No matter where you travel, you won’t find such a high ratio of snowboarders at a resort as you’ll encounter any day of the season at Bear Mountain. It’s a phenomenon unique to Bear. Is it by design? Not intentionally. Snowboarders just flock there. Why? It’s a freestyler’s paradise. First off, the entire mountain is game, and Bear’s park crew works tirelessly and imaginatively to…in the words of Will Ferrell…”Explore the space.” Wall to wall, top to bottom, the crew sets up boxes, rails, wallrides, rocks, logs, cars, containers, culverts, halfpipes quarterpipes, pads, stairs, tables, hips, gaps, drops, and the list goes on. It’s the ultimate playground.
Where so many parks operate down-fall line, on most of their jibs, Bear builds in options for cross-fall line, which opens up seemingly endless possibilities. Evidence of the effects this approach has had on freestyle snowboarding can be seen by watching any Bear local ride. Chris Bradshaw, Lenny Mazzotti, Mike Grey, again, the list goes on. Anyone who has spent a decent amount of time at Bear dissects terrain wherever they’re riding through a Bear lens.
The list doesn’t apply only to the aforementioned Bear-based style gods. A long list of pros from around the globe travel to Bear every season to experience this boundaryless approach to freestyle snowboarding. For a current update, check out Sunday in the Park, a weekly live feed of both Bear’s current layout, as well the creativity possible on features.
It’s not just limited to the most current SITP episodes, though. Pros have been flocking to Bear for decades for this exact experience; one which can’t really be found anywhere else in the world.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, and I see and hear you, and we’ve all got our favorite spots. What about some other spot that immediately comes to mind?! From the first day of the season in the Fall, until they load the last chair in April, Bear is bursting with all manner of creative features, many set up like an invite-only build, every single day. E-VER-EY-DAY…and, it’s wide open to the public.
Anyway, to fully experience this phenomenon, go take a lap at Bear, and see for yourself. As a snowboarder, you’ll notice it immediately. Like…everyone is standing sideways. It’s kind of weird at first, but then, you realize that we’re all collectively going with the flow of the mountain and its features, making our own individual interpretation of it, in our own style. Afterall, it’s kind of what snowboarding is all about. Bear built it, and they came.
