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Any local hills that are just a small park?

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Duck_Sauce
Posts: 288 - Karma: 4,002
There are a few ski hills here in Massachusetts that are under 500 feet vertically, and have a run set up with a park. Just curious if there was anywhere that was just one run thats not indoors and is just a park! I could see it being a very lucrative idea if it was put in the right spot with the right setup/features. I know there would be a hundred hoops to jump through financially and with insurance and stuff, but it seems like a possible business idea. any comments or ideas about one of these popping up?
Jan 6 2015 6:47PM
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JGWI
Posts: 2842 - Karma: 7,812
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/747010/Day-trip-to-elm-creek


$5 tickets for me.
Jan 6 2015 6:53PM
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,893
Echo Mountain was exactly that. It was a ski area that was a park instead of a ski area with a park. It went bankrupt. If you have an area that only appeals to skiers who like park, it will not make any money unless you can keep your costs really really low. My buddy was the marketing director at Echo. It might work in another part of the country but had no chance in Colorado.
Jan 6 2015 7:02PM
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.Morton
Posts: 440 - Karma: 1,426
Bear Creek, pa. So tiny. I was hyped when the traveling circus went there though.

Really hope this video works but its not looking good.

Jan 6 2015 7:34PM
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.Morton
Posts: 440 - Karma: 1,426
Well, it didn't even show up.
Jan 6 2015 7:35PM
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GayWolf420
Posts: 36697 - Karma: 110,712
I kind of got that vibe from boreal. not a whole lot of terrain, but had really killer park features spread about the mtn. could b wrong though, I mostly lapped the park/pipe when I was there a few years ago.
Jan 6 2015 7:37PM
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arnie_grape
Posts: 3433 - Karma: 11,404
isn't bear in cali kind of like that?
I don't know much about it but I saw a trail map once and it said there's features all over the hill
Jan 6 2015 8:11PM
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B.Quincy
Posts: 1074 - Karma: 963
What ski hills in mass you referring too? I ski western mass so but like its like berkshire east is one of them right? Idk and otis too?
Jan 6 2015 9:29PM
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tacotom
Posts: 454 - Karma: 479
Yeah, there is Raging buffalo just outside Chiraq that is like that but its like 200 vertical feet tops, i don't know if you can call that a hill even.
Jan 6 2015 9:33PM
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Park.
Posts: 2480 - Karma: 4,582
if anyone knows whaleback, the mountains original owners (correct me if I'm wrong) loved freesking so much that they tried to make it entirely catered to freesking (moguls, trees, park), but at the time, freeskiing wasn't popular enough so they had to bring racing on the mountain to keep it from going banckrupt. I was told this by my old bumps coach and hes been around a while so I trust him on it.
Jan 6 2015 9:37PM
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theabortionator
Posts: 51263 - Karma: 157,459
Duck_SauceThere are a few ski hills here in Massachusetts that are under 500 feet vertically, and have a run set up with a park. Just curious if there was anywhere that was just one run thats not indoors and is just a park! I could see it being a very lucrative idea if it was put in the right spot with the right setup/features. I know there would be a hundred hoops to jump through financially and with insurance and stuff, but it seems like a possible business idea. any comments or ideas about one of these popping up?



Not really "very lucrative".

If it's done in the right place and you can get people out you can survive but beyond that good luck.

These days there are a couple places going bankrupt every season. And that's mountains that cater to everyone, families, lessons, rentals, park people, tubing, etc.

It's tough to survive as a mountain in general. Some of the smaller operations are just 2 bad consecutive seasons away from bankruptcy. It sucks but that's how it is.

Most mountains have a park these days so you aren't building something nobody has. If you look at a few random mountains, the amount of park skiers to regular skiers is generally pretty slim. Most mountains make their money on families. The park really isn't bringing in much of an income.

At the same time there are mountains that have kept a steady park scene or developed one, gotten the people, out, invested in it, and do pretty well off it.

It really depends on the location, what else is around, what the people want, how good your marketing skills are. You could put the best features, a $$$ budget, the best builders at a small hill, build epic stuff and even that doesn't mean that people are going to come out. Of course some people will but enough to stay afloat? it's risky.


I mean snow park NZ has some epic shit, big contest, magazine coverage, constant stream of pros, and they only made it a decade.

I think echo only made it 5 or 6 years.

Some places like boreal seem to have done much better. Just saying that even with the right features there are no guarantees.

