Arena Snowparks News

CAMP OF CHAMPIONS FINISHING TOUCHES

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:54:00 -0700

The Camp of Champions summer ski and snowboard camp is underway! Check out Lucas’s latest video documenting the ASP crew as we get ready for camp ‘A’ and the Billabong Ante Up.

CAMP OF CHAMPIONS HELI RAILS

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:23:00 -0700

What's the fastest way to get rails from the base of Blackcomb Mountain up to the Horstman Glacier?

Check out Lucas's latest video and see how we get the Camp of Champion’s rails up to camp.

Camp of Champions Prep #3 from Lucas Ouellette on Vimeo.

CAMP OF CHAMPIONS COUNTDOWN

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:06:00 -0700

With one week to go until the start of the Camp of Champions summer ski and snowboard camp and the park is really starting to take shape.

The large , medium and progression jump lines are in, the mini pipe has been stepped out and is ready to cut, the rails have been flown up to the glacier by helicopter and the Jump for the Billabong TTR event has been pushed and will have the take off built by the end of the weekend. The diggers will be up on the snow on Friday to start with rail installation and hand shaping. We have pushed tons of snow in the last three weeks and there is still plenty to go around. I took a walk around the COC zone yesterday with a 10 ft probe and couldn’t find the bottom. Temperatures have been slightly cooler than usually in Whistler this spring so we haven’t seen any significant snow loss up on the Horstman Glacier. In fact, we received about 4 cm of new snow down to the bottom of the Catskinner Chair on Tuesday. Its shaping up to be an epic summer!

CAMP OF CHAMPIONS 2010

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:10:00 -0700

Preparations for the Camp of Champions summer ski and snowboard camp are underway. With 20% more terrain and tons of snow on the Glacier it’s going to be an unbelievable summer. Check out the latest video as we get ready for camp.

CUTTERS CAMP AND THE COMBI BOX AT BLACKCOMB

Sun, 30 May 2010 23:51:00 -0700

Check out Lucas Ouellette’s latest ASP video update from our trip to the Cutter’s Camp at Mt. Hood and the 90 ft Combi Box in the Blackcomb park.

The Arena Snowparks crew starts construction on the Camp of Champions summer snowpark this week. It’s going to be a crazy summer don’t miss out. Camp starts June 24th.

BLACKCOMB MOUNTAIN

Tue, 25 May 2010 22:45:00 -0700

WhisltlerBlackcomb wanted to end the 2010 park season with a bang. The WB Parks crew teamed up with Arena Snowpraks to install a 90ft Combi Box just above the entrance to the Highest Level park.

A big crowd showed up for the Showcase Snowboard Shop Rail-O-Rama jam on Sunday. Prizes where handed out for best trick, longest ride and raddest slide. Monday went off as well with riders throwing down their last tricks of the season on the 90ft beast. The Winter season is over for but skiing and snowboarding start up again on June 19th on the Horstman Glacier. The Camp of Champions starts up on the Glacier June 25th and it’s going to be an epic summer –20% more terrain, second best snow year on record, four complete Combi Box set ups, a five star TTR event in the camp with a specially designed jump and much more. Check back for updates on ASP’s camp build progress.

Anything is possible on the combi box

A little foggy but the riders were stoked

Doubling up on the combi box

GRENADE GAMES

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:57:00 -0700

The World Ski and Snowboard Festival wrapped up this weekend with the Grenade Games 6 pipe comp and grand finale valley Slope Style.

Up on Blackcomb the pipe was riding nicely and the riders where down for a day of fun and pipe jibbing. Along with finely shaped walls the pipe included a 8ft high log hitching post on the right wall and the Grenade piñata on the left.

Down in the valley crowds gathered on Saturday night to witness the Slope Style finale. The course started out with a multi option feature which included a kicker over a gap and a 50ft down flat Combi Box. After that they went into a big log launcher, mini hip and then into either a double picnic table set up or the RV wall ride.

