Two Lake Tahoe companies are playing crucial roles in the 11th annual ESPN Winter X Games, which starts today in Aspen, Colo.

Snow Park Technologies of Truckee creates all the jumps, bumps and trick terrain features, and Global Event Management of Tahoe City is to thank for ESPN deciding to include skiing events in 1998.

ESPN officials say the crews from Lake Tahoe are integral to the snowboarding, skiing and snowmobiling events that will draw millions of viewers during 19 hours of programming through Sunday.

"We try to be representative of where the state of the sports are at," said Tim Reed, director of sports and competition for the games. "The guys are asking for some pretty big jumps at this point."

SPT

Each time snowboarder favorite Shaun White slides down a handrail on the slopestyle course or skier Tanner Hall sails through the air over the halfpipe during the games, Truckee's Snow Park Technologies is to thank.

The company builds everything except the snowmobile courses at Winter X.

SPT founder Chris "Gunny" Gunnarson has been building the X Games courses since the event began.

"Gunny has been pretty instrumental in every one," Reed said, adding that having a good race course, halfpipe and trick course is essential for the event.

"In the end, it allows the athletes to do what they need to do at the highest level," Reed said. "It is critical for us to provide the most innovative, progressive courses possible."

Gunnarson, soon to be 34, began working at Snow Summit and Big Bear resorts in Southern California out of high school and learned to sculpt snowboard jumps there before starting SPT in 1997.

He was hired as director of youth market development for Booth Creek Resorts, which owns Northstar-at-Tahoe and Sierra-at-Tahoe, and eventually, SPT became a subsidiary of Booth Creek.

SPT's work can be seen on slopes around the word as it operates its three divisions: snow-park building, which builds terrain features like the new Stash park at Northstar and the Icer Air jump built for a contest in San Francisco's AT&T Park in November; a tools division that sells modified shovels for carving jumps out of snow; and a terrain-feature line that builds custom staircases and other features for tricks.

"SPT is more or less a collection of the best terrain-park builders and groomers in the world," Gunnarson said of his staff of seven full-timers and 11 steady contractors.

The importance of building good jumps was highlighted in 2004 when professional snowboarder Tara Dakides fell 25 feet to the Manhattan blacktop while performing during "Late Show with David Letterman," on a jump built in part by SPT.

"The scaffolding company that built it didn't do a good job of the prep work involved," Gunnarson said. "We showed up and there was no possible way anyone could hit the jump. We were able to fix it. Tara did it like two or three times. It was such a small jump you couldn't do much. She tried a 360 and just spun off. It just goes with the territory."

ESPN sticks with SPT because they are the best, Reed said, and with live television, there's no room for errors.

Global Event Management

After the ESPN Winter X Games premiered in 1997, featuring a new forum for snowboarders and some oddball events such as shovel racing, Tahoe City's Chris Schuster was asked why skiing didn't have a place in the new event.

Schuster was running Tahoe City-based Global Event Management, a company he formed after years of helping produce skiing and other sporting events.

When Schuster's friend put him in touch with ESPN executives, he found them receptive, and the next year, the games included skiing, and 10 percent more viewers.

That viewership has increased 218 percent to date, according to Global Event.

"We just want to make sure those events have world-class talent," ESPN's Reed said. "The quality of that event is pretty critical. Chris puts together a very well organized event."

Schuster's crew at Winter X helps evaluate the courses for the ski events and conducts the races with marshals around the course.

"We do live TV, so it all has to be ready to go when the hour strikes," Reed said. "It is a pretty coordinated effort."

Schuster, 38, formed his company in 1996 after working on the professional skiing tour. He grew up in Tahoe City, attended North Tahoe High School and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Both his parents were in the ski industry, with his father working for Alpine Meadows and mother managing a ski shop.

While working for a promoter on the ski tour, he decided with his business partner to launch the business when the last owner left the country.

"We started with a mixed bag of stuff," Schuster said. "Some volleyball events. Some stuff on the ski tour. Marketing programs for various clients: Calistoga, M&M Mars. They would want to sponsor, say, a triathlon and wanted someone to manage their presence on site."

Now the company represents clients such as Red Bull energy drink, and Bud Light beer at a variety of events, including the Red Bull Flugtag contests where people jump handmade "flying" machines/costumes off a 30-foot ramp into water for judges.

Schuster said he would like to promote more events in his home region, such as the Jabra X-Jam ski and snowboard races two weeks ago at Sugar Bowl.

"We're trying to focus more on local stuff," Schuster said. "Lake Tahoe is a perfect venue, an amazing place. We feel we should try to showcase it and try to bring some people here and help grow the local economy."