The 2015 Canada Winter Games will take place in Prince George, B.C., and the host resort for snowcross and slope style for both skiing and snowboarding is Tabor Mountain. To provide the best course possible, the resort turned to dirt to shape the halfpipe, snow cross, and terrain park features.

Tabor Mountain is a small resort located 15 minutes east of Prince George. It is the perfect resort to host the Canada Winter Games due to its close proximity to the downtown core. The resort owners are very progressive and have been working collectively with the Games committee to help build the venues where the snowcross and slopestyle events will be held. And the resort had a few problems to overcome.

GETTING DIRTY
Why build with dirt? First, dirt doesn’t melt. And second, once you have a substructure shape in place (having tested and tweaked the course design to maximize the venue), the courses require a lot less snow, manpower, and other resources.

Currently, Tabor Mountain uses a combination of generators to power its lifts, and a single-phase power supply to operate its lodge and surrounding facilities. Once awarded the Games, installing a snowmaking system was considered (Tabor has none), but power, water and budget restraints made installing such a system impractical. Building in dirt became the obvious choice.

The concept of dirt structures is not new to the resort industry, but the magnitude of this project was huge. Both a cross course and a slopestyle course were to be built almost completely out of dirt.

There are many benefits with this approach. The two key aims were to create effective event venues for the Games and provide a lasting legacy for local athletes. Another benefit is reducing the annual start-up costs associated with building park features out of snow, and allowing the features to be ready sooner in the season. Savings can be realized through both snowcat use as well as a reduction in snow volumes required to build the features. Further yearly savings on wages, fuel energy, electrical energy, depreciation of machinery and maintenance made the decision a no-brainer. The fact that the mountain is mostly dirt, with few rocks, was the icing on the cake.

CONCEPT TO REALITY
The key to a great dirt structure is design—it’s hard to go backward. Within the design there are considerations for weather, topography, aspect of slope, solar radiation and snowmaking infrastructure. All these considerations ultimately have an effect on the final design and shape of the structure.

After considering yearly snowfall accumulations at Tabor, we decided that the dirt structure had to come close to matching the exact gradients needed in the winter. Since Tabor has no snowmaking system, snow farming capabilities were also deemed necessary to compliment the dirt structure.

Locations for each event were evaluated for terrain, slope angle and overall site potential to host events. In fall 2012, we chose an abandoned run overgrown with poplars and brush to become the canvas for the snowcross course.

The first step was to reclaim the original width of almost 200 meters (650 feet). The goal was to establish a rough course line to test speed and possibly host a small-scale event by winter 2013. Though it was already late fall, owners Fern and Mitch Thibault began the task of clearing the run. The area removed all the stumps possible and gave the course line its initial grade. Additional width was created to allow for snow farming.

Jeff Ihaksi, one of the world’s most recognized snowcross track builders, helped us throughout the process. Jeff is from Pemberton, B.C., and is the owner/operator of White Industries Ltd. He has been around the resort industry for more than 20 years, and was responsible for building both the Torino 2006 and Vancouver 2010 courses, in addition to countless World Cup venues around the world as an FIS Technical Advisor.

After an initial site inspection late in fall 2012, Jeff designed a basic course layout using the slope’s vertical, length and shape. We also sought to accentuate the existing undulations of the slope to help reduce construction time of the final dirt structure.

During the initial year’s construction, all the dirt structure edges were finished in a way to minimize the effects of the sun. In addition, snowcat travel paths were created, to allow for both construction and maintenance duties throughout the season.

The project was then expanded over to Tabor Mountain’s Terrain Park, where the same concept of dirt was applied.

During the 2012-13 season, Tabor was able realize some benefits from its new infrastructure. The area installed rails and takeoffs on the dirt structures in the slopestyle venue and had an operating terrain park for guests to use. Basic shape was also applied to the snowcross area, and the resort hosted a sanctioned snowboard cross event.

The work completed in late 2012 was sufficient to provide a baseline of the slope’s performance that guided the final grading work the following summer.

PHASE TWO
In the summer of 2013, snowboard cross course construction began. The machinery we used included a D8, a D6 with a six-way blade and wide tracks, a 325 excavator and a 724 rock truck to deliver materials when needed. The initial grade and volumes of dirt were moved with the D8, the contouring was completed with the D6, and the 325 excavator completed all the rounding of edges and ditching required to make the course smooth in shape. Finning Prince George is a sponsor of the 2015 Canada Winter Games and made the machinery available for use during venue construction.

Dirt platforms were constructed and the course line was leveled, eliminating the need for the large volumes of snow that would have been required for winter construction. Banked corners were also formed to help minimize the need for snow. Applying the same principles to summer construction as in the winter, dirt was moved and the slope was contoured using the natural landing areas to create a course line that flowed from one section to the next.

Special attention was given to eliminating all ridges and high spots while completing the final shape, to prevent any problem spots for construction, maintenance and snow farming in the winter.

The final dirt structure allows for some variation in final course design. Its open concept allows the designer to alter features found on the course to suit the ability of any given user group. Speed of the course is simply adjusted by the height and length of the start section.

Once the snowcross track was finished and drainage was complete, we modified our year-one dirt work in the terrain park. As part of this, we improved the spacing between features, based on information gathered the winter before.

The dirt layout for the terrain park was critical as well. We had to take into account the spacing of rail platforms, run shaping, take-off shape and angle, the size of the jump mounds, and the landing length and degree of slope. When connecting dirt structures together, the flow from one feature to the next becomes an important factor, just as it would in the winter.

SECOND TEST WINTER
One of our mantras was that these dirt structures would be the final product. To measure our success, Tabor hosted several Canada Winter Games test events at both the snowcross and slopestyle venue this past winter. We learned that there are still a couple of small adjustments to be made, but our dirt work performed as expected.

At this stage all observations have been positive. The resort would not have had sufficient natural snow to build the cross course or slopestyle venues. Startup time and effort were minimal.

From the perspective of a snowpark builder and events manager, the fact the snowcross course is 85 percent in place leading into a big event relieves a lot of stress. I know it will take minimal cat work and only a few modifications to give us any level of track we need for both ski cross or snowboard cross events, as well as training and development programs.

In the terrain park, the dirt work allows for an easier early-season startup and provides a much better product for the Christmas season.

The real value will be seen over the years when we can save cat hours and human resources and produce a great product with less effort.

Was the initial investment worth it? Ask us again in about five years.