January 27, 2009 E-MAIL PRINT

Downtown showdown: Maine resorts bring rail jam to the streets

by Matt Boxler/

Sunday River/Sugarloaf will bring the mountains to the streets on Feb. 14 at Monument Square in Portland, Maine. (photo: nycgovparks.org)

Sunday River/Sugarloaf will bring the mountains to the streets on Feb. 14 at Monument Square in Portland, Maine. (photo: nycgovparks.org)

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If you see a 30-foot-long staircase barreling down I-95 in Maine on Valentine’s Day, don’t panic. In fact, grab yourself a date and follow the spectacle to downtown Portland’s Monument Square.

That’s where Sunday River and Sugarloaf will reassemble the stairs, build a two-story starting ramp and customize an upside-down lobster boat hull for the first Downtown Showdown urban rail jam, which is part of Portland’s WinteRush Outdoor Festival Feb. 6-14.

Sixteen snowboarders and 16 freeskiers, a collection of up-and-coming athletes representing industry teams, shops and academies, have been invited to compete in the Showdown, which begins at 4 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14. Following the 4 p.m. warmup, the Open Jam begins at 5 p.m. with the finals slated to kick off at 6 p.m.

It’s no small task bringing the mountains to the streets, but Nick Lambert, brand manager at Sunday River/Sugarloaf, is no stranger to organizing special events. Last winter, Sunday River was involved with the Union Square Street Sessions, which was an urban rail event for snowboarders held in New York City. The Downtown Showdown will be a smaller version of that event.

And two years ago, resort personnel brought snow and scaffolding to NBC’s "Today" show in New York, where they built a hill that Matt Lauer skied down and the other hosts slid down on snow tubes.

“The biggest challenge with an urban event like this is snow,” Lambert said. “We’ve held smaller events and promotions in cities before and always brought our own snow in dump trucks, which can be both expensive and complicated.”

Lambert said the truck beds need to be cleaned before being loaded with snow, and sometimes the snow doesn’t come out very easily after it has been packed in and driven a hundred miles or so.

For the Downtown Showdown, Portland officials are helping out by stockpiling snow they’ve removed from city streets and parking lots. They also will provide some of the heavy equipment required to build the venue and deliver the snow.

“The city of Portland is thrilled to have Sunday River and Sugarloaf participating in WinteRush,” Mayor Jill Duson said. “The Downtown Showdown is the perfect way to bring pieces of Maine’s favorite mountains to the city using this exciting urban rail jam. The Downtown Showdown will certainly heat up what we expect to be Maine’s coolest outdoor festival.”

So far, the feedback for the event has been very positive, Lambert said. “We’re receiving a ton of inquires from kids hoping to participate, and we held a rail jam at Sunday River to qualify for one spot in the Portland event and had 70 kids show up to compete.”

So, what about that 30-foot set of stairs?

“We’re building the staircase here at Sunday River in pieces and will assemble it all here as a test before we disassemble, transport to Portland, and reassemble in Monument Square,” Lambert said. “The biggest logistical challenge will be how to transport 30-foot-long rails and stair stringers, then how we set them in place.

“Other than the staircase feature, everything will be built on-site with scaffolding,” Lambert said. “The in-run will be 14 feet wide and drop from a two-level start down to a single level that the staircase will rest on. The entire structure will have plywood on top, which the snow will rest on.”

Add to that some traditional Maine flair (an overturned lobster boat hull will serve as the park’s sliding surface finish area) and the city streets will be officially transformed into a big mountain rail jam — urban style.

For more information on Sunday River and Sugarloaf’s Downtown Showdown, visit www.thedowntownshowdown.com.

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