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LOCATION: Big Boulder, PA

Glen Plake DownHome Tour
Day 16: Big Boulder, PA

By: Glen Plake

Three areas in one day:
Big Boulder, PA
Jack Frost, PA
Montage, PA

Big Boulder, PA
Last night, Jerard and I got into a conversations about rails. It seems there are either death rails or baby rails at many of these stops. While I thoroughly enjoy sliding rails, I am by no means a rail specialist, nor do I aspire to be. I am intrigued by sliding nice rails though. We were commenting on how fun it would be if someone had a 40-50 ft 6 inch, at like a 10-degree down angle 3-feet off the ground. Something that you could session and truly get the feeling of grinding a rail. As we wake up in the parking lot of Big Boulder and open the blinds, the exact rail that we were talking about is being groomed in a mini park right in front of us.

We need to get on the hill early in order to complete the agenda we’ve set for ourselves. We’ve told nobody we were coming and we’re parked in plain view of the lodge. Obviously they know we’re here. We head into the lodge to scam some tickets, and Paul the ski school director quickly obliged us with some tickets. On the walls of the lodge we noticed some posters of J.F. Cusson. He had been here just a week ago as part of a promotion with a local shop. It’s nice to know some other people were out on the road bringing their skiing to the people.

I don’t know what Big Boulder is doing to make their snow so different than everything else we’ve been skiing lately, but its really nice snow. We hit some cruisers with Paul and a fellow mountain man from Hoboken, NJ, named Danny. Also, Randa, a snowboarder who grew up here but is now residing in Portland. It’s not long before Huff, the mountain manager, puts the finishing touches on their mini-park. While they apologize that their big park and superpipe are not quite formed yet, their junior park is one of the nicest parks I’ve seen, and not only on this trip, but period. Lots of nicely made rails, ranging from flat rails to a 6-foot trapezoid that had to be around 50 feet end-to-end. All meticulously groomed like a golf course. I can’t say enough about this park. If you need a model for what parks should be, go to Big Boulder.

As it turns out Huff is also the motocross track builder at Jack Frost across the street. So his knowledge of what ramps and the like should be is extensive. More on that later.

We begin to session the rails a bit. Starting on a nice flat rail to get our feet warm, Paul is overcome by desire to try the rail and is introduced to the rail riding with a violent header, quickly ending his rail assault for the day. Jerard and I work our way to the flat-down, and eventually over to the topic or our conversation the night before, the 40-foot dream rail. After a few tries we begin to thoroughly enjoy sliding of such a rail. Time to lock on, shuffle and even work on a little bit of style. I’ve approached riding rails very systematically. Lets face it: I’m a steep-skiing mogul skier. But I think it’s very important for my world of skiing to evolve. It is part of the life sentence I must serve as a skier.

While I did a nice rainbow at Whitetail, Big Boulder’s rainbow is just that next step bigger. And as long as I keep my toe pieces on the rail, the rainbow came easily. I could’ve stayed at this park another couple of days…and actually need to. We learned so much in such a short amount of time. It is a testimony of how these type of rails, well-built and moderate, can truly help people to progress.

Like I said, I wanted to stay here a week, but this is only the first area we plan on skiing today. After signing some posters and saying thanks, we make the move over to Big Boulder’s sister area, Jack Frost.

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Other Articles by Glen Plake

Glen Plake DownHome TourDay 16: Big Boulder, PA

Glen Plake DownHome Tour
Day 16: Big Boulder, PA