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April, 2024

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A question for park kids in the west

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Rip
Posts: 1158 - Karma: 3

I live in tahoe and I have skied many resorts in the western USA and canada and I have a question for park kids.  Why do you ride in the park so much?  I am from the east coast so I perfectly understand park rats on the east coast because I used to be one.  But since I moved out west I just cant believe the number of kids who are still in the park when there is so much more snow and good natural terrain available to ski.  I know there are a lot like me who would rather go ski the mountain when its good and in the park when its not, but there are just so many skiers and even more snowboarders who cannot comprehend the wide world outside the park.  Can someone please explain to me why you prefer park riding so much?

May 13 2008 9:30PM
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Dustin.
Posts: 13839 - Karma: 7,704
What this guy said.
May 14 2008 5:10PM
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Karcher
Posts: 3788 - Karma: 1,934
the west coast has splendid snow i must admit. but they also have a great park. when there is powder i go out and shred it. when theres not, i ski the park. its pretty simple
May 14 2008 5:14PM
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Squirrel_Murphy
Posts: 2195 - Karma: 1,165
^what he said
May 14 2008 5:17PM
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feihlination
Posts: 8356 - Karma: 1,084
here in the alps weve "westcoast" conditions i would say, and from my point, if it snowed, i ski powder, as long the powders good. can be some days, but from the third day on i got to hike, and noone else is hiking with me, so i dont do it very often for security reasons.

i absolutely agree with the creator. if someone thinks he has to ski park only, its ok for me but i seriously cant understand.
one reason might be safety. in the park, if your unlucky, you break something or tore something. in a "big" mountain line, if theres going something wrong, you can be dead. avalanches, hidden rocks, differing snow conditions or a wrong appraisal of a situation can kill you.
even though i am not skiing 1500 ft lines at 60°, i encountered a few dangerous moments which i am happy to get out of healthy.
May 14 2008 5:21PM
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Colt45er
Posts: 1650 - Karma: 336
skiing is skiing, why should anyone have a problem with where someone wants to ski... honestly the park and pow is so good out west... on the east coast if theres a pow day, dam straight you go ski pow, and for the other 97% of the season when theres no freshies left , most ski park.

thats like taking turkey over ham for dinner everyday.... ham is so good, why would i give up either one, there both fabulous on the lips.
May 14 2008 5:26PM
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jimmer
Posts: 3586 - Karma: 80
natural terrain > park

thats just my opinion, i have no problem with kids who would rather do park. that just means more pow pow for me, yaddamean? and you will find me in the park on days when there is no good snow.
May 14 2008 5:59PM
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TBarnes
Posts: 974 - Karma: 711
well, not everyday is a pow day, and on those days where it hasn't snowed a lot overnight, skiing a good park is much more fun than skiing chopped 3 day old crud and moguls.
May 14 2008 6:18PM
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Jordan.j
Posts: 847 - Karma: 28
people like what they like
May 14 2008 6:43PM
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EClay46
Posts: 2499 - Karma: 69
first off, not all west resorts have good bc,

but then to answer your question, if people prefer park its because its more accessible, no hiking, no traverse, no work skiing through gnarly stuff, and its alot of fun, and a good time hanging out with friends.

also out here, the conditions are better than they are out east, we can choose what we want to ski so me may want to ski park even if the conditions are "good" in your east coast perspective, while out here we have a  higher standard due to our superior conditions.

i like both pretty equally, on powder days ill go to the top and ski down and sometimes go through the park if its on the way to the chair, or just for a little fun with the pow landings
May 14 2008 6:44PM
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snocompton
Posts: 2014 - Karma: 267
Here in the pnw we have to ride park cuase of all the rain and wet snow we get.  All the powder they talk about being up here doesnt exist its just rain and shit.
May 14 2008 6:46PM
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PeteyG
Posts: 2946 - Karma: 49
I live in washington and Im going skiing this saturday (May 17)
May 14 2008 7:21PM
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spere
Posts: 6105 - Karma: 248
false
May 14 2008 8:12PM
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richards
Posts: 2177 - Karma: 11
i ski pow if there is pow andif there isnt its park
May 14 2008 8:22PM
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hollygrove
Posts: 7845 - Karma: 93
what is a park?
May 14 2008 9:10PM
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Squirrel_Murphy
Posts: 2195 - Karma: 1,165
ya know, that place that you went to as a kid.  It has swings, and slides, and monkey bars n shit.
May 14 2008 9:24PM
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Gun_Labs
Posts: 68 - Karma: 8
i agree with you man i like mountain riding so much better then park on good days it the days when it is icy or in between storms that i ride park or just old snow otherwise i am out on and off the runs all day
May 14 2008 9:36PM
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huckaberry
Posts: 993 - Karma: 14
were all just lucky to ski
think of the kids that dont get to cause they cant afford it
but i were at hood its hit the park first cause it leads right to the sickest backcountry well on like to lifts but i also go over to places to do cliffs and stuff. when there is no pow just hit the park all day
May 14 2008 9:37PM
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frosted_flakes
Posts: 1200 - Karma: 1,256
ahaha.
May 14 2008 9:41PM
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spliff.Life
Posts: 7847 - Karma: 1,549
cause some people can actualy do shit in the park and enjoy the feeling of stomping a sick trick

