Meadows Blog
March 6, 2010
by -- Meadows Team
in Connection, Media Center, Parks Blog
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MT. HOOD, OR (March 6, 2010) – More than 200 people packed the Finish Line Sports Bar and Grill Saturday to see the top 10 finalists of the 1st Annual Mt. Hood Meadows Film Festival. The crowd was blown away by the creativity, riding ability, showcasing of Mt. Hood Meadows and overall quality of film making the finalists presented.
Meadows Executive Director of Communications Dave Tragethon said the festival was extraordinarily successful beyond what organizers originally expected. “We have passionate, talented and dedicated film makers who totally impressed our judges and the audience with their exceptional work. It was the perfect combination of scenic mountain and terrain, talented riders and the creative eyes of filmers and editors to showcase the great mountain.”
Taking top honors was Adam Fleck’s “So Far So Good” which combined a crew of very talented riders, panoramic shots showcasing all aspects of Meadows terrain, time lapse photography and slow motion to present style, grace and intrigue.
Here's Adam's award winning video.
The “films” were submitted on video and evaluated on several criteria:
- Skiing / snowboarding at Mt. Hood Meadows in a compelling, positive, entertaining and/or intriguing way.
- Quality of finished piece – video, post production, audio quality, use of music.
- Creative aspects and approach to the project.
- Story telling.
- Overall impression.
All finalists received a logoed backpack from Columbia Sportswear, a GoPro Camera and a $50 gift card to Meadows. Fleck also took home the best of show prize of $500. Event sponsors included Columbia Sportswear, Go Pro Cameras, Full Sail Brewing, Fuel TV and Vaya Creative.
Here are links to the Finalists that were showcased at the Film Festival. These and other submissions can be seen in our online video gallery.
Adam Fleck
Keaton Abbot
Matt Robertson
Hood Crew
Sebastian Tronolone
Tommy Ellingson
Scott Rowley
John Jackson & Taylor Cramer
Paul Klein
Jeremy Carples
March 1, 2010
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 6 comments
The SuperPipe and Boardercross are being rebuilt this week. We expect the new SuperPipe to be ready Monday, March 8. A rebuild is normal as you can cut the pipe only so many times before it becomes too wide (and we start to rub up against the inground walls). It also allows us to put the new snow we received last week to good use - it's amazing how much snow it takes to fill in and reshape the Superpipe. It's worth the wait - we'll have a perfectly cut SuperPipe ready for spring riding next week.
The Boardercross should be ready by March 9th, but it will be closed for training and competitions only. We'll be stepping up the course as it will first host the OISA State High School Championships, then the USSA Revolution Tour followed by the USSA NorAM SBX Championships. There's going to be some great riding at Meadows this spring.
Film Festival Saturday
We are impressed by the number of and quality of videos submitted for the Film Festival. Many feature awesome riders in our terrain parks. Forest Park, Rose City and Shipyard provided some great set ups for filming this season. You can preview some submissions in our gallery of what you'll see this Saturday - of course we'll be playing the high res versions on the big screen in the Finish Line Pizzeria and Sports Bar - 4 to 6 PM! Thanks to our sponsors Columbia Sportswear, Go Pro Cameras, Full Sail Brewing, Fuel TV and Vaya Creative.
Sign up for 3 Day Freestyle Camps
We have two sessions scheduled - March 22 - 24 and March 29 - 31. They're a great opportunity to take your park and pipe skills to the next level. Five hours of instruction each day with a park specialized instructor. Topics covered will include, but are not limited to: jumps, half-pipe, rails and boxes, flatland, all-mountain freestyle, park safety and etiquette. Groups will be split up by age and ability.
Whether training for the next level of tricks or just looking to enter the park for the first time, this camp is a great way to progress your freestyle skills. The camp is open to anybody 7 to 14 who is an intermediate level skier/rider. (Intermediate level means for snowboarders that you are capable of making full turns (heel to toe, toe to heel) on most blue terrain. For skiers, it means that you are able to ski parallel on most blue terrain.)
