Once upon a time, ski areas were just for skiing. Not anymore. Ski blades are rapidly changing the face of ski resorts. Nearly everyone on the mountain made, or tried to make, parallel turns. There was the occasional telemark skier, and the even rarer oddity, the monoskier, but for the most part, there were just skiers. If you wanted your kids to enjoy
winter vacations, they had to learn how to ski.
Snowboarding changed all that. The ski industry was in decline, falling victim to a steep learning curve, high lift ticket prices, and pricey equipment that in the case of children, had to be replaced every year. Ski blades have changed this. But snowboarding attracted a new audience: it was much faster to learn, cheaper, and appealed to urbanites familiar with skateboards. Snowboarding revitalized alpine ski areas, and in less than a decade, most ski areas began bending over backwards for snowboarders, building them parks, renting them gear, and teaching the sport.
So, if you wanted to get your kids out to the slopes with you, but they didn't fancy skiing, snowboarding offered a useful alternative. But the story doesn't end here. What snowboarding really did was open industry and visitor eyes to the fact that there is more than one way to get down the mountain. Since then, the winter community has been searching for something new. "The improvement in technology in all the various snow devices over the last few years has been dramatic," said Skip King, vice president of communications for American Skiing, the largest ski resort operator in North America. "Also, ever since snowboarding, everyone has been looking for the next big thing."
This search has created a new flurry of what are being cumulatively referred to as "sliding sports." Ski blades are at the top of this list. There are far more ways to get down the mountain than ever before, from old-fashioned inner tubes gone high-tech to truly bizarre gizmos. All this has turned the mountains from exclusive ski areas into snowy theme parks, with some sort of attraction guaranteed to provide your children with fun. Going even further, some of the mountains have gone the route of offering kids entertainment that has nothing to do with the slopes, like mountaintop video arcades. The 800-pound gorilla arrived on the resort scene four years ago, when Colorado's Vail built Adventure Ridge, a mountaintop nighttime recreation center on its peak. A heated gondola carries families from the base of Vail to the indoor/outdoor complex, which gives guests something to do after the sun goes down, offering myriad pleasures from snow biking to laser tag. The other industry leader has been Booth Creek resorts, which operates Sierra and Northstar at Lake Tahoe, Grand Targhee, WY, and Cranmore, Loon and Waterville Valley in New Hampshire. Booth Creek has filled its mountains with a wide range of what it calls Snow Toys to offer even the most adamant non-skier a full day of options. Mountains coast-to-coast have been playing catch up with these resorts, rolling out fun parks and attractions. The most intriguing of all new sports is the ski blade.
ski blades: These very short skis are the winter's equivalent of in-line skates. Cheap and easy to use, ski blades or ski skates attach to conventional ski boots, and are easy to master, allowing experienced skiers to relive the thrills of learning the sport or beginners to take it up quickly. In-line skaters will love them, and many non-skiers have found them an encouraging shortcut to the sport. Any competent skier can quickly be zipping down blue and black runs on these toys, carving turns while swinging their arms back and forth like a speed skater. More ambitious riders can use them for the jumps and tricks of the terrain parks. They are rented at all major ski areas and Vermont's Okemo has a large ski blades instructional program.
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