Best friends building the western United States’ first independent chair lift accessed bike park

Jason Evans (left) and Phil Bouchard

Shadow Mountain Bike Park is a vision brought forward by lifelong friends and downhill mountain bikers. After growing up cutting our teeth on world-class downhill trails, Phil Bouchard and Jason Evans followed our respective careers to Colorado, where we began exploring the state’s more than 6,000 miles of mountain bike trails.

While we were impressed, we came to realize Colorado’s mountain bike population—particularly downhillers—would be well served by a chair lift-access park unlike anything offered by the summer operations at local ski areas. That’s when the concept of Shadow Mountain Bike Park was born. We seek to fill a void for Colorado’s mountain bike community in a way that is safe, inclusive, and improves the overall riding experience for a diverse and growing user group.

We are now over four years into the making of Shadow Mountain Bike Park, and along the way have had the opportunity to collaborate and refine the concept with other recreational focused community stakeholders in Colorado. Colorado Mountain Bike Association (COMBA) has emerged as a strategic partner in their pursuit of making Shadow Mountain Bike Park a reality. COMBA is a nonprofit advocacy organization whose mission is the development and preservation of great mountain biking experiences in Colorado’s Front Range. Shadow Mountain Bike Park and COMBA share a vision to have the park’s value extend far beyond the riders who visit, and have a larger positive impact on a locality’s outdoor community. By supporting COMBA’s mission, Shadow Mountain Bike Park hopes to be an active participant in the healthy growth of recreational assets that we all share and love, while bringing more diversity and inclusion to the biking community.