Snow Biking, Ice Hiking & Dog Sledding in the Canadian Rockies
1. April 2008 by Tridad.
by Karen Schaler/ABC NEWS
Bored with the usual skiing, snowboarding, skating and snowmobiling?
One of Mother Nature’s most impressive winter playgrounds — and home to a new lineup of winter extreme sports — is hitting peak season.
The best time to explore the snowy, ice-cube cold Canadian Rockies is between March and May, when the weather’s not so brutal.
As ski season wraps up farther south, Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada, rev up for some challenging offbeat winter adventures: snow biking, dog sledding and ice hiking.
Snow Biking: Tour de Snow
For those who have already mastered skiing and snowboarding and are searching for the next adrenalin rush, this is it. It’s daring but the beauty is, even if you’re not the most coordinated person in the world, no problem; you can easily scoot down the hill at your own pace. Once you figure out the balance issue, snow biking can be exhilarating. On the flip side (no pun intended), daredevils and BMX masters will be satisfied with snow biking’s endless possibilities.
It’s basically a combination of skiing and riding a bike. But instead of tires, your bike has skis, and you also wear special ski boots and snow blades (short skis). The bike is very light, so there’s no problem getting on and off ski lifts. Snow biking downhill is similar to skiing; you make S turns and turn sharply to stop. The trickiest part is figuring out how far forward to lean. Go too far, and you’ll fly over the handle bars into a classic “face plant.”
Snow biking is allowed at all three ski resorts in Banff National Park, but the only place you can rent the equipment is at Sunshine Village. It’s about $60 a day, which also includes a half-hour lesson — a great way to go if this is your first time snow biking. Learn more at Ski Banff
Dog Sledding: ‘Ruff’ Riders
If your legs and ego are worn out from snow biking, try getting some love and respect from man’s best friend and sign up for a dog-sledding adventure. The tradition has been around for thousands of years, and, while there are several great sledding operations in the Banff, Lake Louise area, the only group allowed to operate inside the protected Banff National Park is Kingmik Dog Sled Tours.
read more
and don’t forget to purchase a travel/medical policy when going outside the country. Your health insurance policy will not cut it up there
SKI Channel set to launch
29. January 2008 by Tridad.
The Ski Channel has inked a multiyear distribution partnership with Cox Communications ahead of its launch later this year.
The amount of subscribers added through Cox was not disclosed, but industry sources said the pact gives Ski Channel about 3 million additional homes for a total of 13 million subscribers. The network expects to be in more than 20 million households at launch.
The parties said the deal puts the Ski Channel in all Cox video-on-demand enabled systems, making it one of the first original ad-supported sports-focused VOD networks to be fully rolled out across the MSO.
“The Ski Channel is out in front of where our business is headed,” Cox senior vp programming Bob Wilson said. “They are building this service for and targeting it to a well-defined niche of passionate people who are underserved on television and with unique needs the channel intends to fulfill on every level.”
Meanwhile, Ski Channel chairman and CEO Steve Bellamy said that the network also is forming a Ski Channel Film Festival, devoted to mountain sports, activity and lifestyle genre films and programming.
“The quantity of films made in ski, snowboard, mountain biking, rock climbing and most mountain activity every year is staggering,” Bellamy said. “I don’t think there is a more prolifically filmed subject matter.”
The festival will feature categories in ski, snowboard, mountain biking, rock climbing, directing, best athletes and various others. One of the main awards will be given on behalf of ski film pioneer Warren Miller. The Warren Miller Award will recognize someone each year for a significant lifetime achievement in the sport.
The channel is in discussions with U.S.-based ski resorts and mountain towns to host the festival.
Bellamy added that the festival will receive a great deal of promotion, including on the channel itself. The Ski Channel also is taking advantage of the fact that NATPE coincides at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas this week with a ski industry trade show and has arranged for a major marketing presence at the Mandalay.