Wild Air Feedback

[SIAWOL]

I skied Wild Air several times this past weekend. To my surprise, I really like the terrain features on it. They're just the right size--I was comfortable on the top two airs and hope to work up the cajones to hit the bottom two by end of season. Only complaint was that it's a little too "open"---folks were constantly cutting each other off on the features because they don't understand the etiquette. Fuj--how could that traffic be better controlled?

[Frostillicus]

E. Not a fan of parks or of Wild Air, so putting the two together works for me.

Now if only they could put the gold parking at the bottom of Wild Air and let the kids do tricks off of all cars with NJ & CT plates...

[Denison]

E. Not a fan of parks or of Wild Air, so putting the two together works for me.

park on W.A. is just waste of a trail . get rid of it.


Now if only they could put the gold parking at the bottom of Wild Air and let the kids do tricks off of all cars with NJ & CT plates...

why so much hate toward folks from NJ / CT. We drive from far and stay / eat in the area, bring money.

Here's one comment on Gore's Facebook wall "it so expensive to ski for a local" - that's a dumb complaint, how about expenses to ski for someone who lives 3 hours away!

[Lbtchnlgs]

I think the Wild Air park is OK. I haven't been to the mountain in weeks but with the right love, it could be pretty cool. It just sucks you gotta take such a long lift to get there

[Frostillicus]

Now if only they could put the gold parking at the bottom of Wild Air and let the kids do tricks off of all cars with NJ & CT plates...

...except Denison's car. He's very sensitive.

[mattchuck2]

Park was sweet on Monday. I think it's just a matter of catching it at the right time. It was warm on Monday, and there wasn't much of a crowd to speak of, so I was reasonably confident in hitting some features.

Saturday and Sunday, I steered clear.

[fujative.]

I think the best way to keep some "yahoo's" out would be to get more features on it. It was an ok idea to start with, I was concerned with the gondi poles and the narrow trail, and not having enough features to fill it out. Now that there are only a few things, and they are mostly to the side, there are WAY too many people going in there that aren't there to hit park. It wouldn't be such a bad idea if the cruisers stayed out of the way of the other people, but now all the families are taking their kids through there and trying to hit everything as if they were the little side jumps that were in there before. Also with the features switching from extreme skiers left to extreme skiers right, there is a lot of hazardous cross traffic. I hit the flat down rail on top and someone who had gone off the lip for the rail landed next to me when I was completely blind to him, and then he muttered something at me and shook his head in disbelief. SIAWOL, Stuff like this is why I'm against people using lips for rails as a jump. I think if the trail was predominantly park features, rather than leaving 3/4 of it openly skiable it would be much better with less people skiing it who aren't in it for park.

60% of the people in there don't have the skills to hit the (bigger) jumps that are there, and are just causing more and more problems and accidents. Little kids are riding over the lips and skiing right down the back side of them and falling, so they are invisible to people who are actually trying to hit the jumps properly. So many little kids doing this go down and then try to cut their speed by turning down the landings. So some kid is gonna come over the jump and not see them and just take them out. Here's an example from Sugarbush about 5 years ago. http://www.newschoolers.com/web/content/viewvideo/id/120797/


I think one of the better things with the parks on upper and lower Sleighride was it was harder to get to. The entrance wasn't visible from the lifts where everyone can just point and say oh cool, I wanna go there. Also having two different parks, one having smaller and one having larger features, was good because it would keep most of the people who were just learning/experimenting out of the way from the people actually hitting everything in the bigger parks. With everything on Wild Air (except for JibLand where not many people go), the kids think they should just go and try hitting every feature, thus causing more accidents.

Ideally, I think that a trail that's hardly ever used and isn't hittable in the same run as Wild Air would make a great dedication for a second, on hill, park. Something like Ward Hill would be great. Honestly I wouldn't mind if the park went back to Sleighride. Aside from the cross traffic going from Upper to Lower, I didn't see any problems with it.

Upper could be a predominantly jib park, put all the rails and boxes in there because it's pretty flat and you don't need a lot of speed for them. Then Lower could use a bit of widening to make it better which doesn't seem like it would be too much work. Have a rail or two up top, the starting ramp that's usually there, and then a 3 jump line. Have the first one start about 100 feet up from where the cannon box was last year, and then have the third one be a bit past where the landing for the cannon was. Make everything with double takeoffs so you could have an option of hitting is as a 15 footer for about a 35 for the first one, 20/45 for the second, and depending on how much speed you can carry another 20/45. Since it flattens out a bit, you could have a cannon rail or one of the bigger rails there, and then the last jump at the bottom have a banger something like a 25/55 foot double takeoff, not right on the woods line, and have a hip option to one side. Keep that shotgun down rail out from where it was last year because so many people just sat right on the landing for it. you could use that flat as a start.

