January 1, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Freestyle's new face

by Marty Basch/

Freestyle will mark the face of Mount Snow's Carinthia. (photo: Mount Snow)

Freestyle will mark the face of Mount Snow's Carinthia. (photo: Mount Snow)

As a youngster, Kelly Pawlak grew up skiing at Pats Peak in Henniker, N.H., and remembers being lectured by the ski patrol. As was the case a generation or so ago during the straight ski days, renegade grommets would build little jumps on the edges of trails to get air. They would go into the woods.

These actions, if spotted by the ski patrol, would end with a tongue-lashing on safety and all.

Fast forward to today. Pawlak is 43, a mother, and general manager of Mount Snow in West Dover, Vt. That little grom grew up to land a job at Mount Snow after college in 1985. She figured she would last a season.

Now, Pawlak is part of a team changing the face of Mount Snow. Carinthia, a section of the resort with 14 trails normally known as an off-the-beaten-path kind of place, has gotten a massive makeover. It is now dedicated to freestyle, with jumps, rails and boxes everywhere.

"When I was kid, all we wanted to do was build jumps," she said. "We wanted height and we wanted something interesting."

They've got that now at Carinthia.

As the season progresses, the parks at Carinthia will grow. Plans call for about 125 features over 12 terrain parks. There will be a huge superpipe more than 400 feet in length with some 18-foot walls. A lesser mini-pipe will have about eight-foot walls. The features will be for all abilities, with dedicated parks with smaller elements and those for experts.

Carinthia has its own website with blog, videos, photos and trail reports with information on the various features and grooming.

Freestyle is not new to Mount Snow. It was ahead of the game by constructing Un Blanco Gulch, a terrain park, in 1992. The resort also hosted the X Games in 2000 and 2001.

Mount Snow is getting back on the event radar with the Winter Dew Tour slated for January 8-11.

Six days a week, the skiers and snowboarders of Mount Snow Academy train on their home mountain.

Head snowboard coach Steve Kwasniewski — he coached Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark — is the man in charge of coaching his athletes in slalom, giant slalom, boardercross, slopestyle and halfpipe. But he's noticing something.

"Kids tend to stick to freestyle," he said. "It's more expressive."

In the past, terrain parks were scattered all over the resort. No more.

"There will be a tremendous benefit in having all the parks consolidated in one area, offering a range of feature sizes," he said.

Given the amount of time the Academy kids spend on the hill, there will be an open channel of communication with the park crew in terms of flow and whether the features need to be tweaked.

"In years past, it was repetitive," said freestyle coach Jesse Ramirez-Mallis. "Now, there will be even more features. This will also spread out the crowds and we'll be able to spread out on Carinthia."

With the Winter Dew Tour touching down, the Academy students will also get a chance to see the superstars up close.

"They will be riding the parks the pros will be riding," said snowboard coach Will Rivera.

Recreational skiers and snowboarders will also be at Carinthia. There are some, according to Pawlak, who have expressed their concerns about the changes. Skiers and riders used to cruising Carinthia will be able to bypass the features, but they will constantly have to be on the lookout for high-flying and styling freeskiers.

It's what comes with change.

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