Bike season is here and going strong! We’ve only been open for about a month, but Mother Nature has already served us up a little bit of everything, from rainy spring days to absolute scorchers. Through it all, it feels great to be back out on the hill.
We will be open seven days a week beginning Memorial Day. Don’t forget that passes booked online in advance are discounted off the window rate!
Trail Crew has been working pretty much non-stop to get the entire mountain up and running, on top of tackling some new building projects. In this month’s park report: spring trail updates, Central Park progress, and the new Jump & Drop Zone, plus a sneak peek at our future summer camp village and hype for upcoming events.
Ropes dropped today on our brand new Jump and Drop Zone! As dedicated readers of our park report (and Instagram comments) will know, Central Park has been temporarily closed to make room for a surface lift installation and complete terrain overhaul. Expected reopening is projected for this fall.
A popular feature of Central Park was its three wooden drops (small, medium, large) placed side-by-side. We weren’t interested in going a season without this sort of progression feature available to riders, so: enter the new Jump and Drop Zone.
This freshly-built area is located behind the Park Ready Zone and Upper Sherwood, and features a series of both drops and jumps in a much more open, accessible, and (dare we say?) cooler space. Be sure to check it out the next time you’re here! Access to the Jump and Drop Zone is included with your regular day pass. If you’re not interested in riding the downhill trails, you can grab a non-lift Skills and Jump Park Pass from the Welcome Center.
The old Drop Zone, which was located in Central Park
Most recently in Central Park, we’ve been working on getting power installed to run the new surface lift. Not the flashiest update, but definitely an important step in the process! Later in the season we’ll be able to share more information about the new layout, trail design, and more.
In other changes-to-the-landscape news, we’ve finally started laying the groundwork for our future on-site summer camp village. Currently our overnight campers are housed in the dorm buildings at Tilton School and bused to the mountain every morning to ride. Our long-term goal is for the entire Highland Camps experience to take place here onsite.
This area above was recently cleared and will have temporary structures in place for this year’s daytime summer camp programming, bringing us one step closer to our goal of a Highland Camps village.
Up on the hill, the crew most recently made it through Shillelagh (open now) and Lower Hellion (expected opening: Saturday). Next week they’ll be moving on to Lower Happy Hour and Power Hour. Keep an eye on our Conditions page for the most up-to-date list of which ropes have dropped.
We’re just under a month out from the return of the Freebird Slopestyle Series on Saturday, June 18th! The Freebird Series is a series of three FMB Bronze-level events, where athletes can earn points toward not only our Freebird Series title, but also the FMB World Tour rankings. In addition to Open Men’s and Women’s categories, we also host a youth competition category for the up-and-coming shredders. All events in the series are free to spectate, and trust us…you won’t want to miss them.
Athletes: registration is filling up quickly, so don’t hesitate to grab your spot! The course is expected to be up and running in early June.
While we’re getting hyped for some healthy competition: the Friday Night Race Series is also back for 2022! Six weeks of racing, team competition, weekly themes, fun prizing, and good times. First race drops in on June 24. Series registration is capped at 85 participants and currently more than half full–register today and let’s go racing.
That’s all we have to share today! We’re stoked to be jumping into summer hours in just over a week. Stay rad, Highland family. We’ll see you on the hill!
DON’T MISS OUT:
- Adult Ayr Academy: Two last-minute spots have opened up for the Memorial Day Weekend session!
- Women’s Gravity Weekend: Start your season off right with a weekend devoted to women’s progression! June 25 (sold out) and June 26
- Find Your Ride: Know someone looking to give downhill a try? This all-inclusive bike park orientation is the program for them!
- Kids Camp: Full-day and half-day programs for li’l shredders ages 6-14. Offered most Saturdays. Discounted multi-packs now available!
- New Apparel: Brand new 2022 designs are trickling in to the Flagship Store! Find new apparel, accessories, stickers, and more
- New Summer Camp Session Added: Due to high demand, we’ve added a sixth week of Summer Ride and Ayr Academy in August. Space is limited!