All this stuff would be great, but just isn't a mountain known for park. It has great potential to be, but Gore just doesn't seem to want to put out the funds to make it happen. When you ask anyone what they go to Gore for it's either the race program, the trees and steeps, or Kids Klub. A bunch of my friends have gotten passes to Killington, Stratton, Mount Snow especially, and some even West instead of Gore for their parks. In all honestly, I would much rather to go West and ski their park over Gore right now. The new rails and boxes are awesome, the jump is about 10 feet bigger with a landing that's actually steep enough to not give you toe bang, and there are far less people that you have to use as moving gates. But I guess that's what to expect out of a park where you don't have to be able to hit a jump or slide a rail in order to work :roll: [/url]

[SnowSnake]

I think just like paid parking, the park is an example of Gore trying to be like big boys but without really knowing what they are doing or how to execute it properly. The new park has some nice new features but the intersecting trails and the lack of seperation from the main mountain make it a major liability. I say move the park or abandon it, like fujative said its not like anyone actually comes to Gore for the park.

[adksara]

I wonder if they ever would consider using Ward Hill & Little Dippers as a park area... the Sunway chair drops off right there and one of the trails could be used for features & the other for a halfpipe or even quarterpipe depending on how the terrain shaped up with some snowmaking. That would be off the main trails a bit, easy access via lift, easy to get to/from the lodge & if there was ever an event on the halfpipe or park, you could walk there to see. Seems like the pitch of the trails is steep enough for some fun pieces as well.

Just my thoughts... I'm staying clear of Wild Air this year, not much of a jumper myself and I'd rather be out of the way of those who really do and can play.

[jmokes]

adksara is dead on the money...i understand the attraction for the "visual" under the gondi but it takes away an intermediate trail to get down & forces most skiers to either showcase or sunway/quicksilver since twister usually has gates on it. plus, there's no room for a 1/2 pipe. ward hill/little dipper rarely get skied @ all & would bring a purpose to that side of the mtn. super groovy idea.

[fujative.]

A half pipe would never work on the trails mentioned. Not enough of a consistent pitch and just plain not enough room.
Another problem with Wild air is that if someone is looking to cruise a blue run that isn't the park, they either have to try to get around the gates at the bottom of Foxlair to cut to Showcase without being taken out by skiers or ski patrollers, take Ruby Run, or take the triple. Wild Air was really quite an artery of the mountain, I think that turning it to a park was like Gore trying to make it a playground of sorts for the kids, when most of the things in there are way too big for little ones to be "playing" on.


ward hill/little dipper rarely get skied @ all & would bring a purpose to that side of the mtn

So true. Ward Hill would make for a great beginners park, and Little Dipper could be a great intermediate run to leave some bumps on. I think that since Gore has so many good skiers who are there for the trees/steeps, a bump skiing program would make a great addition to the ski school. Ward Hill would be a great run for people to start on, and skiers left or right of Hawkeye would be great to leave as a designated advanced bump run. Then groom one side that's maybe one or two cat paths wide.

[adksara]

A half pipe would never work on the trails mentioned. Not enough of a consistent pitch and just plain not enough room.

...Ward Hill would make for a great beginners park, and Little Dipper could be a great intermediate run to leave some bumps on.

I couldn't remember from Whiteface the pitch of the trail they had their halfpipe on... I do remember it was nice, and thinking of details, you're probably right about the two little trails not being long or steep enough. But I do like the idea of a beginners park that's easy to get to and a quick trail to play with bumps. And it's not like they are very hard to get to with snowmaking from Twin Fawns over and blasting up from Sunway.

At some point I hope that a trail/home can be found for a park... I'm not one to use it, but I know how much fun it is for friends and kids of friends and think it's very necessary for a family all around mountain.

[kornfein]

Personally I'd much rather have the park on Wild Air than Sleighride. Wild Air even before the park attracted lots of kids, going in and out of the trees on the right side and jumping off the mounds of snow by the Gondola towers. Always tried to avoid it, Sleighride was a favorite until they made it a terrain park. Also Wild Air is wider so a group can go down it and if some people don't want to do the terrain park there is plenty of room to stay out of the way. Sleighride was too narrow for a terrain park