Snow Park Technologies, LLC (SPT) is proud to announce that as of January 1, 2011 it is officially owned and operated by founder Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson (Gunny) and wife Genevieve Gunnarson.
Snow Park Technologies was founded in 1997, incorporated in 1999, and in 2003 established a license agreement with Booth Creek Ski Holdings. As a result, Gunny served as General Manager for Snow Park Technologies, LLC as well as Vice President of action sports for Booth Creek. With recent changes within Booth Creek Resort Properties, LLC, including the acquisition of Northstar at TahoeTM Resort by Vail Resorts, Gunny has opted to take back the business. He has also resigned his position with Booth Creek.
“Booth Creek has been a great partner and helped me develop SPT into the business it is today. The parting is amicable and comes at an opportune time for me to focus on the SPT business. Over the years, we have become the industry leader in resort terrain park/pipe consulting, design and construction and have been providing ideas and solutions for some of the biggest and most innovative and progressive events and projects on snow. As owner and president, it’s now up to me to find new and inventive ways to grow the business and push the boundaries. We have grown and become more sophisticated in ways I never imagined. I am excited and anxious all at the same time,” said Gunny.
The success behind SPT lies in its crew which consists of leaders within the action sports community and some of the most experienced snow designers and shapers in the world including, Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson, Sarah Castaneda, Frank Wells, Mike Bettera, Chris Castaneda, Elliot Cone, Corley Howard, Tyrone Coyne, Mike Binnell, Kurt Eppler, Aaron Dettling, Brad Hoerter, Jeremy Carpenter, Pete Colombo, Sean Picard, Annie Carr and many others.
SPT has built over 250 of the most prestigious event courses and projects on snow including: Winter Dew Tour, TWS Team Shootout, Winter X Games Europe and Nike Just Do It commercial. SPT has designed and built every course for all 14 Winter X Games, designed and built DC Shoes’ private training and product testing facility, the DC Mtn Lab, with over 30 custom built park features. SPT works with industry leaders like Burton Snowboards to design and build any of their on-snow needs, including a 100’ B made out of snow for The B project, Burton Stash Branded Parks, Burton Progression Parks and Burton US Open. In the winter of 2009, Shaun White and SPT teamed up with Red Bull to create a world-class private training pipe with a foam pit (only accessible by helicopter) located in the remote mountains of Silverton, CO. The Silverton Project X allowed Shaun to push the progression of competition snowboarding and he emerged with an arsenal of new tricks, and became the first two-time Olympic Halfpipe Gold Medalist.
In addition, SPT has established partnerships with resorts across the United States and has assisted in creating award-winning branded SPT Parks. Several of the SPT Park Resorts have topped the Transworld Snowboarding Magazine Resort Poll rankings in all three categories (parks, pipes and overall resort) for multiple years in a row. Each SPT Park resort is committed to designing, maintaining and operating its terrain park program with a level of quality and consistency that is unmistakably recognizable. Current SPT Park Resorts include: Bear Mountain, Snow Summit Mountain Resort, Northstar-at-Tahoe® Resort, Sierra-at-Tahoe®, California; Snowmass, Buttermilk and Copper, Colorado; Sun Valley, Idaho; Waterville Valley and Cranmore, New Hampshire; and Seven Springs, Pennsylvania.
SPT also produces a line of snow shaping tools for terrain park, lift maze and chairlift ramp maintenance, and custom fabricated metal and wood features built in a 2,400 square foot Jib Factory. SPT also offers branded soft-goods (hats, t-shirts, sweat shirts, etc.).
Finally, SPT Sport Organizing serves as the snowboard liaison between athletes and event organizers by overseeing the athlete invite process and selection committee, as well as the organization of judging and competition direction. Sport Organizing services include: athlete selection and invites, competition format development, athlete communication, rider meetings, judging and scoring criteria, judges panel selection and management. Current Clients: ESPN Winter X Games and ESPN Winter X Games Europe Tignes.
