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In all the old edits from like 10 years ago there are these crazy rails like huge whale tails and S-rainbows and stuff. I Know thats probably not what there called but now all parks pretty much have the same type of rails like dfds and flat downs there is not much variation. What happened to all of the crazy rails!!!!
A hill near me has a wicked "Y" rail. You slide the flat and then it branches off in two directions. It's basically a fuckin dope elbow rail that allows you to choose how to slide.
RoidedSasquatchA hill near me has a wicked "Y" rail. You slide the flat and then it branches off in two directions. It's basically a fuckin dope elbow rail that allows you to choose how to slide.
A couple reasons. Crazy rails like that tend to be high consequence and aren't very attractive anyone except the best riders a mountain has. They tend to take up a lot of room that could host more approachable features for a larger demographic. They're large, one-off, and therefore far more expensive.
A roller coaster S-box for example.. The cost just to get the steel rolled for a feature like that would most likely eat up a large portion of a park's capital budget for the season and might take a few weeks to build without proper facilities or tools to build it. Weeks = a shit ton of payroll for one feature.
I've always thought that rails in the park should be fun and as trickable as possible above being hard and intimidating. If you want hard, go to the streets - terrain parks are for fun and trick progression.
I say good riddance to big, expensive, gnarly rails.
I remember asking where all Keystone's legendary rails went, the double Y, double battleship, buck fifty, etc. they said a lot of them broke when they were moving them, they were so big that they were impossible to move without messing them up. Since resorts want to bring more people into the sport and teach them, the new rail budget went to smaller rails. I definitely miss those rails that you hit every run and got to the end maybe once a day.
mattwalkerI definitely miss those rails that you hit every run and got to the end maybe once a day.
exactly, i love a rail that is tough just to finish
i completely understand that big tech rails are expensive, hard to move/maintain, and are dangerous... but i mean, hell, even places with enormous jumps that are costly and dangerous as shit have a rail selection that is pretty tame
what it boils down to, OP, is we're too rad. it has its ups and downs..
mattwalkerI remember asking where all Keystone's legendary rails went, the double Y, double battleship, buck fifty, etc. they said a lot of them broke when they were moving them, they were so big that they were impossible to move without messing them up. Since resorts want to bring more people into the sport and teach them, the new rail budget went to smaller rails. I definitely miss those rails that you hit every run and got to the end maybe once a day.
The mtn I used to be at we had a 63ft. inverse rainbow that would flap like a bird every time I moved it. It was super fun but just built very poorly. Every summer I was re welding cracked seams until it was just too fucked to put out on the hill with a good conscience.
My mountain has some really creative set ups we have a few normal rails etc. flat down, rainbow, c rail , down bar then the rest is propane tanks on hips a 45 ft lift tower tube and then this massive fukin thing that is the hugest tube like actually lift tower size about 55 ft long and 6 ft off the ground with pryamid shaped sides with box material like a cheese wedge but the middle has a rainbow rail sized chunk cut out of the box so its scary af like people go under while ur on it
mattwalkerI remember asking where all Keystone's legendary rails went, the double Y, double battleship, buck fifty, etc. they said a lot of them broke when they were moving them, they were so big that they were impossible to move without messing them up. Since resorts want to bring more people into the sport and teach them, the new rail budget went to smaller rails. I definitely miss those rails that you hit every run and got to the end maybe once a day.
This! Super tough to move those big rails without breaking them.
mattwalkerI definitely miss those rails that you hit every run and got to the end maybe once a day.
If only park crews would think that way. A good park should definitely have a few fun/creative/hard to finish type of rails.
One thing that I hate are short down rails. It seems like snowboarders like them, but they're so boring for skiers, and unfortunately a lot of parks I've skied have a couple of short down rails.
Check out timberlines parks right now, 3 flat boxes made into a massive slanted c. 2 propane tanks sideways to a wallride, 50ft of flat rails made into a massive Z, they're getting creative this year.
cc-crewMy mountain has some really creative set ups we have a few normal rails etc. flat down, rainbow, c rail , down bar then the rest is propane tanks on hips a 45 ft lift tower tube and then this massive fukin thing that is the hugest tube like actually lift tower size about 55 ft long and 6 ft off the ground with pryamid shaped sides with box material like a cheese wedge but the middle has a rainbow rail sized chunk cut out of the box so its scary af like people go under while ur on it
yungsteezemy home resort is mount brighton in michigan but vail bought them and we got a bunch of keystone rails most recently a rainbow c rail
I used to live in Ann Arbor Michigan before I moved out to NH and I used to ski at Mt. Brighton, my family and I shit on that Mt. all the time ever sine we moved away. I am stoked to hear that Mt. Brighton is improving from its dreary past.
603powI used to live in Ann Arbor Michigan before I moved out to NH and I used to ski at Mt. Brighton, my family and I shit on that Mt. all the time ever sine we moved away. I am stoked to hear that Mt. Brighton is improving from its dreary past.
histonskierYESSS I love hitting a rail and not worrying about having to a trick on it, just getting to the end of it is an accomplishment and super fun to slide.
MFOD/Chalet dfd and spirit's 100 footer is the best
DrailI've always thought that rails in the park should be fun and as trickable as possible above being hard and intimidating. If you want hard, go to the streets - terrain parks are for fun and trick progression.