Reservations are required at least 48 hours before the first day of camp. Call 503.337.2222, ext. 1419 to reserve your space today!
February 22, 2010
by -- Meadows Team
in Connection, Parks Blog, Media Center
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Mt. Hood Meadows is a beacon for winter film making. The resort and it's rugged and graceful slopes have been featured in travel, ski and more recently snowboard films and videos for more than 40 years. Meadows provides a beautiful backdrop and the subject matter for epic film making.
The Meadows Film Festival will be presented March 6 to showcase not only the beauty and majesty of our mountain, but the creativity and talent of our guests. Talent in the form of on-the-snow action skiing and riding showing off the attributes of the resort. There is nothing more splendid than capturing the perfect match of terrain and athleticism. Creativity in the story telling - the way the images, clips and edits are presented to make for an intriguing story.
The deadline for the Film Festival is Sunday, February 28. Our panel of esteemed judges will select up to the top 10 choices for showcasing March 6 at the Finish Line Pizzeria and Sports Bar. We'll award prizes, including a $500 first prize to the winning entry. Our thanks to Columbia Sportswear, Go Pro Helmet Cams, Full Sail Brewing, Fuel TV and Vaya Creative for supporting this event.
Get details on submitting your entry here.
See you at the Film Festival!
-- Meadows Team
February 17, 2010
by -- Meadows Team
in Connection, Media Center, Parks Blog
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On Saturday, February 13, 23 year old Kyle Cryblskey suffered fatal injuries while landing a jump in a terrain park at Mt. Hood Meadows.
On behalf of the entire team here at Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort, we want to express our deepest condolences to Kyle’s family. Words seem so inadequate at a time like this. We can only imagine the grief and sorrow they are feeling.
Kyle’s untimely passing has impacted all of us here at Mt. Hood Meadows greatly. Although we did not know Kyle, it is evident that he had great passion for snow boarding and the outdoors in general. We share that same passion and will continue to do so in his honor.
Kyle’s family is urging everyone to wear helmets when skiing or snowboarding. We want to use this blog to help educate guests about helmets, as well as the Smart Style approach to riding terrain parks. Sharing this knowledge here may prevent such a tragedy in the future.
Smart Style Information
The National Ski Areas Association has developed the "Smart Style" Freestyle Terrain Safety initiative, a cooperative effort to continue the proper use and progression of freestyle terrain at mountain resorts, while delivering a unified message that is clear, concise, and effective.
1. MAKE A PLAN - Every time you use freestyle terrain, make a plan for each feature you want to use. Your speed, approach and take off will directly affect your maneuver and landing.
2. LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP - Scope around the jumps first, not over them. Know your landings are clear and clear yourself out of the landing area.
3. EASY STYLE IT - Start small and work your way up. (Inverted aerials not recommended).
4. RESPECT GETS RESPECT - From the lift line through the park.
The four points of Smart Style are printed in our trail map and on our web site. Signs are also posted at the entrance to our terrain parks.
This video explains how the Smart Style points apply to responsible park riding.
The video is aimed at educating guests on how to use freestyle terrain properly, and integrates the four points of Smart Style with the ATML method: Approach, Take-Off, Maneuver, and Landing. The video highlights an instrumental message in freestyle terrain use: avoid the backseat and land on your feet.
Helmet Usage
Skiing and snowboarding have always had risks, but they also have an excellent safety record. Skiers and snowboarders have less than a one in a million chance of being seriously injured or dying on the slopes. Serious head injuries account for only 2.6 percent of overall skiing/snowboarding injuries. Each skier or snowboarder’s behavior has as much or more to do with the safety of the sports as does any piece of equipment. If you choose to wear a helmet or use other types of equipment to protect yourself, be sure you understand the limits and proper use of that equipment. Don’t let safety equipment give you a false sense of security.
