Wy’East Mountain Academy Now Home To North America’s Largest Airbag

At the base of Oregon’s Mount Hood, on the Wy’East Mountain Academy campus, stood a sight unfamiliar to most U.S. skiers and snowboarders: an 80-foot-wide, 200-foot-long dry slope and airbag system, only the second of its kind in the world.

The airbag, which was designed and manufactured by Austria’s BangerBags, officially opened on June 17, with three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White performing the ribbon cutting. White, who spent his formative years training at Mount Hood, called the airbag “a game changer” for U.S. athletes.

But the academy expects its new world-class feature will attract athletes from around the globe as well.

“Wy’East Mountain Academy’s goal is to foster the next generation of global ski and snowboard talent,” said Wy’East president Kevin English. “We already have a world-class training facility, but the addition of this new airbag will allow us to become a destination for aspiring riders worldwide.”

Wy’East Mountain Academy is one of a handful of year-round action sports boarding schools in the U.S. They operate like traditional U.S. college prep boarding schools but with a twist: when their coursework is completed, students spend the rest of their time skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking and more.

The academy’s 28-acre campus boasts more than 100,000 square feet of skateable concrete, outdoor and indoor skateparks, a private trail system, a mountain bike dirt path and now five airbags (one for skate, two for snow and two for mountain bike).

Most schools like Wy’East Mountain Academy are located on the East Coast, such as Vermont’s Stratton Mountain School or Burke Mountain Academy, the latter of which produced Mikaela Shiffrin. Thus, the Pacific Northwest location at the base of Mount Hood is a major selling point for Wy’East, as is the fact that nearby Timberline Lodge boasts the longest ski season in the U.S.

Now, the airbag will become another major draw for the academy, which can enroll up to 70 full-time students per year and host another 1,500–2,000 at camp each summer.

Bringing the new dry slope and airbag to fruition required 25,000 man hours over eight years. The slope is composed of 1.5 million drysnow bristles that are occasionally sprayed with water and give the feeling of real snow, allowing athletes to dig in an edge and get torque on takeoff.

The system features three design firsts: a fully adjustable ramp in both distance and pitch; safety airbags flanking either side of the ramp to prevent riders from getting injured if they mistakenly fly off the edge; and a roughly 30-foot-wide take off to give riders flexibility in how they drop in and set up their tricks (as well as the psychological comfort of having more space).

Through a partnership with Can-Am, Wy’East has two of the company’s ATVs onsite to shuttle riders up to the drop-in platform.

The project costs were close to $4 million, $3.5 million of which came via a donation from Wy’East board member Ed Jaramillo, the father of a Wy’East Mountain Academy alumnus.

As the dry slope and airbag came under development at Wy’East, it was Jaramillo who suggested that the team go to Austria and meet with Alex Pankiewicz, the visionary behind Austria’s Banger Park.

Unless they have a roster of major sponsors, few athletes can afford to travel to Austria every summer to train at Banger Park. This reality had become an obstacle for U.S. skiers and snowboarders; there is no training system that simulates the feel of snow or the size of Olympic features better than the BangerBags setup.

As Jaramillo and White cut the ribbon to officially open the Wy’East Mountain Academy airbag on June 17, Pankiewicz, who had traveled to Oregon for the occasion, saw his vision become accessible for thousands of skiers and snowboarders based in North America.

Jaramillo wanted to help progress freeskiing and snowboarding not just for Wy’East Mountain Academy students and campers but for Team USA overall. To that end, the airbag’s debut was held in conjunction with Project Gold, a U.S. Ski & Snowboard youth development initiative.

Project Gold is a natural progression from grassroots development camps High Cascade Snowboard Camp and Windells Freeski Camp, both of which operate on the Wy’East Mountain Academy grounds and, in 2014, merged under newly created parent company We Are Camp.

White spent his summers honing his skills at High Cascade and Windells (before the latter rebranded to a ski-only camp in 2015 following the merger with High Cascade). After retiring from competitive snowboarding following the Beijing 2022 Games, White has remained involved in the industry in other ways.

He’s launched a namesake snowboarding brand, Whitespace, and created a global ski and snowboard competition series, the Snow League. In 2024, he became an investor in We Are Camp.

“I have so many memories of being here, learning new tricks, taking those tricks to competitions, winning events and looking forward to coming back every single year,” White told me. “In retirement, I still had such a longing to come here and be a part of the camp and help the next generation of athletes and give back.

“It was my selfish way of coming to camp every year,” White joked.

After the ribbon-cutting, White rode to the top of the airbag in a Can-Am to drop in for the first time. He’s trained on airbags before, but never this large and never with this dry slope technology.

White consulted with 15-year-old Jess Perlmutter, asking her for tips on how to use his edges and how to approach the takeoff. After a beat, he said, “Why don’t you go first?” Cue laughter.

After a successful jump, White revealed what had been on his mind: This thing is a lot bigger than I thought!

The June Project Gold session at Wy’East Mountain Academy brought together 60 of the country’s top junior athletes for a week of Olympic-caliber coaching, progression-based training and evaluation by U.S. Ski & Snowboard coaches. Athletes who catch the eye a coach could secure their spot on the national team pathway, perhaps one day representing the U.S. at future Olympic Games.

Wy’East Mountain Academy has produced three Olympians who have won a total of four Olympic medals, as well as athletes who have gone on to win 12 X Games medals. Notable alumni include Alex Beaulieu-Marchand and Nick Goepper, who were roommates before graduating in 2012 and stood on an Olympic podium together just four years later.

Beaulieu-Marchand, representing Canada, took bronze in freeski slopestyle at Pyeongchang 2018. Goepper has earned three Olympic medals in freeski slopestyle (bronze at Sochi 2014, silver at Pyeongchang 2018 and silver at Beijing 2022).

Goepper is eyeing his first Olympic gold at Milano Cortina 2026, where he will compete in a different freeski discipline: halfpipe. This sort of multidisciplinary excellence is rare for Olympic competition; athletes are by necessity ultra specialized. But Goepper isn’t your average skier, and that was obvious when he attended Wy’East.

“Over the years, downhill landing bags have pushed my progression over the edge,” Goepper said. “Now that Wy’East has one, the campus will be an even more incredible place to practice.”

It would, however, be a mistake to focus solely on how Wy’East Mountain Academy and its new airbag will produce future Olympians, though it certainly will do that.

Plenty of students who attend the school won’t pursue a career in professional skiing or snowboarding. But they will receive an education that will prepare them for college; the academy has a 100% university acceptance rate.

And they will hopefully maintain a lifelong passion for the sports they pursued during their unique secondary school experience at Wy’East Mountain Academy, perhaps teaching their own children to ski or snowboard and ensuring a healthy future for the industry.