This just in: Aspen/Snowmass along with Snow Park Technologies and Red Bull announced plans to deconstruct Buttermilk’s award-winning X Games Superpipe and transform it into side-by-side halfpipes, complete with rails, wallrides, channels and other unique features sprinkled throughout the custom built snow feature, according to the Aspen Skiing Company’s recent press release.
Each halfpipe will be more than 550 feet long, approximately 68 feet wide, and 22 feet tall with an approximate four-foot wide spine located in between each pipe. Including the outside walls, the Red Bull Double Pipe will be 180 feet wide and more than 550 feet long, making it the largest halfpipe feature built to date.
“A ‘Double Pipe’? Are you kidding me? Two side-by-side halfpipes with transfers and options all over?? This is the kind of thing that our team at SPT has been dreaming about, and only a company like Red Bull can bring something like this to life,” says Chris Gunnarson, President & Founder of Snow Park Technologies.
If this blows your mind just as much as it did ours and Chris Gunnarson’s check out the rendering below. Don’t feel bad if you experience jaw-drop for a couple hours.
As you could’ve guessed this construction isn’t just for looks, 24 world-class pipe snowboarders will compete in the world’s first Red Bull Double Pipe competition, a part of the televised Red Bull Signature Series. The double pipe construction will allow the boarders to seamlessly transfer from one pipe to the other in a single run. Athletes will be judged not only on their technical abilities, but on style and creative use of this unique course. Snowboarding pros have never experienced a course like this, so there’s bound to be never-before-seen tricks and a whole new level of progression. The contest will air on NBC, Sunday April 12, 2014 at 2 p.m. EST.
A note to travellers: If you have plans to vacation in Aspen/Snowmass now through the contest date and were hoping to shred Buttermilk’s terrain park please be advised that the Buttermilk superpipe, Government’s expert jump line and Spruce Park are closed until further notice for the build and event, but there are still more than 100 park features on Buttermilk that are open to the public. An intermediate jib line will be re-opened on Spruce prior to and during the competition. Buttermilk plans to have the Double Pipe open for public use following the event. Please note that the Snowmass superpipe and jump line are open daily to the public.
Aspen/Snowmass is the first resort to be involved in the double pipe construction and contest, but it’s not the first resort to deconstruct a halfpipe so that pro-athletes can test and push their athletic and creative boundaries. In 2011 Squaw Valley, Snow Park Technologies and Red Bull helped turn pro-pipe skier Simon Dumont’s dream of the Cubed Pipe into a reality. Check out the video below to learn more about the Red Bull Cubed Pipe.
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