Grenade Games pipe

Photo: Paul Atwood

Log jib

Photo: Paul Atwood

RV wall ride

Photo: Paul Atwood

WORLD SKIING INVITATIONAL SUPERPIPE AT BLACKCOMB

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:01:00 -0700

Whistler Blackcomb hosted the WSI Ski Superpipe competition in it’s new 22 foot pipe Tuesday. This was the North American competition debut for a Global Cutter shaped halfpipe and the skiers where boosting due to the smooth transitions and larger landing area of the finely shaped 22 footer.

The pipe will now be handed over to the snowboarders for the Grenade Games Superpipe competition which takes place on Friday April 24th.
Down in the valley ASP is working on the slope style course for the grand finally of the Grenade Games happening Saturday evening at the base of Whistler.

World Skiing Invitational Superpipe

Global Cutter equals smooth transitions

First hit in the Blackcomb pipe

WHISTLER AND BLACKCOMB SPRING UPDATES 2

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:58:00 -0700

The Orage Masters Event went off on Whistler Mountain this weekend. We saw a bit of rain on Saturday but the course held up well and the teams where putting on a show for the crowds gathered in the village.

Arena Snowparks will be back on site Monday morning to start construction on the Grenade Games slope style course which happens April 24th under the lights at the base of Whistler Mountain.

Blackcomb’s new 22 foot Global Cutter shaped halfpipe opened to the public on Friday and received rave reviews. The pipe will be the site of the World Skiing Invitational and the Grenade Games competitions starting April 18th through to April 22nd.

Orage masters team cribs

Downflat combi box

End to end on the hip

The Global Cutter in action

WHISTLER AND BLACKCOMB SPRING UPDATES

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:15:00 -0700

ASP crews have been in the valley all week on Whistler Mountain constructing the slope style course for the Orage Masters competition which takes place on Saturday. Ace park builder and ASP Rails welder, Anthony Ortes, has been logging some long days down in the slush dialing in the course and installing the rails and boxes.

Up on Blackcomb mountain, John Melville, has been putting the final touches on the 22 foot Super Pipe. John has also put in some long days and has managed to get the pipe open early so the public can have a chance to ride the new pipe for a couple days before the the World Ski and Snowboard Festival takes over.

Anton pushing the landing for the launcher

Combi box and hip

Picnic table setup

Blackcomb Mountain

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 22:28:00 -0700

Blackcomb’s halfpipe is in the midst of a transformation from 18 to a 22 footer. ASP started work on the pipe early this week and with over 100cm’s of new snow in the last ten days there is plenty of snow on hand to complete the build.

Arena Snowparks has teamed up with fellow Global Snowpark Alliance partner Development Snowparks of New Zealand to present the new 22 foot pipe shaper the Global Cutter. The Cutter will be making it’s North American debut at Blackcomb during the World Ski and Snowboard Festival April 16 to 25. The Cutter will then go down to Mt. Hood for SAM Magazines Cutter’s Camp May 9 to 16.

Looking up from the bottom

Grading the flat bottom

John putting the cutter together

Terrain Park Whistler

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:16:00 -0700

Check out Whistler’s new Combi Box set up. Last week the box, in the Chipmonk Park, was set up as a 16ft down, 5ft flat, 24ft down. This week the pieces have been re-arranged into a sick 32ft down, 14ft flat box.

The change over took two people around one hour to complete –the combinations are endless. Whistler Blackcomb will have two Combi Box set ups in the Grenade Games slopestyle course at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival April 16th to 24th.
Combi Box video coming soon.

Combi box before

Combi box after

All the pieces bolt together

Snowcross North America Cup at Martock

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:12:00 -0700

Arena Snowparks has been in Nova Scotia this week building the Snowcross North America Cup track at Martock Ski Hill.

Martock will be hosting the snowboard events at next years Canada Winter Games, February 11 to 27. ASP will be onsite for the snowcross and halfpipe construction at the Games. Check out Martock at www.martock.com

Martock's Bison X hard at work

Vancouver 2010 all wrapped up

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:18:00 -0700

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Games are over. It had its challenges but in the end I think it will go down as one of the best ever.

Time to say thank you to all people who worked tirelessly to make this event happen. So a big thank you to all the good people at VANOC, the volunteers who donated their time to work at the venue and to the ASP crew who worked incredibly hard to ensure that the halfpipe at Cypress Bowl went ahead despite all the adversity.

