Echo Mountain Snowboard and Ski Park will open for the first time Saturday – more than two months behind schedule, at the tail end of the ski season and with no money spent on advertising.
But the nation’s first dedicated terrain park has already generated an avalanche of buzz, thanks to a year-long effort by the Evergreen park’s owners to reach snowboarders online.
Echo Mountain employees have spent much time encouraging people to post comments on its Web blog, www.echomtn park.com/phpBB2, on subjects such as what kind of equipment they want to ride at the park and what music they want to listen to while they shred.
“Snowboarding as an industry is very touchy-feely,” said Brittaney Califf, 26, a snowboard instructor in Portland, Ore., who said she checks Echo Mountain’s website daily. “Things spread very fast by word of mouth.”
Echo Mountain owner Jerry Petitt is banking on the guerrilla marketing to fill his slopes.
“We offer our guests something they can’t get from one of the big resorts: that we’re really listening,” said Petitt, who has invested more than $5 million in the terrain park. “The best way to avoid going down the wrong path is to talk to your customer.”
Colorado State University senior Jason Barber said he learned about Echo Mountain from a forum at ColoradoSkiHistory.com.
“Having a whole mountain just for us, man, it’s going to be awesome,” he said.
The Internet marketing tactic is working, in part, because of Echo Mountain’s target audience: 12- to 29-year-olds. Petitt announced last fall he would cater to them by building an affordable terrain park – filled with rails and jumps – that blasts music and is open until 9 p.m.
“They’ve narrowly defined their niche in the marketplace, from the type of terrain to their food-and- beverage facilities – which is vending machines and microwaves – to the way they’re going about their marketing,” said Rob Perlman, head of Colorado Ski Country USA. “It’s all nontraditional.”
To work out the kinks, Echo Mountain will open exclusively to its loyal online crew this weekend. Only the 300 people who purchased a $99 Access Pass four- pack online will be allowed on the mountain for free Saturday and Sunday; no lift tickets will be sold this weekend.
And Echo Mountain’s management is expecting to see a lot of feedback about the park posted online in the coming days – both good and bad.
“It is kind of scary, but the idea is to build this with them,” said general manager Doug Donovan. “People are chomping on the bit for more information.”
Echo Mountain plans to open to the general public March 9 and run Thursdays through Sundays until at least May 1. Lift tickets will be $25 on weekdays, $35 on weekends.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
