etiquette Q: Carving in terrain park

[VSR-Alex]

If anyone asks, I'm practicing my "setup turns".

[softbootsurfer]

I thought I would add some....to my post about Milkland

I get way more "go aways" from skiers, on the Groom, if I ride 12 waves on a run, they are in chaos, tips being directed away, from where they thought they were going....

I played in the park features myself for years, I know exactly what I can do in there,  without harming the conditions...

I also remember, our son 36 years ago, he walks in the door and starts talking about, meeting a school friend Jesse, at Milklands Timber doodle, deep in the woods, they had cleared a path, to these two dead aspen trees, then built some ramps with timbers,  a left and a right...couple weeks later I followed their track in there to see what they were up to...they would slide up the one aspen hop to the other going down, then a left wall into a right wall, as they were both Goofys, they said the idea was from the Skateboard magazines, to slide and Carve off walls or pools...

 

 

 

[John Gilmour]

Well I don't yell at people who get air on my carving runs so long as they don't land on anyone, me in particular.

I won't trench near any "take off or landing area"- typically I'll carve lighter and on the edges well out of harms way.  Definitely Not in the center.

When you look a park with almost zero utilization... you may as well carve it- especially  late in the day as the OP said.. (cuz your carve won't sit there for 6 hours as opposed to doing it in the last hour of the day).

but..

If the park is really busy I figure that's what they paid to do with their lift ticket and I'll give them their own dedicated space. Skiers and boarders tend to give me dedicated carving space when I carve so I return the favor.

Use good judgement, don't be that DICK that annoys and snakes the kid who has been waiting to drop for 6 min. and trench their landing or worse makes them eat it to avoid landing on you. There's this instagram vide with this moron skier cutting directly into a landing zone and getting clocked uggh.

My experience is the kids dig a bit of laid over stuff- particularly if you hit a jump or two as well.   I like to hit a small jump (skiers right)  in Snowmass' park and then after a few feet (as not to trench a landing) when it would look impossible to get far enough over in time- do a massive fully laid over heel side arc (looking uphill first)  - pop up ,line up, and hit the next jump (also sucks out a lot of speed) . If you make things that look impossible, become possible...that tends to get props from the park rats.

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by John Gilmour

[Shred Gruumer]

On 3/7/2023 at 3:54 PM, Neil Gendzwill said:

Don't be a Jerry, stay out of the park.  They build it for a specific purpose and carving is not it.  You've got a whole mountain to ride, why would you want to be there anyway?

Booooooooo..

Thats the only place they do actually groom good...

 

 

[Shred Gruumer]

On 3/9/2023 at 3:46 PM, John Gilmour said:

When you look a park with almost zero utilization... you may as well carve it-

I think I saw 4 people in the whitefish park today.

I think their crashing did more damage than my carving..

[Eastsiiiide]

On 3/7/2023 at 5:27 PM, Carvin' Marvin said:

Show me on the doll where the lifty hurt you. 

Omg this is litrally LOL every time I read it.  Thank you I needed that.  Oh me. 

[Eastsiiiide]

On 3/7/2023 at 5:32 PM, b0ardski said:

I'll lace the features if there's no one around, take a small hit to legitimize; if it's getting used I stay the **** out of the way

some week day afternoons it's the only groom left.

Yeah this. And hey, I think we're not even all talking about the same thing.  At Mammoth for example there's a park for olympic-level airs (it was pretty mind blowing in the lead-up to the last olympics) and then there are multiple other parks for various other parky uses.  I wandered into the world class park once and was like jesus christo this is not where I meant to be this place is terrifying get me the eff out of here now pls, while the other ones with rails and stuff are just not interesting for carving compared to well, any other part of the mountain, but the littler, just-for-fun terrain spots, when they're not being used, are open season to whatever you want to do, going over under around and through, as Grover would say.  So to just say "should you go in a park?" is misleading.  I think it's easy for folks to have a knee jerk response to this question based on the park scene they're used to at their mountain, but the context actually varies a lot.  If I answered this question based just on the monster freestyle run at Mammoth I would say holy hell, stay out of there man, are you high?  Unless of course you can do big airs on your carving board, which I would like to see.  If it was the park with all the rails and stuff I'd say, yeah wth, give em a fly-by now and then Maverick, if you really want to for some reason (but why? it sucks there).  If it's a few built features on one of the better runs for carving, I say yeah, go for it, and try to use some of that terrain to challenge yourself.  It's all very situational, no?

(btw thank you @pow4ever for such a hilarious topic)

[NateW]

I'm in the park pretty much all day every day, because getting air is my favorite thing ever, and carving is the most fun way to get from one jump to the next.

IMO carving in there is fine, as long as you stay out of the way of the people that are using the featurers for their intended purpose. 

The rules are a bit different - the park is to the freeway what the rest of the mountain is to residential streets. There will be people who waited in line to hit a feature, or who come off a feature at high speed and halfway (or fully) out of control because they're pushing their limits, and if you get in their way, you're the asshole.

Get familiar with the traffic patterns, so that you can either blend right in with them, or keep your distance from them. 

Do not behind a big jump unless you either hit that jump or waited your turn to use that feature. Going around the jump and getting air off the landing is no big deal IMO.

But do not go around the jump and then carve up the landing. It's dangerous for you and for whoever has the misfortune of landing on you - or landing right above you then slamming into you because they're moving faster with less control because they just dropped out of the sky.

But if you grok the traffic patterns and ride responsibly, you're fine.

https://www.facebook.com/nate.waddoups/videos/10222139695744102 

https://www.facebook.com/nate.waddoups/videos/940091907011769

[John Gilmour]

On 3/7/2023 at 4:58 PM, Odd Job said:

A certain well known ski area hires felons…

I've nearly been violently assaulted at Beaver Creek by Ski Ambassadors..... betcha its Vail Resorts.

[Odd Job]

Loveland Ski Area