Ski areas can run up some huge costs pretty quickly, if you're trying to only cater to a small piece of the pie, and the poverty end of the spectrum at that, it isn't easy.
Jan 6 2015 11:41PM
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toastyteenagers
Posts: 1834 - Karma: 6,793
the frontside of lvssr is all park
Jan 6 2015 11:55PM
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Dragonslayer101
Posts: 283 - Karma: 857
This is what we have here in Boise: https://www.facebook.com/gatewayparkseagle?ref=br_tf

I think they also have a park in Minnesota
Jan 7 2015 12:40AM
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brizz
Posts: 1051 - Karma: 74
tacotomYeah, there is Raging buffalo just outside Chiraq that is like that but its like 200 vertical feet tops, i don't know if you can call that a hill even.


the buffalo is definitely that. summer wake school/winter tow rope park outside chicago
Jan 7 2015 12:34PM
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jackdonovan
Posts: 2248 - Karma: 3,079
carinthia on mt. Snow is kinda like that, just one big park area
Jan 7 2015 2:24PM
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Dobber
Posts: 1698 - Karma: 9,834
Several of the hills in Wisconsin and Minnesota are just parks with a couple tiny runs on the side.
Jan 7 2015 4:06PM
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johnnyBuz
Posts: 1438 - Karma: 1,270
Eastern.SkierBear Creek, pa. So tiny. I was hyped when the traveling circus went there though.

Really hope this video works but its not looking good.



Bear Creek is sweet. I love that little hill. The chair lift is so fast you can lap nonstop for like 8 hours.
Jan 7 2015 4:20PM
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p.lochner
Posts: 66 - Karma: 67
http://vimeo.com/100012328


just watch this and stop complaining. there are about 5 rails
Jan 7 2015 6:49PM
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zwilly
Posts: 635 - Karma: 1,908
peter.lochner.7http://vimeo.com/100012328


just watch this and stop complaining. there are about 5 rails


https://vimeo.com/100012328


Actually though, like 5 rails. Still really fun though.
Jan 7 2015 8:54PM
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Z_Benesch
Posts: 2028 - Karma: 2,683
Theres one in eagle idaho I go to when I visit family.
Jan 7 2015 8:58PM
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1kewldewd
Posts: 795 - Karma: 1,143
Here in fairbanks there is the nanook Hulbert UAF terrain park that is nothing but park and it is all hiking with no lift or tow rope.
Jan 7 2015 9:09PM
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theabortionator
Posts: 51263 - Karma: 157,459
Kind of failed. Didn't realize how small we were talking. The smaller stuff is much more doable that said even then it still helps to have at least some regular terrain. It's tough to make it as 100% only park.

Definitely some cool little local hills with parks going on. Would love to be able to check them all out sometime. Even just a few of them. The small places are the rad places that everyone wants to shred but I think they're the best thing out there. Small, cheap/free and accessible. They're the ones that are keeping the stoke alive for people who don't live near or can't afford to ride the bigger mountains.

Gotta love the little hills. Best thing ever.
Jan 8 2015 12:19AM
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.otto.
Posts: 3493 - Karma: 12,892
500 ft vertical! I would love to have that, my home hill ( Cannonsburg MI) has a vertical of 250. It doesn't just have "one run" but pretty much every run is filled with sick park features. Sounds like a cool Idea though.
Jan 8 2015 9:16PM
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.otto.
Posts: 3493 - Karma: 12,892
Jan 8 2015 9:21PM
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hippy.killer
Posts: 204 - Karma: 947
Boyce Park is literally 2 hills and a random box in the woods that no ones allowed to use, me and my buddy went and built a 2 foot jump and got kicked out. Changed my name to boyceparkordie that night, also there were some kids there actually filming 180's on flat ground with tom wallisch's and line chronics...
Jan 8 2015 10:31PM
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mski
Posts: 4791 - Karma: 3,803
I would be stoked if there was a 300 ft run with a rope tow and an assortment of jibs and jumps. Sounds like my home mountain in its early days.
Jan 9 2015 10:57AM
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DUCKS
Posts: 97 - Karma: 240
lol

http://www.liberty.edu/snowflex/

If that counts
Jan 9 2015 5:07PM
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sklermang
Posts: 2981 - Karma: 1,953
Lost Valley, Auburn Maine
Blue Hills
Nashoober

Love fucking around on 300 vertical with a few beers in tow... well maybe not nashoba when its overrun with 8 year olds and helicopter dads sitting on every landing, but even then its fun to try to tap their precious little helmet heads.
Jan 10 2015 1:12AM
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Mingg
Posts: 13936 - Karma: 48,466
Liberty's snowflex is just a park. It's snow flex though, so I don't really know if you'd consider it.
Jan 10 2015 1:17AM
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UilyJeff
Posts: 394 - Karma: 1,480
There is one like that by me(like 15 mins away). It's on a dune along Lake Michigan and called Mulligans Hollow. All it is is like 7-8 small runs all connecting with rail/box/jump lines on each. All rope tow, actually a great time and where I go for practicing shit...besides my backyard.
Jan 10 2015 7:14AM
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