- A helmet can make a difference in reducing or preventing a head injury from a fall or other impacts. However, no helmet can protect the wearer against all foreseeable impacts and injuries to the head. You should be familiar with and/or memorize the "Your Responsibility Code.”
- A helmet's fit is most important. It's helpful to have an experienced sales person assist you with fit. A properly fit helmet will be comfortable with no pressure points. A helmet is not an item that you want to grow into. Mt. Hood Meadows sells and rents helmets.
For those that have read this far – thank you. Please ride safely and share these messages with others.
Here are some links that provide additional information regarding safety on the slopes.
-- Meadows Team
January 16, 2010
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog, Media Center
| 4 comments
It's been a busy week for Parks Crew which has been doing a great job embellishing our parks product even without the extra helping of snow we usually get.
The InGround SuperPipe is open! We used all kinds of crazy techniques to scrape the snow together and shape it into the 18 foot walls. This last snow storm literally put us over the top and the Northwest's ONLY SuperPipe is open at Mt. Hood Meadows!
The banked slalom course was built Friday night. The start pad is a little ways uphill from the easyrider bullwheel off of red road. The course runs down wallflower finishing just above the inground SuperPipe.
The ball feature has been added to the end of Forest Park. We extended Forest Park Tuesday evening adding 1 rainbow rail after the picnic table. The park is growing with additional rails being added.
Park Place was also extended further down Breakaway. We added 1 down rail.
Congrats to the crew - they've been working hard and the reward is yours with five parks (incuding Shipyard and The Zoo) and a SuperPipe for your holiday weekend enjoyment!
-- Parks Crew
January 7, 2010
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog, Media Center
| 22 comments
Freestyling is all about finding new and creative ways to express yourself. That's why we work with Kurt Heine of Heine tools to develop features for our parks. Kurt sent us some pictures of his latest innovation which we are calling "The Ball".
It is a gigantic globe, mounted on a four sided pedastal. Each pedastal has a trapezoidal face which should allow approaching it from three sides. A skilled stall on the top could even bring the down side into play on the dismount.
"The Ball" will be appearing soon most likely in Forest Park. So come to Meadows and get on the Ball! Have a Ball at Meadows! OK - that could be a little lame. Do you have a better name for this new feature?
-- Parks Crew
January 6, 2010
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
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The soaking we received the past two days will affect park operations today. Rose City, The Zoo and Shipyard are scheduled to be open but we weren't able to machine groom overnight due to the saturated snow surface. Park Place and Forest Park are closed this morning for evaluation - we may need to wait until we can groom Wednesday evening to get them open for Thursday.
Sorry for the interuption - we'll get as many features open and riding well as soon as we can.
-- Parks Crew
January 3, 2010
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog, Media Center
| 6 comments
Construction of Forest Park was started last night. It contains rollers, 1 funbox, 1 pole jam, 1 table top, and 1 down rail. It's a work in progress with more features planned. It will probably open for riding (when we get appropriate clearance) today.
You can send mobile device pix to: true82stand@photos.flickr.com - we'll post them in our photo gallery.
To get to Forest Park you can take Lady Slipper from the top of Stadium, or Lady Slipper from the top of Hood River Express.
And you've probably seen that we've been working on the SuperPipe. We hope to get that open this week!
-- Parks Crew
December 24, 2009
by Meadows Team
in Parks Blog
| 1 comment
Enjoy the video - Matt Robertson put this quick edit together with his Go Pro cam. He hit the trees and the powder at its finest, and then tried out the new jumps in Park Place. Enjoy the video - and see you up here for the holidays!
December 21, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 8 comments
A few shots of Park Place taken Thursday, December 24th...
Jason reports two more jumps were built in Park Place Sunday night - bringing the total up to four tables. Construction continues but we already have a nice progressive jump line. Here are some shots taken Sunday, December 20th of the first two features built. Not the best day for photographs but it was still fun riding!
