How to build a jump: edited

SirFryanator

SirFryanator

Active member


HOW TO BUILD A JUMP:

1. Pile snow. Make it about 2 feet wider and 2 feet taller than you want the result to be.

2. Hard pack the takeoff of the jump. That is the most important part.

3. Make sure the back has a good support. It shouldn't be flat 90 degrees down.

4. Pack the jump down on all its surfaces and make sure the sides are straight and have good support on that.

5. Hard pack the takeoff again. Then be sure to extra hard pack the

lip. That will create a curve that will give you a bit more pop.

(that's what I do at least and I get at least 5 feet more air than a

normal)

6. Slide your skis up and down the takeoff to smooth it out.

7. Put pressure on it to make sure it is secure.

8. Hard-pack your in-run and make an area to hike in that is AT LEAST 3 FEET AWAY FROM THE IN-RUN!!!

9. Hard pack the jump itself once more.

10. If you need to soften it up, throw a bit of snow on the takeoff.

Landing:

1. Be sure to test the jump to see if it has already a good landing, and mark where you land.

2. Pile a bunch of snow 2 feet before the spot where you landed. You want to be sure to have the landing wide and long.

3. Hard pack the jump progressively, more so at the latter part of the landing rather than the top. If you are going into powder, then do nothing, because obviously that will screw up the already perfect landing.

4. Pile more snow onto the beginning of the landing.

5. Hard pack it all. Be sure to have a little softness in there so you don't land on ice. (unless you're on the east coast, which has a lot of ice it's quite hard to get rid of it all)

6. Make sure the landing flows smoothly into the rest of the run.

7. Shape the landing by cutting sides with the blade of the shovel, and hard packing in the sides and back.

8. Smooth out the landing using your skis.

9. Step on the landing to make sure that it will hold up.

10. Test it, and shape it to where and how you will land.

Continually fix your takeoffs and landings throughout the session.

 
pretty good, except i dont see the point of building a jump that isnt into powder, unless your hill doesnt have a park at all
 
nah son, it's all about the snowball bricks. You just need some containers if the snow isn't we enugh to snowball up
 
ya i am not getting the landing part?  The only time i have built a jump is in the backcountry.   And when you do that, you dont just pile snow.  You got to get a bunch of snow blocks and stack them up, almost like a pyramid in a way, like one row is higher then the next which is a little higher then the next and soo on.  And the tricky part is finding the right snow too.  Most of the time the top layer of snow is too soft and has not bonded well (especially right after a storm) so you gots to dig down a little bit to get some good snowblocks.

Thats pretty much how we do it.  Did i miss anything?
 
or if it's late spring after the hill has closed and it's not a powder day, you have to make your landing managable, but then again most places close when the season's over and not with 100 inch bases like everywhere in Washington last year.
 
of course that's how I made the tips list

I don't cut blocks of snow ever, it takes way too long.

It doesn't need to look fancy.
 
1906.jpg

 
blocks are actually a way better way to build jumps rather than just piling up snow. even if you dont have a shovel you can break blocks out with your skis
 
blocks are actually a way better way to build jumps rather than just piling up snow. even if you dont have a shovel you can break blocks out with your skis
 
yeah but how much longer does it take to build? Especially if you are in softer snow, it's harder to stick it all together which is why it may take a couple of days for the jump to freeze.
 
I've built my fair share of jumps, and even when I didnt use my ice saw, it was a hell of a lot easier to make them using the block method. Piling snow is a waste of time, because it wont ever pack down solid enough to hit it that day, unless the snow is really really heavy (and then you're scooping blocks pretty much anyways). Using blocks gives you strong stable mounds that you can sculpt, and will decrease your construction time massively if you dig them right.
 
I guess I'd better work on that then . I've never used the snow block method before (only for building an igloo), and my method has always worked out for me because our snow is heavy a lot of the time.

I will add that method in next time.
 
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