Vote for your favorite TP....
Hey skiers and riders, it's time to vote for your favorite TP...no, not Charmin versus Angel Soft. We are talking about which Terrain Parks across the country should grab top spots. The Terrain Park show down throw down is on SAM - Ski Area Management's website, trusted source for ski and snowboard news in the industry for 50 years. Ski resorts across North America have submitted their best terrain park features and events, and now it's your turn to pick your faves.
Whether you are a park aficionado or have no clue what to do with a rail, there are two categories to cast your vote - best terrain park feature and best event.
I will warn you the preponderance of cool parks are out west, but out of nowhere Nashoba Valley makes the contest for its Sewer Drain, as does Stowe, Mount Snow's Carinthia and Killington's Stash. This marks the 8th Annual Terrain Park Contest, while toilet paper has been made since the 1880s (random fact). 
Only two New England park events, Loon's Street Cred and Mount Snow's Grommet Jam, made the event roster, so perhaps our nearby ski resorts need to pump up their kicks and tricks to get some East Coast respect. Sunday River's Dumont Cup seems missing, but that's a Maine ski event, not for snowboarders.
SAM has other cool contests like Young Guns - recognizing the top 10 ski industry peeps under 30, and my personal fave - Best and Worst in Marketing in the ski biz. Last year Sugarloaf was awarded best use of twitter for snow reports, and Sunday River got best use of patches for their facebook scavenger hunt app. Wachusett got worst luck with a partner over a photo order on facebook that never loaded properly, and Killington was whacked with worst branding for bringing "the Beast" back - not for the concept but the execution in vague ad material lacking beast-iness, according to SAM.
So, go ahead and vote for your favorite vertical TP venue for jibbing. You may get an education on Terrain Park vernacular too. I had never heard of mellow elbows or a whale tail butter box. Can't wait to break that out on a chairlift chat. A bonus for voting: two participants will win a swag bag from Burton Snowboards - the contest sponsor. 
Photos by Greg Burke
Contributors
Eric Wilbur is a lifelong recreational skier who spends most of his winter and spring in the mountains of New England. He does not ski in jeans. You can read more of Eric's work here.
Heather Burke is an award winning ski journalist with over a decade of ski news coverage. As a former ski instructor and a ski parent, she knows the ski biz from the inside out. She and her family visit New England ski resorts, as well as the West and Canada, to report on the latest trends and their best family finds. Her husband Greg takes all the accompanying photos, and their work can be seen at www.familyskitrips.com and www.luxuryskitrips.com.