December 20, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 5 comments
Park Place is open! Mt. Hood's original jump park has two tables on it, constructed Saturday night by our stellar Paradise Parks crew (thanks Jason!) Also thanks to the snow we received this week to give us the base needed to open up this awesome Park. Tell your friends - and get some pictures!
Email your pictures to:
true82stand@photos.flickr.com
The summer stump grinding paid off big time! Without the efforts of the parks crew this past summer, we would not be able to open this park. Forest Park will still be a little longer as we need some more snow on Tamarack - but looking at this week's forecast it shouldn't be long!
December 8, 2009
by Meadows Team
in Connection, Parks Blog
| 4 comments
Some things you just have to share. This video is posted in our video gallery It is our first official entry into the Meadows Film Festival. What's that? Well, it's a way for you to show off your shooting and editing abilities and win some cool prizes along the way. More details will follow.
For now - enjoy the video - it's some of the best November freestyle riding we've ever seen.
December 8, 2009
by Dave Tragethon
in Parks Blog
| 4 comments
UPDATE: Our phenominal lift maintenance crew launched Vista Express at 9:46 AM. The Vista Superpipe Awaits! Snow reporter David Schor took the ride up to get the shot. Below the pictures is information about the new Step Up jump on Vista.
Jason Stankevich Freestyle Grooming Manager reports that a new step-up feature has been built in the Vista Park. It is located up on the ridge, far skiers right shortly after Nate's Other Way joins Texas Trails.
It will be open today unless the cold weather affects the operation of Vista and Cascade - both are scheduled but we had issues with the diesel in the auxillary engines freezing Monday. Cascade was opened Monday - and we are shooting for both lifts operating as scheduled Tuesday.
We should have some pictures of the step up and the superpipe later today. Here's a shot that was taken by Chris Williams just before the Superpipe opened last Thursday.
--Parks Crew
December 3, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
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OK Pipe riders. Your Superpipe awaits you. This stretch of sunny weather allowed our Parks Grooming crew to get the Zaug up on Vista to shape up a 230 foot long Superpipe. It's the only one we know of on the West Coast and you'll find it here at Meadows!
Enjoy it now - as when it starts snowing again that 18 foot deep pipe gets buried. Superpipe in the sunshine. Be there!
Picture yourself in the pipe - snap a shot on your cell phone and email it to true82stand@photos.flickr.com We'll see you in our photo gallery!
December 1, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 1 comment
Jason Stankevich our Freestyle Grooming Manager has announced that Vista Superpipe is under construction. It is located skiers right of lower Texas Trails. It will have 18ft walls and will be 230 feet in length - enough for 3 hits. It should be ready to ride by Thursday, possibly even Wednesday. When it opens it will be the only superpipe on the west coast!
Here's some shots of the Vista Superpipe from previous seasons.
November 30, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 1 comment
November freestyling has been epic this early season at Meadows. Kudos to the parks crew for making the most of the snow we've received so far. Shipyard has been off the wall - well maybe on the wall with a dozen rails plus the Wallride. The Zoo has been pushing progression, allowing freestylers early season practice for the parks that will come with more snow. Rose City has a jump and four rails providing Slopesyle sessioning.
Here's some shots taken today, the last day of November, to commemorate a great start to the season!
Rail Set Up at Shipyard with the Wallride
A dozen rails with four lines has made Shipyard very popular this early season.
Picnic table is just one of the many innovative rails at Meadows.
One jump now with more on the way with snow in Rose City.
The Paradise Park Crew is ON IT!
Thanks to Steve Warila our Executive Director of Mt. Operations for the great photo. And thanks to the Paradise Parks Crew for a great November!
November 24, 2009
by Dave Tragethon
in Parks Blog
| 4 comments
We're excited about the efforts our Parks Crew is putting out this season - already building stellar parks at Shipyard and the Zoo, and now constructing jumps in Rose City. We're also stoked to ally ourselves with Nate Goodman - a film producer who's going to document what's going on in freestyle at Meadows this season. Here's his first feature - building Shipyard. Oh - and we have some bonus pictures of Shipyard taken today by Paul Jones our Guest Services Director. Enjoy!
