Lightest Ski Poles, Snow Skis, Ski Gear, Ski Apparel

It was a good season for ski resorts last year. Europe found itself with more snow than it knew what to do with on occasions last year and America shared similar dumps. Canada missed out on a lot of the snow last year though, but it was about time really. A great deal of ski area owners breathed a sigh of relief as the economic downturn threatened to wipe out skiers and snowboarders all together. Many already began to think about new ways to make money in the summer months however, as everyone is well aware that they are not out of the woods just yet.

Congress had a bill introduced to it recently in America that would enable ski areas to further utilize their resources in the summer months. Many resorts in Europe have expressed and interested in the same idea. During the summer months a typical ski resort might bring in around 15% of their total yearly income. if the resorts could be utilized for a wider range of sports and more formal events then this percentage could sky rocket. Most people think that mountain biking is the most obvious and sport

There are often mountain bike trails at the base of ski mountains already and shops selling mountain bikes dotted around the areas. This would mean that people wouldn’t have to bring their own gear along but instead could just rent the equipment as they would in the winter months for snowboards, making the sport very accessible. The proposed idea however is for mountain biking a little more on the extreme side of things, utilising the ski lifts that are already in place to host downhill mountain biking events and competitions on the steep runs.

Roger Joules who runs one of Lake Tahoe’s ski resorts says “mountain bikers have been looking for some steep and challenging runs and our slopes are perfect for that in the summer. If we charge a small amount for the use of our lifts then it’s a situation where both parties win”. Roger has also said that they are looking into the possibility of building a wave machine on a section of the lake so that people can pitch up with their surfboards and ride some breaks in the summer months. This is still a long way off he points out.

Technorati Tags: mountain biking, resorts, Ski Resorts, skiing, snowboarding

Tags: mountain biking, resorts, Ski Resorts, skiing, snowboarding

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 9:27 am and is filed under Ski Poles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.