Courtesy Burton Snowboards
FRISCO — Continuing the trend of modified man-made snow structures for elite snowboarding and freeski competitions, the Burton U.S. Open at Vail Mountain next month will feature a modified superpipe and a revamped slopestyle course.
Earlier this week, Burton Snowboards announced the changes to this year’s superpipe and slopestyle courses for the annual men’s and women’s snowboard event scheduled for Feb. 24-29. For the superpipe, Burton has opted for a modified design that will split two halfpipes with roller transitions in the middle.
After dropping into the course, snowboarders will be able to get about three hits in a 13-foot mini-pipe featuring six-foot tombstones before transitioning to a standard 22-foot superpipe via a pair of roller transition jumps on skier’s right and left. Once in the 22-foot pipe portion, Burton officials said snowboarders should be able to land three to four more hits.
The course design is similar to last year’s Dew Tour modified superpipe at Breckenridge Ski Resort. U.S. Olympic gold medalist and freeski legend David Wise described that course as “pipestyle” — an homage to the modified superpipe course with transition features more commonly seen in slopestyle.
As for this year’s Burton U.S. Open slopestyle competition, the course is going heavy on flowy, choose-your-line transition jumps over one big booter jump after another. The course also will feature choose-your-line rail sections up top that mimic the kind of urban riding many snowboarders — including Silverthorne resident and Olympic big air silver medalist Kyle Mack — love to spend time on.
The slopestyle course will have two urban features up top, including one that includes a rail next to stairs and a second that includes a wall ride. After those two features, snowboarders will get to the transition portion of the course, where 13-foot and 22-foot radius transition jump features will allow for snowboarders to carve efficiently into and off of angled jumps. These are the kind of transition jumps that Red Gerard mastered to win gold at the Pyeongchang Olympics and at last year’s Burton Open.
Then the course will include a more traditional high-speed rail feature, the kind Summit County’s Chris Corning has mastered with his advanced version of a rodeo flip.
It all leads to the traditional booter jump at the bottom of the course, where riders like Corning, Gerard and Mack will send their biggest tricks as each of their run’s exclamation points, sliding to a stop in the corral where the fans will be in a frenzy.
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This year, the Burton U.S. Open snowboarding competition at Vail Mountain will feature a modified superpipe that transitions from a 13-foot mini-pipe at the top to roller jumps that transition into a standard 22-foot superpipe.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards -
Here’s a side view of the rendering for the 2020 Burton U.S. Open modified superpipe, which will transition from a 13-foot mini-pipe up top to roller jumps in the middle to a standard 22-foot superpipe at the bottom.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards
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For this year’s snowboard slopestyle course, the Burton U.S. Open will install more urban rail features for snowboarders to choose a line through.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards
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This year’s Burton U.S. Open slopestyle course at Vail Mountain will include this feature with varying options for snowboarders, including a wall ride.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards
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This feature in this year’s Burton U.S. Open slopestyle course at Vail Mountain is a 13-foot transition jump that will allow the world’s top snowboarders to flow through the middle of the course more seamlessly.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards
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This feature in this year’s Burton U.S. Open slopestyle course at Vail Mountain is a 22-foot transition jump that will allow the world’s top snowboarders to flow through the middle of the course more seamlessly while showing off high-flying style.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards
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To pair with the more urban rail features at the top of the course, the Burton U.S. Open at Vail Mountain will also have this high-speed rail feature to gauge each rider’s ability to incorporate physics into their rail riding.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards
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The exclamation point on this year’s Burton U.S. Open slopestyle course at Vail Mountain will be the traditional booter, a massive jump where riders can go as big as possible before sliding into the fan frenzy in the corral.
Courtesy Burton Snowboards