Fat Tires and Wind Power

Snowbiking & Snowkiting at Royal Gorge

By Pete Gauvin

You don’t have to wait until the snow melts to ride a bike at Royal Gorge. Saddle up on a fat-tire snow bike. Royal Gorge will offer a fleet of burly Surly snow bikes for rent at the Van Norden Station, where the flat to rolling terrain is ideal for an introduction to pedaling over snow.

“It’s something extra to do and another attraction to bring people up to the Summit,” said Royal Gorge General Manager JoJo Toeppner.

The same can be said for snowkiting, which will also be offered at the Van Norden Station for the third season through the Sierra Snowkite Center.

“It’s an addendum to your skiing, another backcountry skill to have,” said Tyler Brown, director of the center.

A winner of the North American Snowkite Tour and many other competitions, Brown said snowkiting dovetails well with the backcountry focus offered at Sugar Bowl and Van Norden Meadow makes for a great training ground to learn the fundamentals.

Eventually, he said, “you can learn to kite up a steep face or kite all the way to Squaw.”