When most of us who grew up to be skiers or snowboarders were kids, we wasted countless hours of snowy afternoons and weekends scheming up new ways to slide around on the snow. We would jump on a garbage can lid, an old skateboard deck with the trucks removed, a sled of any kind or really anything else that would allow us to enjoy even a few seconds of the freedom we feel every time we let gravity take over and just ride. The point is that back then it didn't matter what we slid around on but just simply that we slid.
After a while we inevitably picked up skiing, snowboarding or both and started to discover the ultimate feeling of freedom and exhilaration that we could find in the mountains. Chairlifts became our magic carpets to unlock a world we had only dreamt about.
These days there exists a whole group of people who still seek out that simple pleasure we all remember without allowing themselves to become confined by the preexisting notion of what it means to ride in the mountains. There's a growing movement of people who are looking at riding in the mountains the same way we all did as kids, however it feels good. Who are these folks and just what are they up to? Well, stay tuned as we take a tour around a few of these less mainstream approaches to shredding — it figures to be a blast.
POWDER SURFING
I have a friend who it would be easy to argue is a major force in the snowboarding world, and he has fallen head over heels, literally, and more than once, for the ever-growing movement known as powder surfing. With roots going back to the early days of snowboarding, pow surfing is essentially just that, surfing the powder. The boards are free of bindings and create a sensation which is akin to what surfers feel riding waves.With ever increasing numbers of riders powder surfing, boards are now being made far and wide. There are pow surfers being made in Japan, the U.S., Austria and all over the globe. One U.S. company who has been making boards since 2007, Grassroots Powder Surfing, sums up the sport about as succinctly as anyone can: "Simply a rider, board, mountain and gravity working together in perfect harmony."
Keep your eyes open for these free-spirited riders on a mountain near you.
SKI BIKES
While the history of ski bikes dates back over 100 years, more recent technological developments have brought them into the mix on the modern ski slopes. With more tech and safety features, ski bikes, which were once heavily frowned upon, if not outrightly banned, are now allowed at hundreds of ski resorts across North America.In fact, in 2015, longtime Beaver Creek ski patroller Addy McCord suffered an injury inhibiting her ability to ski, which she thought would end her career. Instead, she discovered the Sno-Go, one of the modern ski bikes now being manufactured; it took the strain off her injury and enabled her to continue patrolling. Local Sno-Go enthusiast Jill Fried tried ski biking after watching her boyfriend Jeff take it up following a knee injury and seeing how much fun he was having.
Not only do the modern snow bikes provide relief for people with long-term injuries, but they are intuitive and easy to learn, not to mention fun. As Fried states, "It's just a lot of fun, pure joy."
ADAPTIVE RIDING
Sometimes snow sports enthusiasts end up with injuries so severe that they can no longer walk, but in some cases that doesn't stop them from still hitting the slopes. Advances in technology have enabled adaptive skiers to continue to enjoy that gravitational pull alongside all the other snow riders on the slopes. In fact, in some cases, adaptive skiers are doing things most of us would never even consider.Not too long-ago legendary sit ski athlete Trevor Kennison became the first sit-skier to complete a double backflip. Spend just a few minutes on his Instagram page and you will not only see stunts that will blow your mind, but you'll also realize that that childish fever to seek out fun in the snow is hard to keep down.
What do you do when you love skateboarding but you live someplace where winter snow makes it hard to skate year round? You go snowskating, of course.
SNOW SKATING
While powder surfing essentially puts you in the snow on a surfboard, snowskating uses a two tier elevated deck to provide better leverage on firmer surfaces. While much of snowskating is akin to skateboarding with riders taking advantage of the lack of bindings to complete tricks off ramps and rails, larger platform decks also allow snowskaters to get out and slay powder.Local backcountry snowskater Mark Edmundson, who used to build snow skates under the moniker of Chiller Decks, can often be found carving fresh turns in the North Idaho backcountry with his friends Cole Thompson and Eric Nelson. Another local snow skate enthusiast, Bryce Rich, is still creating and selling snow skates under the name Boyd Hill snowskates. However much fun these guys had skateboarding as kids, they are having maybe even more fun snowskating as adults.
Of course, there's many more ways people choose to get out and have fun on the slopes as well. There's a couple of guys I see regularly who ski on something called the Scorpian, which is essentially a ski with the back half just behind the binding cut off enabling them to ski tight trees and bumps with ease. Scorpians must be a blast because I never see those two not having a great time.
There are ski blades, ski skates, something that looks like a snowboard cut into two pieces and who knows what else. Many of the ways to ride I've discussed here are either still not allowed at some resorts or were previously not allowed, but where there's a will there's a way. Besides, we can all remember a time not that long ago when people thought snowboarding was an insane and dangerous idea that would never catch on.
The point of all these different ways to shred is to just have fun and isn't that what we all started out trying to do in the snow way back when? After all, yesterday's garbage can lid might just become today's snowskate, or snow bike, pow surfer or really anything else as long as it's a good time. Here's to getting out there and getting after it no matter how you choose to ride. n
John Grollmus is a lifetime resident of the Inland Northwest, local restaurateur and backcountry ski guide. He loves all things outdoors, food of every kind and, more than almost anything, skiing. John can currently be found living with his wife and favorite human, Kim, near Hope, Idaho, and at johngrollmus.com.
