James 1 Logan James Professor Raymond English 1102 10 March 2014 Telluride, CO Squaw Valley USA, Lake Tahoe,

CA Sun Valley Resort, Sun Valley, ID Canyons Resort, Park City, UT Beech Mountain, Banner Elk, NC Snowboarding in America What makes sports fun, are the split decisions you have to make at all times, and even at the last second. The thrill of not know what is about to happen next, is what keeps us interested in them. Snowboarding is a sport where you need to keep aware of all of your surroundings. The mountain itself is the most important part of snowboarding. The better the mountain, the more enjoyable snowboarding will be. The better the equipment the more prepared you are for the terrain. Telluride, Colorado is rated the best ski mountain in the United States. When it officially opened in 1972, it only had five chairlifts and a day lodge (C. Brad). In 1991 Telluride Ski Area installed the countrys first chondola system. A chondola consists of both chairs and gondola cars. Telluride is known for having a wide variety of slopes, more than 125 of all different styles, and also has multiple terrain parks, where snowboarders and skiers can practice their jumps, grinds, and spins (C. Brad). If youre not into all jumps and tricks, for all the people who want a lot of 1

James 2 speed, there is a 4.6 miles run. After only having five chairlifts when it first opened, to now having 18 total chairlifts, only shows how much it has expanded over the years (C. Brad). Squaw Valley Ski Resort in Olympic Valley, is one of the largest ski areas in the United States and was the host site of the entire Winter Olympics in 1960, with 30 chairlift, 3,600 acres. Squaw Valley was once a mining boom town and was the biggest mining operations. What makes this one of the most preferred places to shred the gnar(snow), its beautiful scenery that surrounds the area, views from High Camp to Base Area. Depending on what you prefer for yourself as a snowboarder, this particular mountain is good for picking up large amount of speed. With the runs and trails on this mountain being so long, you have a more time to gain speed, so if youre a speed demon then this would be the mountain for you. Sun Valley Resort is also one of the top resorts in America. When a snowboarder uses the term "Sun Valley" it refers to an alpine ski area. In general, the term actually means, the region surrounding a city. This mountain is actually so large that it is made up of three mountains all next to each other that surround the city of Sun Valley (Neville). This ski resort is very famous for having many celebrities as members of the organization. Also, since it has three separate mountains it holds the higher capacity of people than any other ski mountain resort in American. The world's first chairlifts were installed on at this ski resort in 1936 (Neville). The next ski area opened as Park City West in 1968, It was renamed ParkWest in 1975 after a change in ownership. The crazy thing is the name was

James 3 changed again in 1995 to Wolf Mountain for two seasons, then became The Canyons in 1997. Canyons Resort covers nine mountain peaks with maximum elevation of 9,990 feet. The large amount of terrain has 182 trails, five bowls, six natural halfpipes, and three terrain parks. Side mountain and backcountry skiing on the surrounding National Forest land can be accessed through gates found on some of the peaks, which is a very unique quality to be allowed to off trail at a large mountain. For my last mountain, I decide to do my favorite one around this area. Beech Mountain is a town that is partially in Avery county and partially in Watauga county. The town of Beech Mountain is located at the top of Beech Mountain and is the highest town east of the Rocky Mountains (Freeman). Although it is not one of the top mountains in America, but it is a great mountain for this area. It is a great vacation spot and the slopes have beautiful scenery, especially at night. When on top of the mountain, if you look down at night you can see Charlotte lights and light from a city in Tennessee. The sport of snowboarding lives in all nations and is very popular throughout the world. If you have never tried it before, it is a great experience to have. Your adrenaline running, the beautiful scenery you can see across the mountain. All in all, just the experience of feeling so free nobody can stop you. Thats the feeling I get when going down and the places we choose to experience, really makes a difference on our snowboarding lives.

James 4 Works Cited Brochure: Freeman, Talya. Beech Mountain. Banner Elk: Talya Freeman, 2014. Beech Mountain Beech Mountain Resort. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.

Newspaper Article: Neville, Tim. "Sun Valley." The New York Times. New York times, 22 Feb. 2008. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.

Website: C, Brad. "The History of Telluride Ski Area." The History of Telluride Ski Area. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. Peer Reviewed by, Dustin Chunn