High praise for resort terrain park
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The late Adolph Dupre would be doubly proud of The Streets, a new terrain park that boasts "urban style features" at Seven Springs, the resort he founded with his wife, Helen , in 1932.
In addition to highlighting the resort's latest attraction, hard-working, no-nonsense Dupre would be pleased to know how its first snowboarders and freestyle skiers will return to the top of the park when it officially opens to the public at 4 p.m. Thursday.
They will walk.
"Let dem valk!," delivered in a brusque Bavarian accent, was the response Dupre gave his three children when they lobbied for a chairlift on behalf of guests who had been using arm-tugging surface lifts since the resort opened.
Although members of the Forum Snowboards professional team will use leg power instead of horsepower Thursday to make their rides, guests are welcome to use the six-passenger Polar Bear Express, a.k.a. "The Sixpack," to reach the top of the resort and then ride their snowboards and twin-tip skis down to the park.
Joel Rerko , resort's director of action sports, believes some guests will opt to save time by walking back up through the park rather than stand in line for the busy lift. The new park, formerly a beginner slope and then a basic terrain park, is just above the Foggy Goggle bar.
The Streets, developed by the resort, Forum Snowboards and Snow Park Technologies, is expected to appeal to snow sports enthusiasts who now use public -- and sometimes private -- property to strut their stuff on short and long flights of stairs, flat and round railings, wide and narrow ledges and anything else that allows them to momentarily defy gravity.
But they need a lot of natural snow to do that or risk trashing their equipment and themselves.
The Streets will have plenty of snow, thanks to the resort's patented snowmaking system. And it will be packed with features.
"It will offer a wide array of rails, ledges, gaps and wall rides, all built with the look and feel of riding in a city," resort spokeswoman Anna Weltz said. "[It's] an on-mountain replica of urban riding at its best."
"Being able to bring this level of urban features to a full-access resort is something we used to only dream of," Forum Brand manager Kevin Winkel said. "The features in The Streets will forever change how resorts look at building [terrain] parks."
Seven Springs first five terrain parks -- Arctic Blast, Santa's Beard, The Alley, North Park and The Spot -- have earned national and international acclaim for three consecutive years. TransWorld SNOWboarding magazine ranked them first in the East this season. The magazine said its Olympic-sized Superpipe in The Spot was the fourth best in North America.
Weltz said the resort "is committed to developing and growing its terrain parks, halfpipes and Superpipe. "[The parks are] of varying difficulty and progression [and have] more than 70 features."
Rerko said the inspiration for some of the faux brick plywood buildings in The Streets came from several buildings in the Golden Triangle, including PPG Place. A shipping container serves as the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
"The Streets is taking the concept of what a snowpark should be to a whole new level," said Nic Sauve , a pro rider for Forum Snowboards. "I envy the kids who will grow up riding it."
Sauve and fellow pro rider Pat Moore helped to create The Streets. They and teammates Stevie Bell, Cam Pierce, Austen Sweetin and Mario Kaeppeli will be the first to ride it.
Contact: www.7springs.com ; 1-800-452-2223.
First Published January 14, 2012 12:00 am
