Woodward Park City just became one of the official training centers of the US Ski and Snowboard Team. Along with Woodward Copper, Colo., Woodward Park City, Utah, will usher our US freeride athletes into the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano, Cortina, Italy.

Located north of big daddy Park City Mountain. Woodward takes park and pipe seriously… unlike Vail Resorts which chose to massage Park City Mountain into a safe family experience, eliminating night skiing, mountain bike parks and dialing down park and pipe activities.  Woodward stepped up to fill the void in 2019.

When Vail Resorts scooped up Park City Mountain in 2014, the former owner, Powdr Corp., didn’t take its ball and go home. Nope, they focused their efforts on one of their other properties down the road- Gorgoza Tubing Park. They plotted, developed and waited. Four years after losing PCM, Powdr got the green light from Summit County to build a Woodward Camp at the tubing hill.

Woodward opened in 2019 and it didn’t take long for the freeride world to recognize this gem. With endorsements from national sports celebrities like Shaun White, Tony Hawk, Travis Pastrana and Joss Christensen it was only a matter of moments before focus shifted from Park City Mountain to this little-known Interstate-80 sidehill.

Just stroll around and see what Powdr Corp has been up to since exiting PCM. In addition to indoor foam pits and trampolines for ski jump and BMX training, there are three types of outdoor terrain venues. There’s the Learning Zone that hosts a “smart park” with rollers, drop-in ramps, small gully “mini-pipes” and a magic carpet all built on a low grade for beginners and three “progressive” parks that build up from small to medium snow and jib features.

In the Experiential Zone, beginner to expert terrain park users can practice berms, rollers, hits, jumps, rails, wall rides and, when ready, move onto the Performance Zone. This area is designed to enable competition-level athletes to hone their skills, tricks and air off of training features like a 22-foot halfpipe and big air jump.

In fact, Woodward’s halfpipe is one of the few in the world that is dug into the earth as opposed to being constructed out of surface snow.

“It’s been amazing to see Woodward embrace progression and training areas indoors and on-mountain at both Copper and Woodward Park City,” said five-time Olympian and professional snowboarder Shaun White during the 2022 Olympic Media Summit. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the pipes at both places the past two seasons getting ready for the Olympics.” He called Woodward a “consistent and reliable place for high-performance shredding.”

U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freestyle, Freeski and Snowboard Director Jeremy Forster announced in his press release, “We’re thrilled to partner with Woodward to elevate our freeski and snowboard athletes’ training. Woodward’s facilities at Copper Mountain and in Park City will provide key year-round training for our Pro and Rookie Team athletes for years to come.”

Just so you know, Woodward is also a great place to learn to ski and ride. If you already have gear, you can take a two-hour group lesson for just $139 or an all-day group lesson for $279.  The area also offers one of the cheapest intro packages along the Wasatch Front. With the “Take 3 Ride Free” package, beginner skiers and snowboarders get three, two-hour lessons, lift tickets, rentals and a one-month Mountain Park Pass (after completing the three lessons) all for $349.