The first portable rope-tow lift in Colorado opened today at Frisco Adventure Park, where one employee saw what happens when you have an idea and won’t let it die.
“It’s hard to explain the emotions I’m feeling right now,” Haydn Deane told Krystal 93. “Pretty much the first summer I started working here I said, ‘This place has a lot of potential.’”
The new rope tow and terrain park, officially the Frisco Railyard, dubbed “Frisco Tow” by OG Breck rider Zach Griffin, is now open daily next to the tubing hill.
“This space is the perfect pitch for a terrain park,” Deane said. “It just needs some people who are willing to put forth the effort to make that happen.”
After three summers of staring at the perfect hill, Deane came to his manager with a sales pitch.
“I made a PowerPoint kind of explaining the benefit of what rope tows provide for terrain park riders and people learning how to ride terrain parks,” he said. “It all seemed kind of daunting at first and then we kept cracking into it. Now we’re just moving forward.”
Video of the first portable rope tow lift in Colorado!
Resort riders might get a handful of laps in one hour. But a tow park? You can easily get two dozen.
Deane knew this. He grew up on rope tows near Beach Mountain and Sugar Mountain in North Carolina. But he was always a rider, never a designer.
“I realized the Colorado Tramway Board is a lot stricter than it is in North Carolina and most others states,” he says. “That was a tough time. But we learned a lot setting the rope tow up this season and last spring. I’m getting to feel like a master.”
More than 20 local snowboarders and a few scattered skiers came to the christening today, including Griffin.
“It can be a little vibey at a big resort,” Griffin said. “A lot of teams, a lot of pros, a lot of big killers out there. And here is an open space.”
The vibe at the Frisco Tow is backyard, but it’s no backyard operation. Griffin lays out the work that went into make this happen: “Earthmovers, towers, dirt work, snow guns, kittys, design, snow pushing, fence work. Putting in features is the last thing on something like this. The boys have been working sun up and sun down.”
Griffin says the crew – town of Frisco now has a park crew! – is repping 50-plus years of park experience, including Dean’s co-collaborator, Taylor, the terrain park lead.
Install and upkeep mean the park is not free. Cost is $200 to $300 for a season pass, $30 to $50 for a day pass.
But take it from the founder:
“It’s awesome,” Deane says. “It’s so awesome.”