We had a long chat with Jack Nesgos from Xscape during the Gonzo on Snow Event at the weekend. Jack has been in the indoor snow business since it's very inception, having worked at Mt. Thebarton, the world's first indoor slope in Adelaide. That's now a SnowDome. Jack then moved to Tamworth and then to MK and now to Castleford. He was brought in specifically to build the pipe at MK.

To get the dimensions they talked with the Team GB coach, Craig. They've done their best with the various slope angles on the slope and the result was much better than I had expected when this was first announced and all credit goes to Jack and the team at MK who worked so hard to make this possible. I know that a lot of those guys will also be riding the pipe, so it was in their interest to make it the best they possibly could. The pro riders for Gonzo on Snow were having some trouble, but a few minutes with a shovel on the vert sorted most of these out.

The pipe is based on a wooden framework. They created a mould and used steel to create the actual sides of the halfpipe. On top of that there's 300mm of real snow and for the competition the cold box was reduced to -10°C to keep the transition and vert in good condition. They also have a gun on the slope that sprays water to allow them to ice the halfpipe up regularly in the battle they'll have to maintain it. In the future they'll be considering the use of salt or nitrogen based fertiliser to harden the slope. Explain that one away to the police!

The halfpipe will open to the public this Friday and their manning policy is the same as for freestyle nights, so expect the pipe to be open regularly on those nights. As the weeks go on they intend to get some rails and boxes up on the platform to increase trick combos.

Xscape intend to maintain the halfpipe for as long as they can, hopefully two months. Even after that it will not disappear overnight. They'll take it down slowly from the top and there could be some form of halfpipe there for four months. For them this is a commercial decision. Sure, MTV paid much towards the £18,000 spent on the materials, but if it proves the summer draw they hope, then they intend for it to be done bigger and better next year. Jack was already talking about making the halfpipe part of the fabric of the building and fabricated completely out of steel with technology used on the transition to draw the moisture out of the snow to firm it up. He forsees these dotted all around the country, although whether that means more Xscapes or just Xscape proving the technology for others to use, remains to be seen.

So the bottom line is, go and enjoy MK's halfpipe for the summer.

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