Sno-Go bikes offer an easier downhill alternative to learning how to ski or snowboard 

Sno-Go bikes are available for rental at Loon, Sugarloaf, Sunday River and soon, Jay Peak. (Sno-Go)

Everyone knows a one-planker is a snowboarder and a two-planker is a skier, but Sno-Go, a Salt Lake City-based ski bike manufacturer, is hoping to see more people riding the mountains on three planks. 

The Sno-Go is giving riders another way to enjoy the mountains in the winter. The bike has the look of a tricycle, with short skis in place of each wheel. Following a couple years of research, design and testing, co-founders Chase Wagstaff, Obed Marrder and engineer Kevin Scheidle launched their commercial venture via Kickstarter late in 2015.

Loon Mountain Resort, Sugarloaf Mountain Resort and Sunday River Mountain Resort, all under the Boyne Resorts umbrella, are currently the only spots in New England that offer Sno-Go rentals. Jay Peak Mountain Resort had a demo day shortly before Christmas and intends to offer lessons and tours in the coming weeks. 

While ski biking will not overtake skiing or snowboarding in terms of popularity anytime soon, what they do provide is a faster progression for the new user. Where it might take a new skier a few days of lessons before confidently taking on groomed intermediate runs, many Sno-Go users say that it only took a brief lesson and a couple runs on a bunny hill before being able to hit a blue square.

“They are extremely user-friendly,” Jay Peak ski and ride school director Craig Cimmons said. “The learning curve is very steep, from first seeing it to being able to comfortably link turns and have speed control over green terrain. It is so much faster than skiing and snowboarding — they’re not even comparable.

“I went from trying it out on the base area and just learning how to turn, how to stop while having a basic understanding of speed control. I went up the Bonnie lift and came down a groomed blue trail within a half-hour of ever standing on it. The progression is unbelievable.”

Whereas in skiing, where each ski acts independently, the skis on a Sno-Go are always parallel.

While he did not, Cimmons said some instructors were testing out the ski bikes on steeper and ungroomed terrain, feeling “really high on life and really energized” upon returning to the base.

The equipment needed to ride a ski bike is essentially the same as for skiing and snowboarding except that ski boots are not allowed — snowboard boots or insulated winter boots are recommended. Boyne Resorts requires users to be at least 13 years of age, 62 inches tall, and 100 pounds.

Loon, Sugarloaf and Sunday River each have a tutorial video on their websites allowing potential users to familiarize themselves with the basics before showing up at the mountain. Each resort requires at least one brief lesson before allowing users to venture out onto the mountain alone.

When Jay Peak gets around to offering them to the public this winter, the mountain will learn how it can best co-exist with skiers and snowboarders. Users will either be in lessons or as part of a touring group led by an instructor. Sno-Go ski bikes will be allowed on all lifts at Jay Peak — including the tram — whereas Sugarloaf and Sunday River exclude them from certain chairlifts.

As for who might be interested in using an alternative form of sliding on the snow, among the testimonials on Sno-Go’s website are those from older skiers/riders who don’t have the flexibility they once had, those who are on skis or a snowboard a lot and looking for something a little different, those who are looking for a winter activity but might not have the time to commit, plus the costs associated with skiing and snowboarding as a family.

With the Ice Haus skating rink hosting hockey tournaments throughout the winter and the indoor water park, Jay Peak also gets frequented by families who don’t ski very much — if at all — and Cimmons believes that groups like that could be attracted to ski biking.

“We might have the younger sibling of the hockey player in our ski school, and the parents are splitting their time between one kid’s hockey games and dropped their other kid off at lessons — this complicated mix,” he said. “I think this Sno-Go experience, this hockey family, they don’t have the time or resources to learn another sport like skiing as a family, but they can all jump on Sno-Gos together for two hours one day and have this all-mountain experience that there’s no way they would have time to do as a family in that little window of time between hockey games.

“I think if resorts get behind this, I think Sno-Gos have the potential to have a big impact on the industry and bring people to the resorts that we’ve had a hard time capturing through skiing and snowboarding.”

If a family is going to the mountains for one weekend a year, the progression of learning to ski will be slow and might not even include getting to the summit. Renting Sno-Gos, the progression would bring these ski bikers to upper parts of the mountain comfortably.

A half-day rental at Sugarloaf runs $65 and includes a 30- to 45-minute lesson. A first-time lesson at Sunday River is $109, but the lesson is 90 minutes long and future rentals are $59 for a half-day and $95 for the full day with no lesson required. In each of the above cases, however, a skiing lift ticket also is required. 

It’s not cheap to go all-in on a Sno-Go Shift, the company’s newest model. The retail cost is $2,499, and bikes can be bought directly from the company’s website (snogo.us). The bikes also can be purchased at Loon, Sunday River and Sugarloaf.