Snowboarding highlights: Mount Hood Meadows Ski Resort

On big powder days, hot snowboarders head for Heather Canyon to carve wild waves of snow. The wall of snow busting up with each turn is a thing of beauty. When the snow is tracked-up, the boarders often head for Park Place - Meadows' advanced terrain park, located near the top of the Hood River Express. Daisy Bowl sports a big halfpipe that runs just over 400 feet in length and is 60 to 70 feet wide. The pipe is built and maintained by crewmembers with a Scorpion pipe-shaping machine. The walls are 10 to 12 feet high with six to eight feet of vertical and four- to five-foot trannies, depending on how much snow Mount Hood receives. Park Place also offers 12 hits, including tabletops, spines, berms, quarterpipes, and hip-style jumps where boarders can launch and land in at least three different directions. The area is so well groomed and maintained that local boarders who compete in Boarder Cross and Free Style events use it as a training center. The halfpipe and terrain features in Park Place are just like what you'll see on the pro tours. Next to Park Place is Easy Rider, an intermediate terrain park designed to help riders hone technique and step up to Park Place.

Each year Meadows will add more features all over the mountain as snow permits. Area management's goal is to give all snowriders an enhanced experience by using their groomers and pipe machine to make snowriding more challenging and exciting.

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