SKIREBEL Magazine

The leading Colorado ski resort of Copper Mountain is planning to build an indoor training facility for skiers and boarders wishing to learn or improve their technique in the terrain park in a safer, controlled environment.

The proposed facility will include trampolines, bungee systems, synthetic snow ramps and foam crash pits along with professional trainers. The facility would be linked to an outdoor, on snow, progression park with big crash pads.

Copper Mountain will be the first resort to have such a facility, by the start of next season, although other Intrawest owned resorts may follow suit. The facility could also be open for summer training.

“We think this is going to be absolutely huge,” Copper Mountain marketing director Ben Friedland told Rocky Mountain News. “If you have a kid who wants to learn to do a 360, you now have an opportunity to send him to a place that has the right level of professionalism and the proven ability of the brand behind it where they can go and learn in a more controlled environment. And as a parent, why wouldn’t you want that?”

Copper Mountain officials are reported to have travelled to France to research synthetic surfaces.