Work/Expense of Halfpipe Construction

Building a halfpipe is a time consuming. It takes about 10 – 20 hours toconstruct the walls and the basic shape of the pipe. This includes buildingthe start area as well as shaping the walls (with or without a Pipe Dragonor similar device). As the Pipe Dragon shapes the transition of the wallsthe most important element is the initial cut by the snowcats to achievea balanced and even wall height and a consistent slope of the channel ofthe halfpipe.

Even with the Pipe Dragon (or other machines) hand shaping for the verticalsection. If using a Pipe Dragon, the amount of man hours doing the hand shovelingwith 10 men or women will take 4-8 hours each. If hand shaping without theuse of a Pipe Dragon or back hoe the amount of man hours doubles and thebest formula is using ten workers for around twenty hours each. This shouldcomplete the job of the initial halfpipe development.

The cost of halfpipe construction changes year to year and varies from mountainto mountain. I believe the cost of building and maintaining a halfpipe isapproximately $20,000-$40,000 per year. This money is well spent by the hostmountain as an attraction point and the halfpipe should be looked upon asan investment that is maintained during the course of the season.