Tuesday, December 28, 2010
There’s always something fun to do when you live in a town like Steamboat Colorado. After a fun Christmas morning with the family and an afternoon of skiing, my wife, Jill, informed us that we were all signed up to take a familly lesson on the new snow bikes the next day. For those of you who haven’t seen them before, snow bikes look like a bike but have a ski in the same place as where a wheel would go. You also wear short skis on each foot that help you balance. Once you take a lesson with an instructor, you are issued a pass and are allowed to take the bikes anywhere on the mountain except the terrrain parks.
It is a pretty quick learning curve if you are used to skiing and after the first run down with our instructor Alex, I was feeling pretty confident on the green runs. Since there are no brakes like you have on a bike, you have to maintain your speed by turning and skidding and once you start making turns, you get the sensation of gliding down the hill on a mountain bike.
The kids picked it up easily and Jill was enjoying it as well, but as normal, bringing up the rear. You do get a lot of looks and questions from other skiers and riders and feel a little funny sitting on a bike. Fortunately, I didn’t run into any of my hard core skier friends or I would’ve taken some ribbing. But it was definitely something fun and different to do with the family and I’d recommend it to anyone. Another activity to add to the long list of things to do when you’re living the mountain lifestyle!