The boys in 'Celery' 686 jackets

Lucas, Tyler and Jay enjoying the show

John Melville, Steve Petrie and David Ny of the Global Snowark Alliance

Men's Olympic halfpipe in Transworld Snowboarding and NY Times

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:32:00 -0700

Well, the men's is over, Shaun White was victorious again with Olympic gold as you all have to know by now. We're onto the women's today, conditions are great again for the pipe and the ASP crew are happy with the way the pipe shaped up last night. Read the full story on the Men's at Transworld Snowboarding and here's what they had to say about Arena Snowparks.

'The biggest miracle of the night was something that you might have taken for granted—the pipe itself. Arena Snowparks led by Steve Petrie and his staff had easily the hardest job at these Olympic games, and it was nothing but experience, perseverance, (a lot of money and trucked and flown in snow), and hard work that made an Olympic quality pipe a reality tonight.'

There's also a story on Steve and ASP in the New York Times about the challenging weather conditions that were faced by the crew and just how they got the pipe built in time for the Games.

Transworld Snowboarding say that the Cypress Halfpipe came through and so did these guys Shaun White Gold (center), Peetu Piiroinen Silver (left), Scotty Lago Bronze (Right)

Photo credit: Nick Hamilton - Transworld Snowboarding

Challenging snow conditions

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:17:00 -0700

Mother nature has a sense of humor. After battling for weeks in the rain to the build the pipe at Cypress Bowl, drier but not that cold weather conditions have turned the flat bottom of the pipe into sugar for the first two days of training.

Luckily, and I can’t believe I’m saying it, rain Monday night before the final day of training helped us get the flat bottom under control and the Tuesday night training session went off. The pipe is setting up quite nicely for the big show. Good luck to all the riders in the Men’s Olympic halfpipe event tonight.

Flat bottom was better on the 2nd day of training

Good conditions in the pipe

The latest...

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:00:00 -0700

Training in the Olympic pipe starts today at 4:30pm.

The ASP crew have been busy prepping the halfpipe surface to withstand the latest deluge of rain –50mm expected overnight with clearing expected late in the day on Sunday. The trend is for the weather to improve in the lead up to the event which will be great –we may actually have a chance at creating a solid riding surface.

Cypress pipe under lights

Finishing touches to the start ramp

Fine tuning the pipe

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:42:00 -0700

With three days to go until the start of halfpipe training at Cypress Bowl the ASP crew continues to shape the walls and dial in the start platform.

This week saw the installation of the lights and all the cabling. There are 14 light towers on the pipe –two at the start, two in the finish area and nine on each roll out deck. We had a bit of new snow yesterday which helped freshen things up a bit but the forecast looks warm and wet for the next the few days with a return to cooler temperatures by Monday. The crew will be ready to do whatever it takes to protect our precious pile of snow.

Squaring up the start

Uphill pass

Arena Snowparks Halfpipe crew

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:52:00 -0700

ASP has assembled an elite team of pipe builders and shapers for the Winter Games. These guys have been working in some of the most challenging conditions possible to make the pipe at Cypress happen.

Special thanks to 686, Electric Visual, Da Kine and POW Gloves for all the support. Only four days until the start of the Olympics.

Arena Snowparks Olympic halfpipe crew

From left to right: Ken Marler, Tyler Nichol, David Melancon, Tyler Weed, Josh Duncan, Steve Petrie, Oleksander Iskat, Mathieu Forcier, John Melville and Greg Desjardins. Missing from photo -Lucas Ouellette, Bailey Mitchell, David Ny and Chris Addario

Foam boarding the start

Half pipe shaping up and nearly finished

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:35:00 -0700

The Arena Snowparks crew has been putting in some long days to get the halfpipe ready for Olympic competition. Snow conditions have been soft which made for some good cutting on Friday and saw shaping crews cutting the vert line and re-setting form boards to contain the snow.

The start of the Winter Olympic Games is 6 days away. The men’s pipe competition takes place on February 17th and the women’s is on the 18th.

98% straw free half pipe