Snowboarders plan 'terrain park'
Titcomb Mountain facility will be geared to beginning 'boarders'
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WEST FARMINGTON — Local snowboarders are helping design a new "terrain park" at the Titcomb Mountain Ski Area that will have features young "boarders" can practice on at an affordable price before they take on more challenging and expensive slopes.
Also this winter, skiers at Titcomb will find a new, 650-foot beginner slope equipped with a slow-moving, easy-to-use handle-tow, said manager Megan Roberts. Installation of the equipment will be done this fall now that the ground has been cleared and graded by E.L. Vining & Son, which donated the labor and equipment.
And there is more. The mountain has received a $14,000 state grant to restore three kilometers of cross-country ski trails on 18-acres of land donated to the Farmington Ski Club by the family of the late Fred Simpson. Simpson, an abutter who owned the Nor'40 Campground on Red Schoolhouse Road, had let the club to use the trails for years. The grant will also be used to build a half-mile bypass trail so skiers can access the Nordic trails on busy race days.
A trail day will be held at Titcomb from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27 to clear brush and rake. For details, contact Roberts at 778-9031.
In a typical year, there are 1,000 volunteers at Titcomb who teach, serve on the ski patrol, work in the lodge, improve trails or help out in any number of ways, Roberts said. The workers are from the 400 family memberships sold each year with the request that every family donate eight hours.
"We are the talk of other ski areas in Maine who would like to know how we do it," Roberts said.
At the new snowboard slope, Justin Richard, Luke Leighton, and Jacob Hoar, all 15-year-olds at Mt. Blue High School, are helping design and set up the new terrain park that will have places to perform air-jumps and rails for stunts.
"This will be awesome. It will be better than Sugarloaf because it will be smaller and more fun-size and won't be so crowded," Richard said.
Another rail is being fabricated by students in the metals class at Foster Regional Technology Center at Mt. Blue High School.
"That is why Titcomb works so well. If someone has an idea and as soon as there is energy behind it, it goes," Roberts said.
In 2000, a $30,000 state Department of Conservation grant helped the club reconstruct and widen six miles of Nordic trails for skiing and biking. The club now maintains about 18 miles of winding, scenic trails in addition to its downhill slopes. The ski area, established in 1939, is one of the few remaining ski areas in the country owned and operated by a local, non-profit volunteer-based club.
Betty Jespersen — 778-6991
bjespersen@prexar.com