Freeriders flock to Loon parks

By Matt Boxler

Quick quiz: What do Winter Park, Colo., Loon Mountain, N.H. and Bear Mountain, Calif. have in common?

Quick answer: The Vans Mini Cup.

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Loon is attracting some of snowboarding’s premier park events. The Lincoln, N.H. resort has been piling up the props lately from some of the sport’s most influential publications.

New signature features are added each year at Loon Mountain Park.For instance, at the start of this season Transworld Snowboarding readers named Loon number one in the East for Parks, Pipe and Overall Resort Atmosphere. Just last month, Snowboard Magazine named Loon’s parks to be among the “Top-Ten Most Progressive Parks in North America,” and Freeskier Magazine named Loon one of the top parks in the East.

The Vans Mini Cup (presented by Eastern Boarder) will be held Jan. 10 at Loon Mountain Park, one of six terrain parks at the resort. New this year, the Mini Cup is an “open jam” series of three qualifying events for one of the West Coast’s most important professional snowboarding competitions – the Vans Cup.

Incidentally, Loon will also play host to The Main Event Finals on Feb. 28, which will award a wild card entry into the country’s biggest professional invitational event – the Burton US Open (Stratton Mountain, March 16-22).

Like the US Open, the Vans Cup features the top male and female professionals from around the world competing in Rail Jam, Slopeside and Superpipe. The 5^th Annual Vans Cup, with $200,000 in prize money at stake, will be held Feb. 27-March 1 at Mammoth Mountain, Calif.

While the Mini Cup isn’t the only way to get into the major event, it is the best way for amateurs to score an invite. The top finishers at each Mini Cup are awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to Mammoth, where they will be automatically entered to compete alongside the sport’s top professionals in the Friday Night Rail Jam.

To get an idea, last year’s invite list included riders like Danny Kass, Andreas Wiig, Antti Autti, Keir Dillon, Iouri Podlatchikov, Steve Fisher, Michael Goldschmidt, Tommy Czeschin, Wyatt Caldwell, Chad Otterstrom, Ross Powers, J.J. Thomas, Elijah Teter, Scotty Arnold, Mike Casanova, Chris Coulter, Darrell Mathes, Todd Richards, Markus Keller, Eddie Wall and Andy Finch.

On the ladies side, invitees included Joanie Anderson, Tricia Byrnes, Torah Bright, Molly Aguire, Hana Beaman, Erin Comstock, Laura Hadar, Leanne Pelosi, Silvia Mittermueller, Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas, Amber Stackhouse, Kimmy Fasani, Anne-Flore Marxer, Priscilla Levac, Alexis Waite, Natasza Zurek and Jacqui Berg.

Loon hasn’t been resting on its laurels, which is why it continues to draw top riders and events. Each year, Park Manager Brian Norton, his terrain park crew and Eastern Boarder team up to create a new feature/spectacle. Last year it was the sculpted L-O-O-N letters. This season marks the debut of the Shaping Shack.

Also this season, a new park was opened on the Brookway Extension trail, more than 15 jibs have been added throughout the six parks, and the minipipe was relocated next to the 450-foot superpipe at the bottom of the LMP (just above the entrance to the gondola).

“We're focusing on keeping the flow of trail, while allowing riders and skiers a new place to hit features,” Norton said of the changes.

And the Burton Progression Park continues to serve the Snowsports School and continues to progress in its own right. “We now see a lot of kids hang out in the BPP because we are continuously maintaining the elements there just as we do in the LMP,” says Jay Scambio, terrain park manager for Byne Resorts. “It's kind of become the cool place to chill."

As the crow flies, the Vans Cup at Mammoth Mountain requires quite a journey. Getting there by way of the Loon is the best shortcut available.

(First published Jan. 1, 2009 at skijournal.com)