 |
| Sun Peaks on Jan 22 - Courtesy of Polar Bear Club |
 |
| Heading up Crystal Chair at Sun Peaks on Jan 22 Courtesy of Polar Bear Club |
What a week of winter’s wonders! We went from frigid cold with wind-chills up to
minus 40, to balmy zero in a matter of days. Wednesday was the breathtaking bluebird
day of the season, with pristine powder in West Bowl making for hero skiing. I joined
the all-women Polar Bear Club which meets each Wednesday, skis all morning in
small groups, and then reconvenes en masse – around 40 strong - for lunch in
the Cahilty Creek Kitchen. Loved the
chance to explore West Bowl with an experienced local, especially since this wide
and undulating area had been shrouded in zero-visibility fog and snow for most
of the previous month. And it was a wonderful way to meet more locals, a couple
of whom I’d been introduced to previously at an Art Zone Fibre Arts Collective
meeting (this is fabric, wool and textile arts, just one of the creative
specializations within the Sun Peaks ArtZone
Collective – more on this in a future blog). It’s amazing how friendly
everyone is in Sun Peaks and how
easy it is to find new friends. Simon skied with the men’s version, the Grizzly
Bear Club, ending up in Bottoms Bar &
Grill. This was the second time he ‘hit bottom’ that day since he had a spill,
presumably trying too hard to keep up with the more gungho guys in the group.
 |
| Our ski group at Sun Peaks on Jan 22 - Courtesy of Polar Bear Club |
 |
| Me with Tennille on Jan 23 at Sun Peaks |
And then came Thursday: icy drizzle freezing up goggles to obscure all
vision and layering thin cracking ice over everyone’s suits and helmets. The
snow had a frozen rain crust on top, turning even the pros into blundering
beginners. But, with hardly anyone out on the slopes, it was still great fun!
The challenge was completing a turn – it felt as if your skis were stuck firmly
in something like those cross country parallel ruts and you just couldn’t seem
to get out of them. Once we figured out that the trails which had had the most
traffic were much smoother, the day improved. We were glad we made the effort
to ski when apparently yesterday’s fairweather crowds had all opted for a long
lie-in, a big lunch, or a spa day! This was the day we skied with Tennille
Southcombe who has just launched Snowlife
Tours in Sun Peaks. It’s a
concierge customized vacation planning service based from Sydney, Australia.
More about Tennille’s innovative ideas for family and group skiing coming soon.
 |
| Ski Biking at Sun Peaks on Jan 24 |
Ski Biking: Coincidentally, Tennille helped assuage my fears about Friday’s
frolic – going Ski Biking with Babo (Stefano Babich) who runs Ski
Bike tours, instruction and rentals at Sun Peaks – and who, incidentally,
lives in the apartment below us. I mentioned I was very apprehensive about it
and she told me I didn’t need to be as it was easy, and, above all, it was
great fun. Tennille, and her 13 and 15 year old daughters, managed to conquer
the powdery bumps and jumps in Bug Out on their first day. Call me tentative,
but I was happier on the Gentle Giant, Sun
Peak’s easiest run. When the boys wanted to try the bikes out on
Homesteader, which meant taking them up the chairlift, I wimped out, preferring
to watch their very quick and fearless progress from the familiarity of my Rossignols.
 |
| Babo Ski Biking at Sun Peaks |
 |
| Getting fitted for the ski blades |
The basics of Ski Biking
are not difficult to grasp: you have tiny blades on your feet which
are just stabilizers and you turn, and thereby slow down, by putting pressure
on one arm on the handlebar. Left arm turns you left; right arm turns you right.
For safety, you learn a hockey-stop slide for steeper terrain.
In retrospect, I
would do it again but on my own next time – or with another equally wimpish beginner. Perhaps just on the Magic Carpet for a few hours, going up and down the runs there until I felt really confident
of my ability to stop, change direction, speed up, and slow down.
 |
| There she goes....... |
I’m not a
mountain biker – 45 minutes slugging uphill and then white-knuckling down in rain
and mud at the Canmore
Nordic Centre finished off any aspirations in that direction - and therefore
just sitting on the bike and steering downhill via handlebars was somewhat alien
to me.
Ski Biking would be a doddle for anyone accustomed to any kind of bike riding - road or mountain. The
seat has a comfortable indentation, by the way, and is long - a bit like those
Raleigh Choppers in the 70s.
What Babo has discovered is that even non-skiers can learn pretty quickly on the Ski Bikes. “I taught a Chinese girl and an Indian guy the other day who had both tried skiing and snowboarding but had not really got on very well with either, and they had a blast on the Ski Bikes,” he told us in his lovely lilting Italian accent.
 |
| Made it off the Magic Carpet! |
 |
| Babo on a board |
An
accomplished snowboarding instructor, Babo is now intent on giving Ski Biking a
high profile in Sun Peaks, with
plans to expand possibly by franchise to other resorts in the future.
