Saturday, January 11, 2003 -- McHenry, MD
Ford No Boundaries Snow Series - Super Pipe Jam #1 (iPO Event Id#: 5299)
Photos by Don Parks

[Details] [Coverage] [Pic Set 1] [Pic Set 2]

Going big-time in the night-time

There have been a lot of recent changes on the mountain at Wisp. Once you step out of the newly expanded lodge and head toward the slopes, you can't miss the new Super Pipe.

Moving the Devil's Arena terrain park over to the bottom of the Possum trail made room for this huge halfpipe. This is how a recent press release described the addition: "This extreme half-pipe is a mountain monster with intimidating vertical walls looming over a soaring transition from wall to wall. The over all length is a mind-boggling 400' carved out of the snow with a state-of-the-art Piston Bully Super Magician."

Our first encounter with this "mountain monster" was for the first of five Ford No Boundaries Super Pipe Jams. It was a cold evening as practice runs began at 6:00pm with the official competition kicking off at 7:00pm. The format was simple, spend an hour showing off your finest moves. The winners, in snowboard and ski divisions, would be declared by virtue of those that received the biggest cheers from the crowd.

Going for the grab

When it was all said and done, Mark Nestor was declared the snowboard overall winner for Jam #1. In the ski division, the overall win went to Tom Wallisch (and he's now accepting fan email).

We'll be back at Wisp soon to catch more action in the pipe as well as Big Air series events and fun in the newly expanded Bear Claw Snow Tubing Park. Just check out SkiWisp.com for all the information and details on upcoming events.