Mountain Layout—Snowboarding

Meadows has a lot of what you'd have to call "free range" terrain. Most anywhere is good for riding and most of the mountain rides big. The east-facing runs between the Cascade Express and the boundary—more of a face actually—are all smoothies, good for working on the turns and swooping back and forth.

Between the Cascade Express and the Mt. Hood Express are six little bowls and patches of trees—all single-black runs. For the real deal, head to the experts-only Heather Canyon, the bulk of it reachable from the Morning Star Express. Absolute Magnitude is the best to jump into from the Shooting Star Ridge.

For the upper canyon, you have to take Cascade Express and turn right. Things are steeper up here, starting with A-Zone and 7151. To start way high with the runs into Super Bowl, you must take the Super Bowl Snow Cat up 1,700 feet of vertical from the top of Cascade Express. The ride costs $10 per trip. There's nice terrain for beginners too.

Parks and pipes
Meadows has a superpipe, a natural halfpipe and three terrain parks. The 500-foot-long superpipe, with walls up to 17 feet high and lighted for night riding, is cut into the ground on Wallflower so it can be open earlier in the season. Freestylers can get to the Vista Park plus South Park and the superpipe in one run via the Vista Express quad.