Building the perfect Booter
(how to build a good jump)

To begin with: It all starts when you get fed up with the jumps you have been hitting all day and some how convince a few buddies that they should go spend part of their day breaking a sweat throwing snow. Typically you will have to at least travel off the normal ski area trails and possibly completely off area to build your kicker. This means having to post hole it through some deep snow carrying all the gear you need with you into the middle of nowhere.

    First off find a good spot, some place where you aren't going to end up in a tree, blow out your knees or bruise your butt to a point of walking like a cowboy. Make sure that your landing zone is very open (if there is any possibility of landing in a tree or hitting one after landing then you will, it is just going to happen. You also need to make sure that there is some decent slope for the landing. There is nothing worse then going big and landing on the flat, your knees just can't take it. Finally if you are building your jump in the middle of nowhere, or at least not on area, try and make sure you are not landing in a big boulder field (you can usually tell if there is enough snow if the slope is totally level and doesn't have any bumps or imperfections which are caused by boulders that only have a little bit of snow on top of them). A good rule of thumb is to build kickers where you have seen jumps built before.

    Ideally you want to build the jump at the top of a roller because then it is a lot less work for your posse. You don’t have to carve out much for the runway when it sits on a roller. Jump placement becomes an art and the more you build the better you get. Just try different places until you find something that works.

    When you think you have found a place that has a good wide open landing, a good spot to build the jump with lots of snow and a clear straight path for a runway its time to make it happen. Take all the snowboards and skis that you can and stick them vertically in a row, side by side, in the snow so that the bases all face the runway and the bindings face the landing zone. If you have enough boards to create a wall for the back of the kicker then put an extras on the end of each side so that they touch the boards creating the back. You want to have a good 90 degree corner. These boards should be creating a wall in which you will throw snow against to build the jump.

     When deciding the width of your jump just remember that the wider it is the better. A bare minimum skinny jump should be no smaller then two feet wide and a good-sized jump should be around four feet. A jump that is too skinny makes it much harder to set up for big spins and other technical tricks.

    So now you want to get out your avalanche shovels and start pitching snow in the vicinity of the jump. Make sure that you don't knock your stacked up boards over because there is nothing from keeping them from shooting down the hill and disappearing, which really sucks. You will want to position some one from the posse behind the boards after you have moved some snow and have them push the boards into the pile of snow/jump to help pack the snow. Next, grab another board (from the back) and hold it by the bindings and pack down the top of the pile of snow. It is important to keep packing the snow down as you continue to build the jump up. A jump that collapses the first or second time you hit is no good and makes you look like a real jack ass. Keep repeating this process until you have the basic shape of a jump.

    A good booter can have a variety of shapes especially when it comes to the lip of the jump. The shape of the lip ultimately decides how good the jump is. The geography of the surrounding area will decide which shape is best. A cheese wedge shaped jump has barely any lip at all and will shoot a rider out more then up while a regular booter will have a transition that angles up and hence sends riders up just as much as out. Once again building the perfect lip takes lots of practice. Keep messing with it until it works then leave it alone and session it.

    The transition of the jump is essential to have built properly. Once again keep the transition wide and long. There is nothing worse then a jump that suddenly starts then ends. Make sure your transition is long enough so that you can set up for that techy trick you have been working over in your head all week.

    As your jump is nearing completion send someone up to start working on the runway (usually the guy that has been standing around bragging about how much bigger they are going to be going and isn’t doing much in the moving snow department). You want to make sure they get a good boot pack next to the runway that everyone can follow. Have the person going up go as far as they feel comfortable then a few yards higher (for you of course). They should then strap in and sideslip straight down all the way to the jump. When they get down to the transition of the jump have them jump up and down perpendicularly to the transition, with their snowboard still attached, and once again pack the jump down using all their body weight. If the person has good balance have them also turn their board and body and have them pack down the jump parallel with the jump. After they have packed the jump out send them up again to side slip down right next to where they came down the first time making the path twice as wide. Make sure that everyone follows the bootpack up the mountain and side slips down the runway, not vice versa.

    After you have more then enough snow on your jump it is time to start shaping. Take the boards away only after throwing all your weight into them one more time to make sure the sides are packed solid. Use your avalanche shovels to shave off any excess snow and to finish shaping the lip of the jump. If you want to take the time to make things look good use your shovel to also carve the sides and make them flat and straight. This of course is essential if you are going to film or shoot pics.

-> Continue on to Part II. ->

Did we miss something? Do you have any suggestions for others?