Just opening this thread to continue the direction of conversation from the thread on wearing helmets.

Personally I don't know where they could relocate it to without impeding on other trails. I don't want to see the park shoved into a corner somewhere and forgotten about but the volume of traffic on Angel Drop is getting ridiculous. As I said in the other thread, it needs it's own lift. A chair preferably or at the least a tow.

As KevR said developing a new area for it would be a gret idea too but I think we all know that it will be a very, very long time before this happened.

Moving it to another slope like Fanciful or Snowdancer may mean poor snowcoverage. I wonder if it would be a better idea to move it to the upper part of a trail, say Fanciful, near the high speed lift. Bump up snowmaking and add a small chair in that area then clear a connector trail after the terrain park ends a la Shays Revenge connector to Cupp Run.

I don't mind where it is now so much, I just think a Poma or rope tow would be great at sortof isolating the customers who mostly just go up the main quad to get to it now. They could perhaps even expand it in that area... Since my usage of the area consists of simply passing through as more or less a spectator, and once or twice skiing over the jumps on a non-busy day, maybe regular patrons have some concrete ideas on additional improvements. Having said that I bet its a money maker relatively speaking, so it definitely here to stay... just where and in what form, that's the question!

Personally I 've seen so many terrain parks out in the East and West. Whitetail terrain park could have improve it's reputation for the traffic near the terrain park.

Here's the list of things/ideas that could be helpful.

- Fence/Rope -- Bright orange snowfence or ropes to separate the terrain park from the trail

- gate -- made out of logs or metal pipes with a sign "terrain park expert only"

- maze -- skier/boarder will have to slow down in order to go through the gate opening and then you have to manuever to go through a little maze, more like right turn , left turn , right turn then straight then left turn then enter the terrain park (fenced)

- wall -- wall made of snow put around the terrain park from entrance area to exit area. The wall should be made tall enough like at least 6-8 feet tall. The wall could help separate park users from non-park users. (the wall should not be skiable)

- designated area -- area set up for sitting area waiting to take turn to ride/ski the park. This area should not be in the way of other non-park users.

Seven Spings has those gates and fences so it can be done. Telluride in CO has those fences and wall so it can be done. Squaw Valley has so many terrain parks spread all over with very wide open spaces in between which makes it very roomy for everyone. Snowshoe-Silvercreek has those hill-like(works like a maze) where you have to slow down or go slowly around or else you will miss the entrance for the half pipe.
Heavenly terrain park entrance looks like a maze where you can not just zoom straight down to the park.

There are many ways to do this. Keep in mind that terrain park requires a lot of snow to make jumps/kickers/pipes.

About the chair/tow, I think it would be nice to have one for the terrain park but as long as the terrain park is in it's permanent spot. It's not easy to relocate the terrain park AND the tow/chair.

I personally like the tow rope similar to the one at Telluride where you can be towed on a path that zigzag through the forest and be able to get off at anywhere you desire whether you are going for the run or the terrain park.

Several points.

Even before the terrain park was moved to its current location, Upper Angel Drop was by far the most crowded trail @ Whitetail. (I never understood why.) A terrain park lift will lessen the current crowds on Upper Angel Drop, but it will still remain crowded.

There was a gated entrance to the terrain park most of last year. It hasn't been put up this year, presumably because the large jumps have not yet been made. Last Sunday, the other trail that Upper Angel Drops feeds into was closed most of the afternoon for a race, so all traffic had to go through the terrain park.

Snow Dancer has a steeper section at the bottom with a bit of a run-out at the bottom. Perhaps this is the reason why it's not as crowded? (The trail beyond Snow Dancer has an even longer run-out.) A terrain park on Snow Dancer would have to be on the upper section; this makes the proposed lift less useful. Plus you are wasting the bottom of the trail if a cut-through from Limelight is not added. Trail merges are extremely dangerous, especially for an area as crowded as Whitetail.

[This message has been edited by JohnL (edited 01-15-2004).]

Slightly off topic -- AD is popular I think for several reasons. It's an easy blue so once you get tired of the ONE green run, it naturally falls to this run as the next step up. 2nd, it usually has plenty of snow on it and is soft... Third, I dunno, no third.

Moving snow park to one of the other runs on the blue mountain there, could POSSIBLY work BUT WT seems to open those runs quite late and the struggle to keep them covered...

That's just my observation.

WOOPS sorry that was me, KevR. Just used it as a joke on another thread.

...

