Snowboarders, skiers ride it all at Seven Springs urban terrain park
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Seven Springs presents The Streets, featuring on-mountain replicas of buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh. -
Cam Pierce of Forum Snowboards demonstrates his snowboarding and balancing skills on a rail at the grand opening of The Streets, a terrain park dedicated to urban snowboarding at Seven Springs Mountain Resort. -
Cam Pierce at The Streets. Features replicate familiar structures in Downtown Pittsburgh.
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Snowboarder Mike Abriola was sitting at a simulated, open-sided bus shelter in Seven Springs newest terrain park when a skier hopped up on the bench on the other side, slid across it and scooted away.
"This place is a lot of fun," said Abriola, 19, of Monroeville, referring to The Streets, a walk-up site Seven Springs considers to be "the world's first urban terrain park" at a four-season resort.
Abriola, an architectural engineering student at Penn State University, pointed to the 26 features in the park -- objects that snowboarders can ride on, under or over -- and praised those who designed, built and installed them.
"The guys who made all this are so good at what they do," he said. "The park crew here is really amazing."
The Streets, set between and below the Lower Wagner slope and Helen's restaurant, is 300 feet long, 210 feet wide and has a vertical drop of 30 feet. It includes three pseudo brick buildings, a tunnel, street lights, boxes, railings, stairs, ledges and walls.
A large flat surface at the top gives snowboarders and freestyle skiers room to step into their bindings, determine their route and start down.
"There's a lot of down boxes and down rails to ride," Abriola said, referring to rectangular and round objects they strive to slide on after using ramps of hard-packed snow to jump up on them.
"They're similar to the stuff you find around town to ride on, but without the hassle."
Ah, yes, the hassle.
It comes in the form of inadequate snowfall that limits the number of times city-based snowboarders and skiers can enjoy their sport. It also refers to the limited number of places where they can pursue it, and the damage coarse cement steps and rusted railings can inflict on their equipment.
Sliding on stairs, railings, ledges and similar features in city, county and state parks usually is fair game, but those same objects located in industrial parks and on other private property are not.
"The campus police holler at you if you ride any of that stuff at school," said Eric Geiselhart, 20, of Monroeville, a junior physical therapy major at Slippery Rock. "And security guards chase you out of industrial parks."
First Published January 29, 2012 12:00 am
