Wellness

SPECTACULAR NEW FREEZE FUN!

If you need a new thrill this winter, you are in luck. Check out these cool new winter sports that are bound to get your motor humming. From fat biking, to airboarding, to snow kayaking, and more. Plus new additions to the winter Olympic lineup at Sochi.

Photo: Jamie Siegel. Close up shot of the Fat Bike’s Goliath Tred.

FAT BIKING

Now, you can enjoy the beauty of mountain biking through the snow, with fat bikes. It’s kind of like the beauty of snowmobiling without the motor sound -- burning calories vs gasoline.

Fat bikes have oversized fat tires, designed to not only handle traditional dirt and rock mountain fare, but also snow.

While fat biking began in Alaska in the late 1990s, invented as a cool way to traverse the 1,100-mile Iditarod trail, it’s only just begun to spread and grow as a popular sport. Alaskan Mark Gronewald had designed squishy (pumped up to only about 8 PSI), 3.7-inch wide tires, with excellent traction, mounted them to a relatively light frame, that together formed a bike that gave those sled dogs a run for their money.

Photo: Courtesy of Bike Hugger. Fat bikes in the snow.

Now people who love biking are finding fat bikes make for a sweet ride through snow heaven.

Head to Wyoming for a beautiful freeze fat bike experience. Snow King Mountain in Jackson Hole or the incredible snow trails in Sinks Canyon and Lander are great places to start.

Bike Mill, The Pedal House, and The Hub, are some of the places that can set you up with a phat fat bike, maps and tips. Packed snow is better than loose powder. The looser the flakes, the harder you’ll need to push those pedals.

Photo: Brian Railer. Fat Biking at Pack River, Idaho.

Pack River, Idaho is another fat bike snow joyride. Minnesota and Colorado have some beautiful snowy trails. And, of course, you can always carve out your own path wherever there’s snow.

Want a fat race? Check out the Laramie Mountain Bike Series and the Great Lakes Fatbike Series. Winter Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado (mountaingames.com) added the Winter Mountain Bike National Championships to its annual events lineup.

For fat bike best practices, use the International Mountain Bicycling Association as a resource. For more destinations and ideas, check out RideFatBikes, surlybikes.com, and fat-bike.com

Photo: Courtesy of Airboard. Airboarders.

AIRBOARDING

Get ready for some chill boogie boarding. Try airboarding down the slopes this winter. The Airboard is an inflatable, 48-inch long, A-shaped raft that you ride headfirst down the mountain (Skeleton-style).

It’s another stealth sport -- airboarding, originally invented by a safety-minded snowboarder, has been around for over a decade, but it’s only gaining speed now in the US. You can find them more often now in European ski resorts.

It operates kind of like snow tube, with grooves on the bottom to offer at least some control. For more info, visit airboard.com.

Photo: Alex Kerney. Snow Kayaking.

SNOW KAYAKING

This one makes perfect sense: Snow Kayaking! Why didn’t we think of that before? It’s such a natural to use a lightweight kayak as a hybrid boat/sled to navigate a snowy slope. Snow-covered river and creek beds are bound to be such a blast. Imagine paddling down frozen rapids.

Monarch Mountain ski resort in Colorado hosts an annual Kayaks on Snow race in April (skimonarch.com). For more details, visit kayaking.com.

Photo: Courtesy of Asla Travel Group. Sochi Winter Games 2014.

BEAUTIFUL NEW WINTER OLYMPICS SPORTS

When the 2014 Olympics kick off in Sochi, Russia on February 6, it will be the largest version of the Winter Games to date.

A number of new events will debut in Sochi. Here are five we think will be super-exciting: the ski halfpipe (men's and women's), women's ski jumping, biathlon mixed relay, a new figure skating team event and the Men's and Women's Ski Slopestyle

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is hoping to add some fresh zing to the games with the X-Game factor.

Photo: Courtesy of Swide. Slopestyle skiing.

Get ready for:

1. Ski Halfpipe – Men and Women

It's a halfpipe event on skis. Competitors will be scored on take off, air height, landing, and difficulty of routine.

Photo: Courtesy of Reno Tahoe. Ski jumping, Lake Tahoe.

2. Women's Ski Jumping

The fact that this is a NEW event, dumbfounds us. Nevertheless, women ski jumpers have finally gotten some respect. They will now compete on the same hill as the men's event. Competitors will be scored based on distance and style.

Photo: Courtesy of International Biathlon Union. Mixed ski relay.

3. Biathlon Mixed Relay

Here’s another nod to gender equality. The mixed ski relay event includes two males and two females per team. Female athletes start the relay, each performing two six-kilometer kegs. The two male athletes follow by racing two 7.5-kilometer kegs. Each athlete shoots twice (one prone, one standing), and a 150 km penalty loop is added on for each miss. The team with the lowest combined time will be the winner.

Photo: Wayne Cuddington. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

4. Figure Skating Team Event

Similar to team gymnastics, of the Summer Olympics, teams of six skaters from each country will perform under four separate categories: men's, women's, pairs and dance. The team with the highest aggregated score will be the winner. The event will be spread out over the course of three days.

Photo: Lennart Takanen.

5. Men's and Women's Ski Slopestyle

Similar to the snowboarding version of Slopestyle, athletes ski down a steeplechase-type slope, with obstacles, such as jumps, rails, and quarter-pipes. Skiers leverage the challenges and move down the mountain with speed and grace.

The skiers are judged based on execution and degree of difficulty of their moves.

Photo: Courtesy of Emacswiki. Icicles.