“It’s the
next biggest snowsport,” he says. “It’s at the stage where snowboarding was 40
years ago, about to explode with new types of bikes being developed in the US
which are catching on really quickly.”
 |
| Babo teaching a Ski Biking Clinic at Sun Peaks |
His enthusiasm is very
infectious – I would never have thought of trying the sport without his
charming coercion! I can envisage it taking off as a fun family experience or among
non-skiers who are reluctant to spend weeks learning skiing or snowboarding and
prefer the quicker fix – getting up on the mountain right away and feeling that
exhilarating rush of speed from the very first lesson. Also, for tweens and
teens, it would make the perfect birthday party on snow. It’s already attracting
ski groups looking for fun activities to add to their vacation itineraries –
such as Tennille’s Snowlife Tours. And
it’s even, as Babo points out, appealing to older people for whom skiing is
getting too much for their knees: “There are lots of orthopaedic specialists
out there who are suggesting Ski Bikes for people who have had knee injuries
and can’t ski any more,” he explains. “On the Type 1 Brenter Bikes, you are
sitting down so there is no pressure on your knees, especially as you don’t
really use the blades on your feet.” The sport is already progressing into the
kind of dazzling tricks that experts do on bikes. “They’re doing flips and
spinning on their front ski,” says Babo. “And it’s gradually developing as a
competitive sport.”  |
| Type 2 Ski Bike action |
Just
like the early days of snowboarding, not all resorts are switched on to Ski Bikes
yet. “There are around six or seven resorts so far in Western Canada that allow
Type 1 bikes.” These include Lake Louise,
Sunshine and Marmot Basin in Alberta and Sun
Peaks, Whitewater, Kicking Horse and Panorama in BC. Traditionally, these bikes have been the easier Brenter ones,
which I tried, but now there is a more advanced Ski Bike known as Type 2 with
no skis on feet – the feet rest on pedals. “The most important thing is that I have convinced the resort to
allow the new Type 2 Bikes, says Babo. “It took me two months of strenuous
negotiations with emails, phone calls, meetings. So, I am already ‘ahead’.” He
believes that the Type 2 bikes, with their potential for all-mountain terrain
and even possibly terrain park use, will change the face of Ski Biking as a
sport.
 |
| Babo loving his work! |
 |
| Type 1 Ski Bike |
Part of Babo’s campaign to persuade me to try Ski Biking:
“A couple of basic videos I did the last year with the old bikes
- I’m not a pro videomaker”:
“At the same time, I was also pushing the same kind of bike to
do ‘cooler stuff’”:
 |
| Ski Bike Canada at Sun Peaks |
After his first winter focusing on the Brenter Ski Bikes, Babo
decided to look further into Type 2 Bikes being developed in the USA. “There
are a bunch of brands, and I decided to get one or two bikes from three brands,
because I didn't want to be like a ‘normal rental’ and get six or eight bikes
of the same brand, maybe from the guy that could give me a good price,” he
explains. “So, I contact all the brands, and I say: ‘I want to promote the
sport, and be able to learn about the product. Send me a couple of demo bikes
or similar. I wanna be able to have a fleet made by different bikes and let the
local downhill bike riders try it out to make this sport evolve!’”
Here’s some video footage from the three brands Babo chose:
“SKIBYK is one of the most recent, that
probably revitalized the entire market,” Babo explains. “But I am also carrying
TNGNT and SLEDGEHAMMER. And I am looking to get in touch with the other brands
too. These new bikes are basically a completely new sport! They are a lil’ bit
more challenging that the Brenters bike, but their potential is huge,
especially considering how big the summer downhill biking is in British
Columbia.”
BTW, you wear your ski
outfit and ski or snowboard boots which are clipped into the blades. You need a
lift ticket and helmet. And, due to the size of bikes, kids can only start this
sport at 12. Babo starts each tour with an instructional video and coaching
session before launching on to the ski slopes. Offering three two-hour Intro
Clinics per day at $49 per person including Type 1 bike rental (max of 8 people),
he has discounted group rates, too - for example, four people can take a class
for $149. Type 2 Clinics are $69 per person. If you’re experienced, and want to
rent a bike for the whole day, it’s $39 per person.
Whether you opt for Type
1 or 2, it looks like something everyone will be trying soon. And if I can tackle
the Magic Carpet and Gentle Giant on my first attempt, you owe it to yourself to
give it a try. Unlike me, you could be a natural!!
Links:
Phone: 250
578 5542
Email:
activities@sunpeaksresort.com
