YEAR-ROUND SLOPE SENSE: MOUNTAIN BIKING IS TAKING OFF AT SKI RESORTS
By Mark Eller F
rom Mammoth Mountain, California, to Snowshoe, West Virginia, North American ski resorts are benefitting like never before from summer operations, and mountain biking is finally emerging as a
profi t center. At Colorado’s Crested Butte, for example, Christian Robertson oversees the Evolution Bike Park. “We are in a great place right now,” said Robertson. “Scans for bike passes are by far the biggest component of our summer season – the infl ux of bike visitors has led to more lessons and more rentals, providing the resort with a year-round business.”
EVOLUTION OF RESORT RIDING T is was not always the case, said Joey Klein, a mountain bike trail designer and builder who helped create several fi rst- generation trails at Colorado ski resorts, including Keystone and Vail. At fi rst, mountain biking did not seem like a particularly wise investment, Klein recalled. “In the early days, the typical scenario was that a few of resort employees who liked to ride bikes would get permission to build an on-mountain trail,” said Klein. “It was usually something steep and challenging that would be fun for experts but was guaranteed to scare the pants off a casual mountain biker.” Beginner-level riders were often directed to wide, gravel, access roads, which Klein notes often
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PSIA-AASI has partnered with IMBA to promote year-round outdoor recreation through top-level instruction, information exchange and shared content. Learn about IMBA’s mountain bike Instructor Certifi cation Program by visiting imba. com/icp.
100 | 32 DEGREES • WINTER 2016
resulted in inexperienced riders hurtling down the mountain at terrifying speeds. Today, Klein works for Trail Solutions, the fee-based trail-building arm of the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA). “T ings changed completely when ski areas started treating their mountain biking facilities more like their on-snow operations – by creating quality experiences for beginner and intermediate skills sets it was possible to attract a much larger audience,” said Klein.
RESORTS IN FULL GEAR T e standard setter for resort-based mountain biking has long been British Columbia’s Whistler Resort. While black- diamond trails like A-Line and Dirt Merchant are revered by mountain bikers around the globe, it’s the more moderate runs like EZ Does It and Crank It Up that see the biggest volume of riders at Whistler. In fact, nearly half of the resort’s lift-served trails are signed as green- or blue-level runs. T e latest trend in mountain bike trail design is the “fl ow trail” concept. Defi ned by high-banked (“bermed” in mountain bike parlance) turns and undulating terrain with table-top jumps, fl ow trails off er a rollercoaster-like riding experience. Experienced riders who are comfortable staying off their brakes and catch air on
A rider enjoys an on-mountain fl ow trail at Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
the larger bike-specifi c trail features, while less confi dent riders seek out smaller jumps and practice arcing the turns. Robertson with Evolution Bike Park in
Crested Butte noted that the resort is in an approval process with the U.S. Forest Service, hoping to get 15 more miles of trails built. “T ings must be going in a good direction, fi nancially speaking, to inspire that kind of investment,” he said. “We have always had the goal of bringing more people to the mountain in the summer season, and mountain biking is the biggest factor in achieving that.”
Mark Eller is the communication director for the International Mountain
Bicycling Association. Email:
mark.eller@imba.com
Do you have a resort-based connection to mountain biking… say as an instructor, guide, or program developer?
What’s your mountain doing to promote year-round activity for how guests (and instructors) can enjoy and be employed on the mountain year-round? Share your experiences and insights by posting on The Community at
tiny.cc/wfrq5x
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