Mountain biking has become a major summer draw for hundreds of winter resorts. But many areas, including some of those that offer mountain biking, are missing the boat, according to Patrick Kell, executive director of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association. The problem? Failing to provide the right terrain.

Kell says that while plenty of ski resorts offered mountain biking 10 or more years ago, many failed to build good mountain bike-specific trails. “Most resorts just sent you down a black diamond when the snow melted, and that isn’t a mountain bike trail,” Kell says. “That didn’t work and customers didn’t come back.”

But that’s changing. In the last five years or so, resorts have invested money in a new generation of mountain bike trails, delivering an experience that people travel for and return to. Whistler-Blackcomb is the best example; the resort has invested in trails that “draw thousands of mountain bikers,” Kell notes.

Not that the investment is huge by winter resort standards. Kell says the biggest investment a resort must make in mountain biking comes in the form of manpower to maintain trails. “You have to think of pitch and drainage. It’s not just raking leaves off,” he says. “You don’t want it to get worn out too quickly.”

But there’s another issue for resorts to consider as well: mountain bike trails, much like cross-country trails, are widely available for free. So how does a resort make money on it?


Making it Work
Piggy-backing mountain biking onto other activities is one way resorts in Vermont have had success. “Certainly some of the resorts in Vermont have plenty of other activities, like water slides and zip-lines,” Kell says. “And if the overall draw is to get people there, then mountain biking can do that. Then, with lodging and food and other services, it adds up to a nice package.”

To help them unlock this potential, 15 resorts attended a Vermont Mountain Bike Association conference in May 2007. Killington Resort sent two members of its team, and the lessons learned were noticeable on the hill in 2007, says communications manager Tom Horrocks. And he can appreciate the changes: Horrocks was a team rider for the Schwinn Toyota and Ibis mountain bike teams for a decade, and competed at the 1997 World Mountain Bike Championships.

He says Killington, which employs a full-time trails crew to maintain its system, sees tremendous opportunity in growing summer business, and mountain biking plays an important role. “That conference opened the eyes of the people who went to it, and you could see the results on the trails here,” Horrocks says.

“There are two keys in building mountain bike trails,” he notes. “First is excitability; do you get excited when you ride it? Second is sustainability; is it going to withstand changes in the weather and increases in rider use? But there’s a financial investment that has to be made, and it’s pretty labor-intensive. You don’t build 20 miles of trails in a summer. It takes time.”

Resorts can get plenty of support from others in the mountain bike business. For example, Kona Bikes also sees great growth potential for mountain biking at ski resorts. In addition to selling rental bikes and parts to resorts, Kona helps resorts design programs and promote events to draw crowds, says Kelly Steelman, director of the company’s bike parks program. “We have 18 parks around the world,” he says.

Steelman is bullish about mountain biking at resorts, especially when it’s done right. “Ten years ago, many resorts didn’t offer the right experience,” he says. But many are now taking a second look. “Over the last five months, a number of resorts have told me they are going to make this happen,” he says. “Over the next two to five years, it’s going to take off. It’s kind of like snowboarding in that some resorts were late to embrace it.”


THE MODERN BIKE PARK
Keystone has created a high-skill bike park to complement its trail system, and finds that many aspects of it are, in fact, much like snowboarding. For example, interest in progression. “In some ways it’s not unlike terrain parks in that they’re really high-end and aimed for the real enthusiast,” says GM Pat Campbell. “As it’s grown in popularity, we’ve started to see higher demands for progression features to improve skills levels.”

In short, bike parks have to accommodate a range of abilities. “We treat our bike park very similar to terrain parks because we have a lot of manmade features,” says operations manager Doug Lovell. “For instance, we would never force people in the terrain park into the take off of a jump, ever. We’re trying to do the same type of thing when we build features in the bike parks. We want available options so they’re not forced into a jump or a drop that might be more challenging than they’d prefer.”

Like winter terrain parks, bike parks are always a work in progress. “We’ve really tried to create the right kind of trails, attracting both new and returning customers,” Campbell says. “You never want to become stagnant. There’s always excitement from customers and enthusiasts to try new things. We push to stay current with that trend.”

For areas on Federal land, like Keystone, working with the Forest Service is crucial. “We put in the investment effort to get approval to build the trails, working closely with the Forest Service and our risk management department,” says Lovell. “The Forest Service needs to know the trails are going to be maintained properly, and that we will meet their land use requirements.”

