The 550-foot long half pipe is located 7 miles from Silverton, which is built around Silverton mountain: a ski resort with the most advanced terrain of any resort in America, with no groomed runs, and only one lift chair. It was constructed out of snow from the surrounding inclines, and get this: To pile up the snow?250,000 cubic yards worth?Red Bull took one of their private helicopters around and dropped about 30 satchels of explosives that weighed 25 pounds each into surrounding inclines, triggering slides that would gather up at the bottom. They hired Frank Welsh, the world's best pipe shaper, to carve out the final shape. Unlike regular resort pipes, which are comprised of man made and natural snow, this pipe's uniform material meant it didn't chunk off as others might.
Next, Red Bull constructed a foam pit from 8,000 pounds of steel and about 7,000 foam blocks that Shaun could flip into when trying new rotational combinations like his his Double McTwist. They hauled up the thing on a truck and then when the truck couldn't get any further, snow cats. At one point the foam threw back some stored energy from his fall and he chipped the bone in his ankle, so it's not like the danger was completely gone. But a lot of it was. Enough that Shaun would learn new tricks never before performed, in a matter of hours. By his reckoning, it compressed his learning curve "by years".
...cont'd
:p