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he list of NSAA member ski areas with bike parks including one for the guide, meaning the guest-to-guide ratio
that began offering full eMTB access in 2018 for every trip was five to one, max. Steamboat’s local permit
includes Mammoth Mountain, Northstar, and administrator required that the pilot program was structured as
SkyPark at Santa’s Village in California; Killington a guided tour to ensure compliance with trail access restrictions
in Vermont; Angel Fire in New Mexico; Snowbasin in Utah; and provide proper education with this new eMTB phenome-
Highland Mountain Bike Park in New Hampshire; and non. The trips tended to cater toward beginner to intermediate
Purgatory in Colorado. Others have been offering more riders, partly because the lift-serviced terrain in the Steamboat
limited e-bike access (usually with guided-only tours), bike park has a limited beginner experience from the top of its
including Steamboat and Winter Park in Colorado; Whistler near 2,200-foot bike park, Newpher said.
Blackcomb in British Columbia; Schweitzer Mountain “Now, two seasons in, I’m already convinced that the
Resort in Idaho; and Mount Snow in Vermont. e-bike is actually a better platform than a traditional mountain
“We’ve really been trying to hit all the angles—building bike for some people to learn how to ride at a mountain
our event trails to host high-level downhill events while also resort,” he said. “You are riding the bike constantly once
building out some more green trails and really trying to center leaving our rental shop, which allows riders to spend a lot of
our development around hardtail trail bikes for families,” said time on the bike and on the mountain. These Class 1 bikes
Hogan Koesis, bike park manager at Purgatory. “You know don’t do all the work for you, but it makes going uphill a
. . . turning the volume up on some parts of the mountain much more enjoyable experience. A lot of our guests are
while turning it down on some others so that you have either new to mountain biking or the bike park and come
something for everybody.” from lower elevations, so it’s a way to give them a much more
After a successful 2018 eMTB rollout at Purgatory attainable two-wheeled mountain experience. I’ve been calling
(which is on Forest Service land), all the resorts in the it the magic carpet of mountain biking: just as we cater to
Mountain Capital Partners group will aim to add them for our beginner skiers and snowboarders by offering a clear
2019, Koesis said. That includes Arizona Snowbowl; Sipapu CONTINUED ON PAGE 48
and Pajarito in New Mexico; and Hesperus in Colorado.
“For us it was really easy because the Forest Service was
in the middle of updating the travel management plan for In 2018, e-bike unit
the Hermosa Creek area that includes Purgatory Resort, in an sales grew 112%
area that was already dirt bike-friendly, and they were actively
considering new concepts and new ideas,” Koesis said. year over year and
With both drought and wildfires in the area this summer, 93% year to date
Purgatory ended up doing a more modest rollout than previ-
ously planned, with no rental fleet available, he added. That
meant that just several people daily were bringing e-bikes to
the mountain, which gave him an opportunity to study their 2018 Q1 Wholesale Bike Sell-In by Category
impact—or lack thereof—with a smaller test group.
His takeaway? “So far, so good. We think lessons, guided
tours, a full rental fleet, and electric charging stations are in the
future, and as these bikes and their batteries get more sophis- Mountain
ticated we think we’ll be able to send guests out on some real $77.3M
adventures like the full 35-mile ride on the Hermosa Creek Road BMX
Trail,” Koesis said. “We’re super excited about sharing those $68.6M $4.3M
experiences with guests who would not otherwise get out
there to see it, and we’ve just gone through the NEPA process Youth
and got approval to build a new trail called the ‘Cutthroat $9.2M
Trail’ that will be one of the country’s first trails built specifi- Transit/Fitness Electric
cally with e-bikes in mind.” $35.8M $22.4M Lifestyle
Trevyn Newpher, the bike park manager at Steamboat $10.6M
Resort, says the 2018 summer season was a successful second
season for the eMTB pilot program. The resort offered Source: Bicycle Retailer
a guided-only experience with a small fleet of six bikes,

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