Get your adrenaline pumping as you race up and down rough terrain. Mountain biking offers the optimal combination of physical challenge and sensory reward - and spectacular views are guaranteed.
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Although they have very different histories, skiing and mountain biking share much in their recent evolution. They both began primarily as forms of transportation designed to more efficiently cover specific types of terrain. It's true that skiing had as much as a 2,000 year head-start, but mountain biking has caught up quickly in its short history. The two sports are now considered by many enthusiasts to be seasonal sides of the same coin.
Nowhere is this yin and yang relationship more visible than at modern ski resorts, almost all of which now offer lift-served mountain biking during the traditionally slow summer season. The trend is injecting new visitors, and new life into these resorts during a time when it is sorely needed. And like skiing, going downhill-only on your bike doesn't mean there's not effort and reward involved.
Whistler Blackcomb, in British Columbia, takes it even further. In spring the resort's location and vertical relief allows it to offer the annual "Crud to Mud" race, where racers ski or snowboard from the top of the mountain down to the snowline, and trade their boards for bikes to continue the race to the bottom.
Mountain biking hasn't stopped with lift access as it borrows pages from snowsports. The must-have winter feature at ski resorts in the 90's was the terrain park - the next one appears to be the bike park: an area full of trails and features designed especially for serious mountain bikers. This past season, 50,000 rider visits were recorded at Whistler Bike Park. While it's a fraction of the numbers a successful winter season generates, it's still an amazing 65-percent increase from 2001. California's Mammoth Mountain also has a notable bike park, and in Colorado, Breckenridge, Snowmass and Silverton Mountain are all embracing the trend with major new bike park expansions.
For most riders, unlimited lift access to a vast network of singletrack trails is still enough for a dream vacation. But as the bike parks and their all-out jumps and steep drops become more widespread, it will give the rest of us yet another jaw-dropping scene to view from the chairlift. No matter your style of riding, mountain biking has become a critical ingredient in the mountain resort industry's bid to provide us with reasons to visit year-round. Who are we not to take them up on the offer?
