If shaped skis rejuvenated the ski industry and snowboarding saved it, Mount Snow is banking on freestyle being the next elixir.
For general manager Kelly Pawlak, 43, this is just a natural progression. As a kid, she skied Pats Peak in Henniker, N.H., and recalled being disciplined by ski patrol for building jumps and skiing in the woods.
"If I could have looked into the future, Carinthia would have been it," she said. "Why not? We're just giving people what they naturally want."
Innovation has been a Mount Snow signature since ex-Marine and snowmaking pioneer Walter Schoenknecht opened the area in 1954 with just seven trails on the site of a former farm. Over the years, Mount Snow would grow to include such novelties as brightly colored egg-shaped gondolas (which skiers entered with their skis on) and a 350-foot geyser - Fountain Mountain - that froze and became a ski hill.
Snowboarding proved more than a fad, and Mount Snow unveiled the region's first snowboard park in 1992, Un Blanco Gulch. The X Games were held at Mount Snow in 2000 and 2001 and featured top international athletes such as Mount Snow Academy snowboarder Kelly Clark, who won Olympic gold in the halfpipe in 2002.
The 102-trail mountain is located in an area rich in winter freestyle sports. To the north on Route 100 is Stratton, home of the 2009 Burton US Open. Olympic gold medalist Ross Powers is an ambassador at Okemo. Killington hosts the Grand Prix in March.
Mount Snow will entertain the Winter Dew Tour January 8-11, attracting top skiers and snowboarders such as Clark, Simon Dumont, and Shaun White.
Steve Kwasniewski, head snowboard coach at Mount Snow Academy, says having the parks in one area will be a tremendous benefit to freestylers.
"This will be better consolidated instead of having the parks scattered all over the mountain," Kwasniewski said. "Also, some recreational skiers want nothing to do with parks and pipes. This way we don't run into anybody. In the past, we could sometimes clash."
