Snowbiking At Hoodoo Ski Resort In Oregon

Move aside skiing and snowboarding, a new and exciting winter sport is coming to the ski slopes around the country  - snowbiking !

When I heard about snowbiking at Hoodoo Ski area in Oregon, I knew I'd have to give it a try ! It just looked so much fun ! It's like mountain biking in winter. And even though Hoodoo ski area is just a few hours away from Seattle, I just couldn't find time to make it down there. And my first introduction to snowbiking ( or ski-biking as it's sometimes called )  happend at Vail resort in Colorado.

But during my road trip around central Oregon, I was looking forward to snowbiking at Hoodoo ski area. I was also excited to finally try airdboarding there, but unfortunately they discontinued offering that activity for some reason.

As I mentioned in my previous post, snow bikes go by a variety of names and designs - ski bike, foot ski bike, ski-bob, snow sled. Even though at Hoodoo they have the same snowbikes I rode at Vail, this time, I got to try something new - a trike ski bike ( the Trikke Snow Skki bike ) !

A trikke ( or trike ) ski bike to me looked like an elliptical machine on snow. It was nothing like a snowbike I used at Vail.

If riding a snowbike at Vail felt more like riding a regular mountain bike, riding a trikke snow bike felt a lot more like skiing !

Your snowbike rentals include a 30 min complimentary lesson, and if you're a relatively good skier/boarder, it's all you'll need ! It's really easy to use the bike : You just hang on to the handlebars and lean them in the direction of the turn to carve your way across the slope. The bike's 3-point cambering system keeps all three skis carving across the snow in perfect alignment. You never have to worry about crossing your skis !

My biggest concern was how to get the bike on a chair lift. In Vail, they have a gondola, which makes it really easy to get your bike inside and out. But at Hoodoo, you have to take your bike on a chair lift. But as it turned out, even that was a piece of cake !  When you hit the lift, you simply walk out in front of the chair and sit down. As the lift goes up, the padded handlebars come to rest in your lap. The Skki is designed in perfect balance, and hangs from your lap, perfectly suspended. Total weight ~ 26 lbs. ( It’s even more comfortable then having a snowboard hanging from one foot ! ).

I took me just a few runs on easy trails, before I took my trikke bike on "blue diamonds" ( intermediate trails ). It was quite a rush to slide down a mountain on an elliptical machine :) The trikke bike was just plain out of sight awesome, fast, fun, and quite stable. But I have to admit, I took a pretty nasty fall one time, so I'd definitely recommend to wear a helmet.

What also makes trikker bikes different from snowbikes is that riding the trikke skki bike does not require any additional equipment, normal snow boots/hiking shoes or snowboard boots will work. And that makes the bike easy for friends and family to share. The only problem is that all the snowbike riders must wear a special snowbiking pass that shows that they took the lesson, and are familiar with safety issues and concerns. But you can just push the bike up a small slope, and get a few cool runs to get a feeling of how awesome it is.

To get a better understanding of how Trikke Skki Bike works, check out this video :