November 23, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 4 comments
We have 1 table top built in Rose City Slopestyle. This jump is located skiers right side of Rose City Park. We gathered more snow for the 2nd feature. We need some more snow to continue working on this one. Let us know how you like the jump!
Jason
November 13, 2009
by Dave Tragethon
in Parks Blog
| 5 comments
Just a quick heads up - our Paradise Parks groomers are constructing the Zoo tonight. The Crew will be in early to touch up the jumps and landings. This just in from Jason who heads up parks grooming:
ZOO: Groomed
Rollers, 3 table tops, and 1 mini pipe
-- Paradise Parks Crew
November 10, 2009
by Dave Tragethon
in Parks Blog
| 10 comments
The Crew is On It!
Shipyard is shaping up to be a major rail park on opening day. The crew has been KILLIN' IT, putting in four different lines with 11 different features.
Take your pick:
Flat down box top into a Down rail
Plastic culvert jib
Log spine
Booter rail
Kink mailbox
Picnic table
Fun box
C rail
Dance floor box into ledge into a mail box
Shipyard - where imagination, sweat, technology and "what if" meet! Kudos to the crew - we'll see you at the Shipyard on opening day!
Our crew is working late into the evening to get Shipyard ready for you Wednesday. We'll see you on opening day!
November 8, 2009
by Dave Tragethon
in Connection, Parks Blog
| 4 comments
We'll be setting rails on Shipyard for opening day, Wednesday. We'll keep you updated regarding other park openings - hopefully this snow will allow us to proceed with some jump building. We're packing snow right now to set up a good base and we'll be setting rails by Tuesday. Come on up and get your jib on!
-- Parks Crew
August 27, 2009
by Parks Crew
in Parks Blog
| 21 comments
Welcome to our new Parks Blog. This is where our park groomers and crew will be posting updates and happenings this season in Paradise Parks. When we add a cool feature, get a park ready to open, have some information on an event or want to share some freestyle news we'll post it here.
We've had a busy summer - the big news is the big grind on Park Place. As you know we didn't get Park Place open last season due primarily to the lack of snow depth down at HRM. We now know just how important that Park is - Park Place is the best terrain park on Hood so we need to get it open as early as possible. A big problem was the four foot high stumps that lined the trail, which prevented grooming until we had a substantial base built up. Well this summer we've been grinding those stumps down which will allow us to groom and build features with less snow. So we'll get Park Place open as soon as early snow allows.
Here's the parks plan for the upcoming season. With the first snow we'll set rails on Shipyard - this allows us to get our jib on even if the opening base is thin. The Zoo on Mitchell Creek and Rose City Slopestyle will most likely be the next to open, depending on how much snow we get. Hopefully we'll be able to get both Forest Park, which was an absolute hit last year, and Park Place open shortly after. And we'll construct the SuperPipe when we get more snow - those 18 foot walls require a massive amount of snow as Meadows has one of the only all natural snow SuperPipes in the country! We'll also be adding the Banked Slalom course next to Rose City Slopestyle for OSIA training. With some help from Mother Nature we should have the majority of our parks operating Christmas break. So bring on the snow – we’re ready for it!
As the other parks open the size of Shipyard will be reduced, but this year we're planning on maintaining some rails there through the season. Even two or three good features make for some fun sessions as last year's Charity Jam proved. That gives us a great park product for Meadows After Dark - Rose City Slopestyle, the Superpipe, the Banked Slalom and Shipyard are all lighted for your After Dark Freestyle enjoyment.
The snow will be flying soon and we will be ready for it. We hope you like this new Parks Blog and that you visit it often. If you have questions or suggestions feel free to post a comment - we'll review it and get back to you directly and post the comment if it is appropriate. You can also send an email to the Parks crew directly on our Contact Us page. And we invite you to submit videos and pictures to our new Media Gallery.
It's going to be a great season!
Parks Crew