May 14 2008 10:04PM
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Ski303
Posts: 468 - Karma: 22
although 10% of my time is park, it may because they can ski everything else.

I usually hike out a couple times ski the steepest rockiest chute on the mountain (that's avy blasted)

People around here hit their first double black under 10 years old. My little skied (not "pizza'd" some Mary Jane chutes at age 7. My 5 year old brother screams at me if he can't ski off a box.  I was pefectly parallel at age 12 everywhere.  People get good to early and see park as something they are not good at. My 2 cents?


May 14 2008 11:54PM
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kenevil
Posts: 1309 - Karma: 31
haha pretty much...

I mean, I love park, jumps especially, but if there is any fresh snow I'll always be hitting up the rest of the mountain.  Skiing pow is seriously the funnest thing imaginable for me(keep in mind I was skiing pow on troublemakers this year), and you can get really creative with natural features and such. 
May 15 2008 2:07AM
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eheath
Posts: 61161 - Karma: 118,908
Here at the U our crew would go to PC if there wasn't fresh snow and if there is like 8-10 inches new overnight we'd head up to alta. But it seemed this year, it either snowed like less than 8 inches or 20+ inches
May 15 2008 2:10AM
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HappyTreez
Posts: 311 - Karma: 401
When i go home i don't ski much park cuz the terrain is so fucking baller. but being a front range transplant i ski park in summit county cuz the terrain blows nutsack comparatively speaking.
May 15 2008 2:14AM
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Glenjamin
Posts: 139 - Karma: 10
i dont ski mountain if the pow isent knee deep fresh
May 15 2008 2:46AM
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SHastatahoe
Posts: 3414 - Karma: 19
You pretty much summed it up, I had skied everything available in-bounds by the time I was 10, and when I was 12, me and a friend became "powder brothers" and would only ski powder off northwest express at bachelor.  We were obsessed, shredding the pow on our race skis.  It was rad.
May 15 2008 12:42PM
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Sholte
Posts: 2929 - Karma: 12
to tell the truth i never ride park, but then again my mountain dosnt have a park. all i do is ski natural features all day, and ski powder and cliffs. but park is really fun to do on a day when the snow isnt very good and there is nothing to do. or maybe people just want to progress; to me it seems like the park is a nice place to progress.
and heres another thought maybe the kids out there who ride park all day are just really good at it and think that its super fun so they don't want to go out and ski the rest of the mountain.
just my two cents.
May 15 2008 4:04PM
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Scott~
Posts: 2551 - Karma: 49
Yeah, this endless pow myth really needs to end~
May 15 2008 4:07PM
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sol.
Posts: 231 - Karma: 181
i ski in the east, and when i went out west i skied 0 park and would probs do the same if i lived out there.  but thats just because its a different experience for me and one that i dont get in the east.  but if ur a person that has lived there all ur life, maybe they want a change of pace by skiing some park.  its all about what u like i mean everyones different...  
May 15 2008 4:58PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Consistency. Its a great place to learn stuff and get comfy, but yeah, skiing natural terrain is much more fun for me, at least nowadays. I think I skied 90% of my days this season without going in the park, we just had too much good snow.
May 15 2008 5:12PM
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danedegruyter
Posts: 2749 - Karma: 1,137
Thats like asking a street skater why he doesnt longboard..  fuck dude your dumb... why did you feel the need to ask this question.
May 16 2008 1:11AM
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heFF
Posts: 5786 - Karma: 4,457
it's all in personal preference some people would rather slide a rail then rip though some trees....it's like asking someone why they prefer heinz ketchup over some off brand ...whooo gives a fuck
May 16 2008 2:03PM
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quebecfreestyler
Posts: 13040 - Karma: 1,418
they might have more fun in the park then they have on natural terrain.
May 16 2008 2:44PM
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zackblain
Posts: 2322 - Karma: 22
because smearing over feet of fresh fluffy snow just gets old after a while
May 16 2008 10:06PM
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nickmiles
Posts: 1070 - Karma: 844
i am from the east coast as well, but moved to mammoth this past winter. in my case, we skied pow as much as we could as long as we could on pow days. but 3 or 4 days after a snow storm when all the snow is finally skied out, we would go back and ski park until it snowed again. however, especially in the spring, when we are skiing park we usually ski park for a while and then jump in the gondola and do a top lap and ski back down the park. not on groomers tho. just when it gets warm the snow gets slushy and soft up top and its similar to skiing pow but deff not the same. but we hit little banches and cliffs on the way down just to take a break from the park. the park is really sick, but its nice to take a break. i agree witht he guy who started this thread
May 16 2008 10:28PM
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titsLOL
Posts: 7485 - Karma: 396
the real question here is why are you idiots skiing at all when you could be snowblading? ehh?
May 16 2008 10:51PM
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TheButterHashira
Posts: 9691 - Karma: 1,702
My hill doesn't know how to make a decent jump so the little burns and stuff on  my hill are more fun than the jumps in the park. The park sucks anyways it is in the flattest windiest spot of the mountain. next to a parking lot where drunk christian kids stumble to their busses.
May 16 2008 10:51PM
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mcweapon
Posts: 175 - Karma: 247
i totally agree! :)
May 16 2008 11:17PM
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iluvBread
Posts: 1519 - Karma: 38
okay when there's no new snow to shred, skiing runs gets really boring and if your at your home mountain, youve probably have already jibbed everything outside of the park so there's pretty much nothing to do except park, and the level of park skiing over here is pretty darn high since some people are out there pretty much everyday so everyone is just always pushing themselves cuz if you just go and ski those groomed runs, your just going to be left behind in the dust when it comes to skiing park...if we had powder everyday, yeah id take that over park ne time
May 16 2008 11:26PM
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Duncan*
Posts: 1270 - Karma: 164
its true you are asking that...but each person loves skiing for diff things like some LOVE park others all mountain and some people shred pow all day long...its personal preferance
May 17 2008 12:47AM
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SirFryanator
Posts: 11149 - Karma: 1,415
When I'm not at school, I don't ski park. I'm with Sholte up there (same mountain), no park there. But when I'm at my boarding school, I ski pretty much only park, because where I go (still west coast) gets pretty bad snow except for a very very certain part of the year...which is when I'm at home skiing the powder. It's fun to ski park, too, sometimes. I learn new tricks/grabs every time I hit up the park, pretty much, since I get about 10 park days in every year at most, so I try to make the most of it.

