Thousands of years ago a glacier came rolling through Minnesota. It ended moving right through the Twin Cities and down south into illinois. This Glacier created the magnificent sight of a 500 foot vertical hill which the indians named Buck Hill. In 1954 Charles Stone Jr. decided he was going to build a ski hill on it and that is when it all started. only open on weekends due to a small amount of snow back then there were a few T-bars. I first started riding buck hill in 2001 i had never been on a snowboard but i just remember the little so called "bunny hill". Im being serious when i say this thing has about a 5 degree slope and one small tow rope. At buck hill there are about 12 runs total and one of the runs is a black diamond but if you were to compare to an outwest run that would be somewhat a bunny hill.

You just have to embrace this place because when you are living in the midwest there arent many big hills around and this being 15 minutes from my house i cant resist but hitting it up everyday after school. I come into the parking lot after a long day of school walk past the clock tower and grab my lift ticket. Take the Quad Chair(they dont have cool a cool name for this lift) up to the top where you can see down to Crystal lake and for Minnesota it is not a bad view at that. Give a little Wave to a guy that looks like Santa Claus that works the lift and then its off to the left of the resort. You ride down the back of buck hill and come around the side and there is the start of the terrain park. they have a few different obstacles to hit on the top half of the park, there is a down ledge, flat down box, flat box, down flat down rail, flat rail, flat down flat rail, rainbow box, c-bow box, and s box. after you hit that you come to this small little hill where you can hit another long flat box or hit one of 3 jumps. The jumps range from 10 feet to 40 feet at the max. now see when you are outwest you have to ride the chair back to the top of the park. well in Minnesota you get the luxury of taking the terrain park tow rope which is right in the middle of the halfpipe which is on the left and the jumps and the flat box on the right. Now i think that is extra special. Some days if things are going well the Buck Hill ski team is practicing and you can go off the 30 foot jump go down about 500 feet and take the Ski teams lift up to the top of the park, although it is forbidden it is the fastest way to get up to the top. Usually you get stopped once or twice by the ski team coach but really all you can do is tell them to piss off and you paid just as much money as they did to ride there am i right. I really love buck hill because its a place where all my friends go to ride and you can chill out and talk to people all the time and you get a lot of riding in because the lifts are so short and there is night riding until 9 on the weeknights and 10 on the weekends and hey even on new years eve you can stay out and ride till midnight and then there are some fireworks and stuff i always found that to be pretty cool. Well buck has been generating a lot of income the past couple of years from us snowboarders so now they have decided to haul about 125,000 tons of dirt to make a steeper hill for jumps to be built on and also the ski team had two runs and now they have one and the snowboarders have two one of them will be dedicated to all jumps. They are also putting in a new high speed Quad Chair lift in the board park and before that they had an old rickity ass two seater.

I have had so many great times at this place snowboarding with all my friends and meeting new ones. i really think a place like this is something you cant make outwest. There is amazing terrain all over the world but in Minnesota it isnt the terrain we care about its the snowboarding. ive never seen so many kids out on a negative 20 degree day to hit a few boxes and a few rails. I love being able to go out after school and be able to snowboard until 9 at night everynight and then come home. its the only thing that gets me through school. i love it. its not much but its all we have in Minnesota. Sorry i couldnt get any riding pics i cant find any right now.