Thoughts on Park Passes

jambalaya

New member
In light of the Jerry of the Day video of the kid wrecked, what are your thoughts on park passes?

Obviously they're a hassle but do they help?
 
They would probably help prevent stuff like this from happening more often, but it could be a hassle. It would suck to have to get your pass checked everytime, so maybe close off any entrances first, then have someone checking passes to it, this could prevent accidents like this.
 
My only issue with them is that in my experience you just have to watch a video and take an easy quiz. Also, as far as I can remember it didn't really educate people on the etiquette of like staying out of the way and stuff. I think kids who want to go in the park will easily get the pass with little to no hassle, so I don't know if it really helps. I like the idea of the "Jerry Gap" that was posted on here a while back. An easy feature and/or small gap that anyone who can do basic park stuff would be able to easily clear, but people that obviously have no idea what they're doing wouldn't be able to. Now that I think of that though, it could discourage people from ever getting into park skiing because if you never learn how to get in the park you won't be able to learn. Maybe park passes to get into all the parks (at mountains with multiple) and Jerry Gaps to get into the bigger parks so the less skilled can still go practice and learn in the smaller parks.
 
More parks should just make jerry traps instead. The place I ski at at just set it up so that you have to jump over a gap/the fence to get into the main park and from what I have heard that has helped allot.
 
I am such an advocate of park passes. My dpersonal experience from skiing at Blue Mountain in Ontario as a kid, then also in Whistler for a couple seasons, the kook factor drops to almost none.

Yes some local kids will get passes who maybe are not "ready" for the park. But for the most part, Im interested in the weekend warriors, the vacationers, the ski a couple days a year crowd staying the fuck out. Those are the people that scare the shit out of me. Look at the video of Tom Brady. Dude skis maybe 7 days a year and went into the park and went straight to face. I guarantee he never would have tried that if he had to go into the lodge, sign a waiver, pay a fee, and watch a video about park etiquite.

It blows me away why more hills dont have them or make them mandatory. Blue and Whistler even had mandatory helmet rules and with the park pass and park crew, for lack of a better term, policing it, everyone followed the rules.

I dont know personally I feel like its a no brainer to have them. That way your getting everyone to sign waivers and have a general understanding of the rules. Mr. Bishop what are your two cents from being a park tech during the park pass days? Too much hassle? Why would a hill not have a park program?
 
13791477:Mar-O said:
More parks should just make jerry traps instead. The place I ski at at just set it up so that you have to jump over a gap/the fence to get into the main park and from what I have heard that has helped allot.

No way! I love that idea. The only problem I see is if someone is slightly injured and wants to film or watch his friends.
 
13791561:soup said:
I am such an advocate of park passes. My dpersonal experience from skiing at Blue Mountain in Ontario as a kid, then also in Whistler for a couple seasons, the kook factor drops to almost none.

Yes some local kids will get passes who maybe are not "ready" for the park. But for the most part, Im interested in the weekend warriors, the vacationers, the ski a couple days a year crowd staying the fuck out. Those are the people that scare the shit out of me. Look at the video of Tom Brady. Dude skis maybe 7 days a year and went into the park and went straight to face. I guarantee he never would have tried that if he had to go into the lodge, sign a waiver, pay a fee, and watch a video about park etiquite.

It blows me away why more hills dont have them or make them mandatory. Blue and Whistler even had mandatory helmet rules and with the park pass and park crew, for lack of a better term, policing it, everyone followed the rules.

I dont know personally I feel like its a no brainer to have them. That way your getting everyone to sign waivers and have a general understanding of the rules. Mr. Bishop what are your two cents from being a park tech during the park pass days? Too much hassle? Why would a hill not have a park program?

I like the way MSLM does it. I've worked at Blue Mountain and Glen Eden, which both have park passes.... but go figure they have an insane amount of gaper issues.

MSLM does require a park pass for any of their 3 parks, but if you just decide to skiff around the landings in the Outback, I guarantee you will get called out. Especially on a weekday
 
At my local hill that uses park passes, they don't truly check them. They just kinda know who the jerrys are and they don't let em in lmao
 
13791477:Mar-O said:
More parks should just make jerry traps instead. The place I ski at at just set it up so that you have to jump over a gap/the fence to get into the main park and from what I have heard that has helped allot.

That's so funny but at the end of the day that's solving an ability issue, not an awareness issue. At some point the gap would be too big for a respectful beginner to get in - or too small to keep johnny liprider out. Also can't tell if that was just a joke or not.

I'm all for park passes on the bigger stuff. Blue's setup is pretty tight - pass to get on the park chair and once you're in you're free to lap as you will. Otherwise you can ride the little park and put up with beginners.

Blackcomb makes sense too - highest level where you actually need to maintain speed to hit stuff is on a pass, otherwise it's a free for all and you totally expect to see people who don't really know what they're doing and you just don't cruise features blindly (no brainer?).

It's a bit of a hassle if you show up to a new hill and can't ride the best park, but it seems worth it in the end. I wonder if there could be like a universal park pass between certain resorts? Like you take a test and sign your waiver and then you're good all over that province/state. I'm sure the legality would be tricky but it would be so nice.
 
13791620:Malcolm said:
No way! I love that idea. The only problem I see is if someone is slightly injured and wants to film or watch his friends.

I think there is a small entrance on the side, but that is made so that it looks closed from a distance and if you do go through it you can't avoid seeing the signs etc about the basic park rules. If you still go in now and clearly shouldn't be there, stand in landings and stuff like that they can much easier start pulling passes.

13791648:Kevski said:
That's so funny but at the end of the day that's solving an ability issue, not an awareness issue. At some point the gap would be too big for a respectful beginner to get in - or too small to keep johnny liprider out. Also can't tell if that was just a joke or not.

I'm all for park passes on the bigger stuff. Blue's setup is pretty tight - pass to get on the park chair and once you're in you're free to lap as you will. Otherwise you can ride the little park and put up with beginners.

Blackcomb makes sense too - highest level where you actually need to maintain speed to hit stuff is on a pass, otherwise it's a free for all and you totally expect to see people who don't really know what they're doing and you just don't cruise features blindly (no brainer?).

It's a bit of a hassle if you show up to a new hill and can't ride the best park, but it seems worth it in the end. I wonder if there could be like a universal park pass between certain resorts? Like you take a test and sign your waiver and then you're good all over that province/state. I'm sure the legality would be tricky but it would be so nice.

Not a joke, look up Hafjellparken on facebook and they should have a photo on the top there. They ended up making the gap a bit smaller and safer tho but still big enough to gapers out. I guess on places where it is a dedicated park lift park passes would make more sense, but here we only have a own park lift in the blue park not the mainpark so keeping up with checking passes would be really difficult.
 
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