DC opens new freestyle park in Les Houches

Chamonix has always been home to the freeriders. The vast steep slopes and almost limitless terrain afforded by the huge mountains has meant that Chamonix has been home to off-piste/backcountry skiing in Europe for decades.

Despite its credentials as one of the finest ski areas in the world Chamonix has been lacking a decent snow park for a number of years. Although the Park at the Grand Montets is good it is not really of the quality a resort like Cham deserves.

Good news then for freestyle skiers and snowboarders is that DC has just installed one of their brand new “Area 43” parks in Les Houches.

The “Area 43” concept is based around a shipping container that is dropped into place by the Swiss Army Helicopters. The container holds a number of rails and boxes and will itself be left in the park as a feature. For competitions and parties the container will become a DJ venue and central hub.

The park has now been open for ten days and has already attracted a lot of interest. It is one of only two DC Area 43 parks in Europe, the other is in Kitzbuhel Austria, and is based on the knowledge learned from the DC Mountain Labs in USA.

If you want to see your freestyle skills on the big screen then the new park also boasts its own camera crew. Between 11am and 3pm on Wednesdays a camera man will be filming in the park and the finished film will be played in Le Vert bar that night with prizes for the best riders.

The concept is interesting but the really great thing about the park is that having sponsorship from a company as big a DC means that there will be plenty of money injected into the maintenance of the modules.

This could be the year that Chamonix finally embraces freestyle.