3D Models and Mountains of Dirt: How an Olympic Halfpipe Is Taking Shape at Park City
At Park City, Utah, construction is underway on a towering halfpipe that will serve as a venue for the 2034 Winter Olympics and, in the near future, the Snow League competition circuit.
And no, this part of the process doesn’t involve snow.
Instead, Park City is using an enormous amount of dirt to lay the foundation for the halfpipe. So much dirt, in fact, that if you piled it a foot high and spread it out, it could cover about eight football fields, according to the ski resort. Once winter and the snow arrive, the halfpipe will take shape.
The project requires intense precision. Halfpipe skiers and snowboarders work with an already razor-thin margin of error as they fly through the air. A mistimed jump can make an athlete land hard on the flat “deck” or in the bottom of the halfpipe.
The team behind the new pipe is working to make sure that this margin isn’t any bigger.
“If the halfpipe moves in even four inches, that ends a career,” said snow surfaces specialist Eric Rosenwald in Park City’s video.
The video goes on to explain that the halfpipe will be 700 feet long and each surface must be accurate within an inch.
Construction is set to take place over the coming weeks. Before the vehicles and workers moved in, Rosenwald made a 3D model of the pipe, serving as a blueprint.
“The final shape in snow is programmed into the model, and then in the snowcat we’ll be able to access that model in real time and know exactly where we are to within two centimeters of the dirt work,” he said.
Park City is among several planned host mountains for the 2034 Utah Winter Olympics, alongside other resorts like Deer Valley and Snowbasin. The upcoming event will mark a return for the Games, which were last hosted around Salt Lake City in 2002.
But fans of pipe skiing won’t have to wait eight years to see Park City’s latest project in action.
Last March, Park City announced that the Snow League would come to the resort in January 2027. The league, the brainchild of Shaun White, pits athletes against each other in a unique head-to-head format.
“Park City has always been one of the most important places in snowboarding and freeskiing, so bringing The Snow League here for Season Two feels incredibly special,” said White in a release at the time.
“With the Winter Olympics returning to Utah in 2034 and Park City set to play a major role in the Games, there’s an incredible energy building in this community around winter sports,” he continued.
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