I think one of the biggest reasons AD is crowded is access to the black diamonds on the back side. You get on the trail 1) everyone who wants to ski AD plus 2) everone who wants to get over to Experts Choice; and add on to that over the last two eyars 3) everyone who wants to go to the terrain park.

I think Fanciful is an easier blue than AD, but could be wrong on that. It's the last run they make snow on though, and my favorite blue on the mountain (I'm a sucker for trails that are bordered by trees instead of other trails and have a few turns in them). You're right about the drop at the bottom of Snowdancer; that'd make things difficult.

The only problem I have with a snow wall is I have a sneaking suspicion WT couldn't lay down enough snow to build a 6-8 foot high wall... or, if they could, given the limited snowmaking conditions in Hagerstown and the east southeast exposure of the mountain, it would be built only at the expense of snow quality on other runs.

And to Kev R's alter ego-- stop posting about skiing in Utah!!! To think that what has to be the best snow on earth is a mere five hour direct flight from here is too much. Having been there last week, I found myself browsing Southwest's airfares for a flight back in Feb. Maybe they lace the snow with cocaine, 'cause I'm addicted.

Good point on tAD being the only feed the black diamonds. I have had several favorite trails there and they keep shifting a bit... once it was AD, then one of those other ones -- dancer, whatever. Then Limelight, exhibition.... just a few weeks ago I thought -- oooh, outer limits. NO wait, that's actually bold decision. I always make up my own names 'cause I like them better, then I can't tell anyone where the heck we are going. "Hey let's go over to Devil's Crotch and then head back up to Cheap Trick..." Hmmm, what?
And let me tell you, I gave 'ole DA the what for, he should know better!!!!
I tell you what though, it is tempting. I have been thinking myself of just starting my own ski club and then every weekend just go SOMEWHERE cool...
I even thought, f*ck, just quit this damn job and just ski!!! yeah. Then maybe aspire to be a lift operator out West. Or maybe just sell the f*ckin' house.. that's another time sync, who the hell needs it anyway?!
BACK BACK BACK! You scounderal DA... Geeze, sorry 'bout that. Get back, back in your box and don't come out again until you've waxed and sharpened my skis... Horns are good for somethin' I guess, stop terrorizing the neighbors...

:-)

Yeah I've discovered that when it's uncrowded, Limelight is a wonderful run for giant slaloming at top speed. Bold Decision aka Outer Limit aka Leon Don't Go There (of Budweiser commercial fame) is the best on that hill.

Southwest has 208 dollar roundtrip tickets-- or had, anyway-- nonstop BWI to SLC. If you had a group of four I bet you could do a three day weekend for 500-600 a person all-in. Especially a late March trip or something; get some spring discounts! Sharpen that, DA.

Get on the SW mailing list, they run specials every now and then and roll out $99 one ways and stuff like that, even less sometimes. They did that right after x-mas and had bunches of these through winter, which were all snapped up in a jiffy. <sigh>
;-)

Hmm, maybe we should have a bake-off for alternative names for whitetail's runs, which I've always thought were tiny bit dull. Although I LIKE Stalker...

Honestly, I can't tell a whole tad of difference between stalker, whatever, and limelight, exhibition and outerlimits aka bold decision. A little steepyness I guess...
Farside should really be a blue although it has that pitch in it that runs down from Bold Decision (got it right that time!)
Farside -- hmm, gee, that's innovative. now maybe Moonwalk, it's always so chunky over there. Or maybe they were just being highly associative, farside as in farside of the moon.
Moonwalk is rarely open... i mean Farside.

All great suggestions really -- have been to Telluride, but not familiar with that particular run you are refering to.

I guess all I was thinking is that if Whitetail left the terrain park where it is, they could gate the top of the run, and then from the base area have a tow of some sort up to top of the park.

An alterntive idea is one of those sliding sidewalk things which is portable and moveable...

Now I am NOT sure there's really enough room for that, it's sortof a theoretical idea that would need to be studied for its feasability...

then of course someone can always ski down from the top and came through through gate, OR they can just take the short cut up to the top of the park...

Hopefully this would alleviate some of the traffic on AD, and also get the 'boarders up to the top of the park FASTER so they can get more skiing in...

???

Actually a magic carpet or something would be sweet. The maze idea is definitely good and the way it's set up right now just needs a little alteration to get that going. The downside of the maze is that snow gets scraped off like crazy and you get left with ice and rocks poking through at times.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the park will look like this weekend after they have remodelled it. This will be a weekend where AD is going to get worked pretty hard. I'll probably ride park first thing the go over to the black diamonds at about 10am ride there for the day.