Joe and Kyle Pope

Joe ran the terrain park for three winters and started the Montana Snowboard Championships — his wife Kyle came the season after

Legend of Showdown

The Legends

Hired in the fall of 1999 to run the terrain park — three winters, and a championships of his own invention

Born: 1976
First skied at Showdown: Fall 1999 — he hiked the mountain at his job interview
First worked here: Terrain park director from the fall of 1999
Years at Showdown: 1999–2002
Positions: Terrain park director, 1999-2000 to 2001-02 — ‘coordinator’ in the Great Falls Tribune of January 2001, ‘manager’ for 2001-02
Snowboard instructor on busy days — he arrived holding AASI Level 1

Fall 1999Answers Showdown's advertisement for someone to run its terrain park, interviews with ski school director Jim Anderson, and hikes the mountain as part of the interview
1999-2000Puts together a statewide calendar of freestyle events, calling every ski area and board shop he can reach, with Showdown at its centre
February 2000Answers a rider's complaint about flat landings on Showdown's message board, in his own name: the crew works on the features daily, the head groomer pushes snow back up the landings, and he is the one in the red coat
February 2000Takes the AASI Level 2 preparatory clinic
March 2000Asked by George Willett for a spring event, comes back the next morning with the Montana Snowboard Championships, first held at Showdown on 25 and 26 March 2000
January 2001Gives the Great Falls Tribune its ski tip of the week, on terrain-park safety: look before you leap, and check the landing
November 2001The Great Falls Tribune announces his return as terrain park manager for the 2001-02 season
2004Hired as terrain park director at Big Sky Resort
Shapes the park's jumps with head groomer Joe Pinski, the two of them sketching the features in coloured pencil so they can agree on them
Brings back the spring pond skim; the first one is filled by a garden hose left running through the night

Joe's wife — a snowboarder on the Showdown crew from 2000-01, the season after him

2000-01Comes to Showdown, a season after Joe
Photographed in the navy-and-yellow uniform of Showdown's ski school, her name tag reading KYLE, beside Tyrel Johnson
One of the young crew who spent their days off at other Montana ski areas on their two association passes