Campbell notes that bike technology keeps changing, too. “There are bikes now that are more suited for freeride and are becoming more widely available,” she says, “It makes it easier for people to try the sport, explore the terrain, and enjoy the experience. In our rental program we only use downhill and freeride bikes; a couple years ago only a few programs had those.”


Partnerships Are key
Not only do the bikes help grow the sport; the suppliers themselves can be willing partners. Kona, for example, offers the type of assistance that, say, Burton is known for in snowboarding. It’s Steelman’s job, for example, to be at the beck and call of the resorts, and that means taking care of even the slightest issues. “If Killington has a problem—maybe they need pedals or the shocks aren’t working right, or they’re trying to size a person to a bike—I’m the guy they call and I get it taken care of,” he says.

Growth has been rather snowboard-like, too. Kona started its bike parks program with Whistler/Blackcomb in the late 1990s. Three years ago it began to take off at other resorts. “We’ve had probably in the range of a 40 percent increase each year in terms of the number of bikes we order for the resort parks,” Steelman says. Most resorts use the rental bikes for one year and then sell them in the same manner in which they turn over rental skis.

Kona also offers incentive programs to attract resort business. For each bike the park orders, Kona’s sponsor/partners each provide $10 worth of free parts. “So if Mammoth orders 130 park bikes, they receive $1,300 in free parts from each sponsor,” Steelman says. “For example, Hayes gives them brake pads and brake hoses, and Maxxis gives them a tire. So the bike parks have all these parts ready to go if something breaks.”

And Kona does what it can to drive business to its partners. “We do in-store promotions. So if you buy a Kona bike, you get discounts at the parks. Ideally, the whole family goes on vacation to the resort, and dad goes golfing, mom shops and the kids rip it up on the hill,” he says.

Steelman hopes that resorts will one day run their mountain bike business just like they do their ski programs, right down to offering instruction. He believes the pressure placed on resorts to draw year-round revenue makes a mountain bike park a no-brainer.


Spreading the Gospel
So, like it is on snow, the million-dollar question with mountain biking is, how do resorts bring newcomers on board? One answer: clever onsite marketing. Many non-riders view mountain biking as a dangerous sport, so offering easy-to-handle terrain is a must. For that reason, trails must be easily accessible (and visible, as much as possible) from the base lodge for kids and families.

“Folks that don’t ride tend to think mountain bikers want really steep trails,” Kell explains. “But riders don’t want that, because the trails get washed away, and riding down them is not much fun. Riders want a trail that flows with the contour of the mountain. It’s about having to pedal and climb and descend.”

Horrocks understands that, and notes that Killington is moving in that direction. The area already has plenty of what Horrocks calls “excitable terrain,” which makes it a favorite of skilled mountain bikers, but the resort is now working to add more beginner-level terrain, too. “Much like skiing, in order to bring newcomers to the sport you really need to provide that feeder type of terrain that is easy for people to learn on,” he says. “We’re working to provide that over the next couple of years.”

While building sustainable trails takes time and planning, it saves time and money in the long run and provides a better product. “Bikes today travel at high speeds, and tires are wider, so you see more contact with the trail, with heavier equipment. That’s a whole different wear process,” Killington’s Horrocks says. “So trail building needs to catch up with the bike technology. For that reason, rather than expanding on the 45 miles of terrain we offer, we are going to go back and make sure our current trail system is sustainable for the traffic and weather conditions we receive.”

Whistler, which embraced mountain biking early on, has done the heavy lifting already, and is reaping the benefits. “At Whistler, a bike rental and lift ticket goes for $140 per day, and people gladly pay it,” Steelman says. “The younger generation of riders is more into riding downhill, so they are happy to pay to ride the lifts. At the Garibaldi Lift Company restaurant at the bottom of hill, you can sit and watch people take the jumps and hits on the hill.

“The resort figures they get $20 million in revenue from the bike park,” he adds. “People come to mountain bike and they have dinner and then go out at night. Along with golfing, horseback riding and ziplines, the bike park is just one more thing to get butts in beds and get people eating at the restaurants.”

“Whistler was one of the founding fathers, so they have a 10-year head start on the industry, and that’s one reason they are so successful,” Horrocks agrees. “Their business model is being applied at other resorts to increase their summer business.”