathered at Stratton Mountain for the 2008 U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships, it is thanks to four weeks and over 550 man hours of labor getting the park and pipe into competition shape.  So the next time you grind your nose on a 24 foot Battleship box or get six feet out of a well manicured halfpipe, make sure you take some time to thank your local mountain man for all the hard work!

Will Riseley is the Marketing Communications Coordinator for Stratton Mountain.  He hails from the sort of great state of Connecticut, is an unabashed Yankees fan, a lifelong skier, and a perpetual seeker of the perfect ski run.