I say good riddance to big, expensive, gnarly rails.
well said, never thought about it but in the last maybe 8 years of skiing in the park I have noticed rail lines at resorts get more organized and range friendly
Phil-X-well said, never thought about it but in the last maybe 8 years of skiing in the park I have noticed rail lines at resorts get more organized and range friendly
Its true, especially for hills with limited vertical, my home mountain invested in this huge rainbow box with 45 degree sides that they would build on top of like a takeoff and landing, there were side hits/landings it made a couple of magazines of people pressing the sides (which was gnarly) but to get enough speed it was literally the only feature you could hit. And most people were too intimidated anyway.
DrailI've always thought that rails in the park should be fun and as trickable as possible above being hard and intimidating. If you want hard, go to the streets - terrain parks are for fun and trick progression.
This.
At one point to make a rail more "expert" level that meant jacking it up 6 feet off the ground. Now rails are getting more technical but also lower to the ground. Setups are getting cleaner. The standard rails are getting longer but instead of being 4 feet in the air you're seeing a lot more stuff 1'- 2' up.
These rails are getting crushed. More people learning some of the most technical tricks on these. To me that makes a lot more sense than features that sit around, don't get hit, and if they do it's a stock trick.
As far as the argument that rails at ski areas are becoming simple, I don't really get this. Z rails, quad kinks, kink elbows, parallel rail setups, donkeys/df's, and all kinds of stuff are pretty common these days. Maybe it's not a 40 foot long rollercoater s, but they're technical rails imo and by no means "easy".
The level of riding has progressed a bunch too making these rails seem easier, but I feel the rails and setups have kept up with the demand.
Truth is, flat and down rails are some of the most popular rails at the mountains. Sure it's not a flashy overly elaborate magazine cover feature, but if kids are hiking those all day and learning new tricks that's where resorts are going to go.
Sometimes basic is better. I'll all about creativity, but it just doesn't make sense to lower the amount of these rails that everyone loves, everyone can hit, and people can learn on to fill a park with features that are just going to sit there rusting away waiting for the occasional hit.
Some of the crazy rails still exist. If you can't find one and want to hit one that bad, pool some loot with your friends and build one. If that seems to expensive think about it from the mountains perspective. Spending $ from the budget on a feature that will eat people up, if anyone actually hits it just so
My mountain put in a cool z rail thats also a dfd this year, other than that everything is pretty standard. I know we used to have this huge really high rainbow rail that they ditched because of people getting hurt on it.
Timberline this year is really trying to spice it up. We have a new flat up flat (pretty aggresive kink), a new z rail format which is 3 flat hand rails put together, elbow kink, 3 boxes put together to form basically a massive c box, and some features have pole jams to the rail.
my mountain has a great set up with two barrels right at the beginning of this really long flat rail on either side. WAY challenging I almost got a board slide!
The crazy rails don't need to be one solid feature. Just take every rail in the park and put them end to end. One of the funnest rails I ever hit was an up tube-flat tube-downtube donk to make this gnarly battleship contraption. It wasn't easy to ice the whole thing but that is what made it so addicting to hit.
i don't know how many of you have hit it this season but the down flat down flat down wide tube at sunday river is the perfect example of a rail that is really hard to finish and it feels awesome when you do. i love that rail
Lieutenant_DanTimberline this year is really trying to spice it up. We have a new flat up flat (pretty aggresive kink), a new z rail format which is 3 flat hand rails put together, elbow kink, 3 boxes put together to form basically a massive c box, and some features have pole jams to the rail.
timberline is killing it, but that z is death. im very confident no one has actually slid the entire thing. each single barrel tube that makes it up is 10-15' long. here is an accurate representation of the feature, along with the alternate line (red) pioneered today:
At one point to make a rail more "expert" level that meant jacking it up 6 feet off the ground. Now rails are getting more technical but also lower to the ground. Setups are getting cleaner. The standard rails are getting longer but instead of being 4 feet in the air you're seeing a lot more stuff 1'- 2' up.
These rails are getting crushed. More people learning some of the most technical tricks on these. To me that makes a lot more sense than features that sit around, don't get hit, and if they do it's a stock trick.
As far as the argument that rails at ski areas are becoming simple, I don't really get this. Z rails, quad kinks, kink elbows, parallel rail setups, donkeys/df's, and all kinds of stuff are pretty common these days. Maybe it's not a 40 foot long rollercoater s, but they're technical rails imo and by no means "easy".
The level of riding has progressed a bunch too making these rails seem easier, but I feel the rails and setups have kept up with the demand.
Truth is, flat and down rails are some of the most popular rails at the mountains. Sure it's not a flashy overly elaborate magazine cover feature, but if kids are hiking those all day and learning new tricks that's where resorts are going to go.
Sometimes basic is better. I'll all about creativity, but it just doesn't make sense to lower the amount of these rails that everyone loves, everyone can hit, and people can learn on to fill a park with features that are just going to sit there rusting away waiting for the occasional hit.
Some of the crazy rails still exist. If you can't find one and want to hit one that bad, pool some loot with your friends and build one. If that seems to expensive think about it from the mountains perspective. Spending $ from the budget on a feature that will eat people up, if anyone actually hits it just so
DFD'S are really easy and same with flat downs. But I do agree that flat downs are really fun.
BlurstMSLM has some of the biggest "crazy" rails that I have ever ski'd on. Jay still sets up some of their old school early rails too, always a riot.
I went to outback for the first time this season last Sunday and there was about 4 rails that I felt confident hitting. The rest scared the living shit out of me. Outback rails are some of the burliest I've seen