I'm the exact opposite of you, we get decent snow over here, and I ski natural features/big mountain/bc booters/backcountry lines every time I ski for the most part, with a little bit of park. I appreciate both, and I can see why people would stay in either one. I'm not going to rip on park because hitting a kinked steep rail or a 70 foot jump can be scary shit, you know? When you stomp a trick, though, you feel soooo good. Adrenaline rush for sure.
On the other hand, skiing a steep line can make you literally piss yourself. A nice natural 25 footer cliff with a good landing can basically give you a boner, too. There are nice aspects of both, but to choose which one you want to ski that day it really depends on the conditions of the mountain. I'd rather ski natural stuff 90% of the time, but that 10% of park is also damn fun.
May 17 2008 1:44AM
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Calb3rt
Posts: 6005 - Karma: 2,202
call me a chubby chaser but your hot girl wont always be at the party where as my fat bitch is always there for me.
May 17 2008 5:29AM
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levistewart
Posts: 3360 - Karma: 111
its mre like if the hot girl is gonna put out im DTF but otherwise i stick to gettin play than chsin a dream
May 17 2008 7:57PM
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bigwhite.steeze
Posts: 8227 - Karma: 1,030
mostly because its something different. I've been used to steeps and powder for a large part of my skiing life and terrain parks are just a nice change. once you almost master one part of teh sport, go master another and bring it back to the other part.
May 17 2008 8:04PM
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FUUUCK
Posts: 18426 - Karma: 4,888
if theres fresh snow in ontario i wont ski park till its all used up. i dont see how anyone can ride park when there are fresh turns to be made, regardless of terrain.

but i guess im biased since im so deprived of pow.
May 19 2008 3:11PM
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vzdz
Posts: 782 - Karma: 87
i've noticed there is some mentality that if you rag on park you're more of a "core" skiier if you're only into the bc, but the reality is if you can ski park (well) most of those kids have been skiing for so long they can shred the bc to, I hate when kids who suck at park say they only ski mountain because its more fun, but really they're to intimidated to ski park. The guys shredding the bc can all ski park.

finding fresh mountain lines is a blast, but if you're a good skiier you can ski anything and all of it's fun
May 19 2008 4:07PM
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C-Burg
Posts: 4729 - Karma: 130

why is this so hard to understand

May 19 2008 4:20PM
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