Echo Mountain Park is perched at 10,500 feet with wraparound views of the frosted Rockies and is the nation’s first winter resort devoted exclusively freaks. Echo is 100 percent terrain park with 50 acres of jumps, rails, boxes, picnic tables, stairs, mailboxes and pipe. Some people could be found on the Echo slopes the energy, aesthetics, acoustics and entire ethos of the place is aimed at kids. However Echo’s owner, Jerry Petitt, said he hadn’t built the park to please everyone. The park is proper for 12- to 29-year-olds. The lift tickets at Echo are priced for teenagers on a lawn-mowing budget.

The owner invested $5 million to develop the first 50 acres into a terrain park, hiring Planet Snow Design, the company that built the superpipe for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, to finesse the flow on each slope. And unlike most Colorado resorts, it isn’t on Forest Service land, so there’s no regulated close date. Echo Mountain Park is 35 miles from Denver, open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Lift tickets are $25 on weekdays, $35 on weekends. Events are held every weekend, like the Shut Up and Snowskate competition.

Photos by: Kevin Maloney