Shaping the Future:

At Marquette Mountain, we know that for our freestyle community, the park isn’t just a run—it’s the heartbeat of the mountain. It’s where progression happens, where styles are forged, and where the local crew connects.

This season, we’ve overhauled our infrastructure specifically to elevate the experience in Contour Park.

Here is a look behind the scenes at the upgrades we’ve made and what it takes to bring a freestyle experience to the U.P.

Precision Snowmaking: Building the Foundation

Great parks start with great snow. To ensure Contour Park has the deep base required for massive features and consistent landings, we’ve upgraded our snowmaking arsenal with industry-leading TechnoAlpin technology.

• 5 New TT9 Fixed Tower Guns: These permanent fixtures allow us to take advantage of even the smallest windows of cold weather, coating the park in high-quality snow from the top down.
• Expanded Mobility: We’ve installed 6 manual hydrants and power pedestals specifically to support our 3 new TR9 mobile guns. This gives our team the flexibility to “pile it high” exactly where the designers need it, ensuring we have the surplus snow required for creative builds.
• New water pipe and power to support and run the new snow guns.

The Ultimate Tool: The PistenBully Park Pro

Building a jump is one thing; sculpting a masterpiece is another. To ensure our transitions are buttery smooth and our lips are laser-precise, we invested in a PistenBully Park Pro in 2020.

This isn’t your standard groomer. The Park Pro is the gold standard in freestyle maintenance, featuring specialized tools that allow our operators to shape technical features with unmatched accuracy. When you see those perfectly corduroyed landings and square decks, that’s the Park Pro and its operator at work.

The “Invisible” Investment: Labor & Grit

While the new shiny equipment is exciting, the true cost of a premier terrain park is measured in hours and effort and training.

Building and maintaining freestyle terrain is significantly more resource-heavy than grooming a standard run. It requires:

• Initial Builds: Moving thousands of tons of snow into precise stacks, which demands massive amounts of diesel and overnight shifts.
• Daily Maintenance: Our park crew spends additional labor hours every single day hand-refining rails, checking take-offs, and re-shaping features that weather and high traffic can wear down.
• Specialized training: We send our terrain park employees to industry training sessions focused solely on park and park safety. Our park cat operator has also attended Cutter’s Camp at Mt. Hood sponsored by SAM Magazine.

We make this investment in time, fuel, and sweat because we believe the Marquette freestyle scene deserves a park that evolves and stays crisp all season long.

We’ll see you in Contour Park. Stay tuned to our socials for build updates and feature reveals!