Boreal To Become An All-mountain Terrain Park

[Pat Donnelly]

SAM Magazine--Donner Summit, CA, September 9, 2005--Joining several ski areas across the country, Boreal Mountain Resort will devote all of its slopes to freestyle terrain for the upcoming season. In total, the area will spend $700,000 on the new terrain, which will include 100 rails, jumps and funboxes, as well as a 450-foot-long superpipe that will be serviced by a new Zaugg. The resort also purchased two more grooming vehicles for the park.

The all-mountain terrain park, the first in northern California, will offer features from each of its nine lifts, both day and night. The resort was also quick to point out, however, that it will retain "its traditional downhill terrain, as well as beginner offerings."

[Neil Gendzwill]

Remind me to never ever go there...

[kjl]

This is not really a change from how it was last year, or the year before.

Last time I was there a bunch of snowboarders got into a fistfight in the lift line - that's the crowd it serves. It reeks of cigarettes, too. I actually like the existence of Boreal: closer to the bay area than the other resorts + cheap + focus on freestyle means it is an effective barrier, keeping many, many bozos away from the real slopes :)

[Mike T]

This is not really a change from how it was last year, or the year before.

Last time I was there a bunch of snowboarders got into a fistfight in the lift line - that's the crowd it serves. It reeks of cigarettes, too. I actually like the existence of Boreal: closer to the bay area than the other resorts + cheap + focus on freestyle means it is an effective barrier, keeping many, many bozos away from the real slopes :)


LOL! I learned to snowboard at Boreal. Back in '97 it was actually quite good for that - small hill, decent instructors, great deals on early-morning private lessons. But yeah, I always picture the place as one big jib zone. They can have it - once you get past the low-intermediate stage, the runs are over in about 45 seconds and that's on a freeride deck. I used to really enjoy running the BX course though!

[Randy S.]

What Ken Said!

Sounds like marketing hype to me. This just means they are making a few more park features. The great thing is maybe now the USASA will stop having races there altogether. I hate riding at that place. Its like a mountain from back east or the midwest. Short vertical spread across a long ridge. It does get good snow though. The snow banks in the parking lot get so big they become the run-off ramp for the sledding park.

I'm glad the jibbers have a place of their own. Two years ago my mountain (Alpine Meadows) offered a special discount price if you wanted to buy a ticket that only worked for the lift serving the terrain park. It worked like jail for jibbers. They'd all hang out in the trauma park and we never had to come upon them strewn across the hill just below a blind rise. Perfect.

[lonerider]

Remind me to never ever go there...
It actually isn't much of a change, it was like that back in 1998 when raced in a BX event there. It is a *tiny* hill, like less than a minute top to bottom, so it never was a good carving hill anyways (they did have a tremendous terrain park that was pretty fun... when not covered in the ironically unnecessary feet of powder). The 450 ft long halfpipe sounds really nice though... when we were there, the pipe was crap (didn't help that I actually saw the pipe dragon chain break off and flop on to the pipe wall the day before the halfpipe competition).

[D-Sub]

heh. trauma park

[Jim]

Actually Boreal shares boundaries with another trauma park called Donner Ski Ranch, which has $15 lift tickets.

[dr. sandman]

as far as I'm concerned, "Boringhill" Mountain? Resort

enough said:sleep: !

[Steve Dold]

yo, they're gonna have to put in some bigger speakerz to cover all that terrain.

Donner Ski Ranch is a good resort for the money, it's really hard to beat that $15 deal. It seems like a bigger resort than it is because of the number of runs and the shape of the mountain. I only rode there before I carved and don't remember much good carving terrain, but for powder it was pretty cool. It's a conical mountain that can be ridden on nearly all sides, and has a lot of wide treeless areas to explore.

I've been doing some work at the radio sites on top in the last few days along with Northstar and Mt. Rose, and everytime I drive to the top I stand there and look at the lifts and wonder how many days it'll be. I'll be at the top of Boreal next week or the week after, I'll look for signs of snow. All of these places are full of activity as guys work on stuff getting it ready. It's very encouraging to see.

[Jim]

Paid Donner $10 on a Wednesday for 2' pow with about a 20 others after giving up on the Sugarbowl mob. Donner Ski Ranch was where I was introduced to carving too...go figure.

[Randy S.]

Donner Ski Ranch is where I separated my shoulder two seasons ago in a USASA race. Not good memories for me. I did win the race though.

[Jim]

Tahoe Carver Jeff E. did a Joel there 1 week after introducing me to carving. I think it was '97. :freak3: