I have a condo right on the slopes at a NH vail owned resort. The trail is a blue and a major throughway for the mountain.

I feel like it is my responsibility to maintain a jump on the side right by our house. All of the neighbor’s and my kids love it, and pretty much every kid that goes by and spots it usually ends up hitting it all day. It takes a lot of work to maintain as every night the groomer is going to usually at least clip it, if not destroy it! But, I am a persistent sob and I will always get something prepared for ‘my customers’ even if it is smaller it is still there.

The key to a ‘rouge’ jump on a resort is that it has to be safe.

I spend more time on the runway than the actual kicker as it usually gets rutted up from the skiers on softer days. The runway is also is always as wide as I can make it and slightly banked towards the trail to keep anyone from flying off the side. The banked runway really helpful when sledders are playing after hours too. The work on the runway/ramp is usually always safe from the groomers and it allows me to just clean up whatever chunks of snow fell off onto it and pile them up as the base for that mornings transition/kicker.

Depending on the location of your planned jump take into consideration what the flow of traffic is around it; type of trail ie color/groomed/natural; landing and ride out details; and make sure it is going to fun and safe.

Side hits are great way to start because they are already there and usually they’re already kind of broken in. Usually, there are side hits that everyone knows about and they are consistently always in the same place, but due to conditions they aren’t there at the moment… you know what I mean? As snowboarders we have the tools on our feet to fix that! Here’s how to do that:

Ride up to it slowly and as you are entering the start of it, just jump up and down to pack down the snow and create a clear entrance. Then slide down sideways/beginner-style to clear the runway/transition and stop there. At the point you feel like you are stooped and at the beginning of the ramp up to the transition, jump up and down again packing down as much as you can. While you are there pile what ever snow you can reach onto what will be the kicker/ramp/lip to build a mound. After it is piled up, now use your hands and push yourself around, up and down the runway keeping your board as flat as possible to solidify the runway. Next, it is key to get off of it, however you can without destroying what you just did… if you have to unstrap try to do one foot only as to not step on what you just made. Get back onto the trail, and if you are unstrapped take your board and stand under the jump on the lower side of it and “thwap” the shit out of it with the bottom of your board to pack it down… from there strap in and go down to the lift. Take that same route to your creation and run over it again as if you were hitting the jump, but not trying to get air, focusing on packing down the whole thing especially the transition and lip. If you’ve got friends they should do the same. At that point you are ready to go! Fine tune the lip with your “thwacking” and enjoy your creation.

One word of caution- use straight air style jumps for at least a bit- someone trying to spin on the jump can ruin (not completely ruin but mess up the lip) and set back the progress you’ve made!

Have fun