Summit County is entering the time of year where ski resorts begin to close their doors for the winter season, downtown cores start to grow quieter and residents are able to take a deep breath after a busy winter season.

The brief break after a hectic winter season often allows locals to enjoy some outdoor recreation before summertime crowds converge upon the county. The Frisco Adventure Park is offering its own form of outdoor recreation and display of local appreciation by offering a free springtime terrain park on its tubing and skiing hill.

Throughout the winter season, the Frisco Adventure Park operates a winter tubing and beginner ski hill where guests can have fun in the snow while tubing or experience a more relaxed learning environment while picking up skiing or snowboarding.

The Frisco Adventure Park often sees great turnout throughout the winter season for tubing and skiing, but once the temperatures start to warm up across the county — and the crowds start to dissipate — the Frisco Adventure Park operations team sets up a free, springtime terrain park.

Frisco Adventure Park operations manager Sara Burke doesn’t remember exactly when the adventure park started providing a terrain park to the public in the spring, but she estimates it has been in place at least the last five years or so.

The hope with the terrain park is to not only bring people to the park in order to enjoy the views of Peak 1 and Mount Royal while gliding over a hunk of steel, but also to put the leftover snow from the winter season to good use.

“The thought process behind it is that we have all this extra snow from when we closed the tubing hill, and we wanted to find a way to give back to the community,” Burke said. “This is something that we are all passionate about. We are all super pumped to have this park available to the community for free.”

Prior to opening the terrain park to the public on Friday, April 21, the Frisco Adventure Park operations team broke down its tubing hill lanes and groomed the hill before rails, terrain park features and a jump were set into the now-springtime snow.

“We have four rails set up — that I say are medium to advanced level — and then we have a spine transfer which is corrugated on top which is new this year and pretty cool,” Burke said. “At the bottom we have a tiny, little jump which pretty much anyone can hit if they want to.”

Although the activity is free, skiers and riders will have to work a little in order to get their turns in. The Frisco Adventure Park’s magic carpet system that was used to get guests from the bottom of the hill to the top in the winter is not running in the spring. The absence of the magic carpet means skiers and riders will have to hike up the hill after going down if they want to get more turns and tricks in.

Since opening last week, Burke says the terrain park has seen a fair amount of guests but thinks visitation will start to pick up once more local ski areas close for the season and temperatures really start to warm up.

The Frisco Adventure Park terrain park is a ski at your own risk hill. Guests must follow all posted rules located at the top of the hill and follow terrain park etiquette.

“As long as they are following the rules we have posted at the top of the hill and are following basic park etiquette, they will be good to go,” Burke said.

The hill currently has no closing date and will stay open as long as snow conditions allow.

“We definitely have a good amount of snow this year,” Burke said. “The base is pretty thick, so I would say definitely until mid-May we can expect it and then anything past that would be a bonus.”

The hill will be groomed five days a week during the work week with the possibility of it being groomed on a weekend day as well. The terrain park is open and free of charge to the public with hours of 10 a.m. to dusk.

“We want the locals to come out and enjoy what we have for free,” Burke said. “We are hoping to see more people enjoying what we got here.”