How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect Bike Parks in 2020?
High alpine riding in Val di Sole. Photo: Samantha Saskia Dugon
If we’ve learned anything in the past year, it’s that people want to leave their houses no matter what, and once restaurants and movie theaters shut down, people go outside. Despite massive decreases in global travel in 2020, new and seasoned mountain bikers alike spent plenty of time at their local bike parks.
Val di Sole reported a surprising record-breaking year in 2020 against significant odds, as Northern Italy was one of the virus epicenters in the spring. The resort town operates two bike parks: Pontedilegno-Tonale and Val di Sole. The latter, more well-known of the two, was closed for most of the summer for maintenance, only operating for three weeks, and still the two bike parks combined sold more than 7,000 tickets. Ticket sales for Pontedilegno-Tonale rose a startling 43% compared to 2019 with Val di Sole out of action for most of the season. Pontedilegno-Tonale saw a 50% increase in day pass sales, a 69% increase in weekly pass sales and a 40% increase in season pass sales, suggesting that the biggest jump may have been from European vacationers who were staying for a week or less.
Val di Sole offers blue skies and high peaks for Europeans looking to vacation without crossing too many borders. Photo: Samantha Saskia Dugon
Val di Sole wasn't the only bike park to thrive this year. Mammoth Mountain, California, called its season "near record-breaking" in a Pinkbike post about extending its season. Mammoth's communications department couldn't tell me anything too specific, but did say that the bike park was popular this summer and will likely be successful again in 2021: "During the peak of the summer, the Mammoth Bike Park had very strong visitation... We anticipate high demand for organized outdoor activities again next season and expect it to be a busy summer in the bike park."
Aaron Gwin blazes through Mammoth's trails under moody skies. Photo: Mammoth Mountain
Understanding the summer of 2020 seems like an interesting balancing game. How did bike parks implement COVID precautions when the demand for riding opportunities may have been higher than ever? Moreover, how did bike parks decide how many tickets to sell, given that they wanted to keep people safe while also making money? I know personally that there was demand for as many tickets as parks were able to sell – when I visited Winter Park, CO, this summer, I missed out on a day of lift access because I didn’t reserve my ticket in time for the sold-out bike park. The Trestle Bike Park at Winter Park told us:
 | We don’t publicly disclose specific sales numbers for either our winter or summer operations. I can tell you that we had a successful summer at Trestle Bike Park. Our season pass sales for summer were strong and we had a steady flow of riders all summer. After staying at home all spring, people were excited and eager to get out in the mountains and on our trails. Like skis, mountain bikes naturally create distance from others, and we can normally load only three bikes and three people at a time in our gondola cabins. Most of the time we’d have no more than two people and their bikes in a gondola cabin. The biggest difference is that we required riders to wear masks when in line and while loading and unloading lifts, and everything had to be pre-booked, from bike rentals to day passes (for non-season pass holders). Given the unpredictability of the times, it’s hard to say what the 2021 mountain bike season will look like. We anticipate opening when conditions allow, and we anticipate people will continue to be eager and excited to get back out on the trails. |
Some of the decision-making seems straightforward, like making advance reservations mandatory and giving priority access to season pass holders, who are more likely to be local. Some decisions, too, helped pare the resort experiences down to their essential pieces, like closing lodges, trimming away the village attractions, and focusing on what is most important: riding bikes. Still, businesses have to profit, including those that rely on income from lodging and post-ride beers.
Whistler Bike Park, one of the world's mountain biking meccas, saw fewer visitors this year due to travel restrictions.
Not all resorts had such a strong year. In Vail Resorts’ 2020 Fiscal Year Q4 Earnings Release, Vail reported that revenue was down significantly compared to years past, but CEO Rob Katz is quoted as suggesting that the corporation’s U.S. bike parks, including Northstar and a handful of Colorado bike parks, were relatively successful during the early summer. “We believe this speaks to the current preference of travelers for outdoor experiences, locations they are familiar with and, for many, the option to drive to our resorts,” Katz said. My request for specific numbers was declined on the grounds of Vail being a publicly traded company, but I did receive a statement suggesting that the corporation suffered from the loss of its many international visitors.
| Summer business was instrumental for bringing Vail Resorts back online this year. In order to reopen, we first had to introduce our COVID Safety Protocols, the same protocols we are working with for winter. It was a great way for us to understand how to work with physical distancing in lineups, achieve mask compliance and rethink every aspect of our business, from our restaurants to our retail outlets, to ensure we met the kind of sanitization standards a COVID reality entails. We GIS-mapped our lines to place our maze gates, worked out how to load lifts, and then addressed the timing involved. When we rolled into operation, the crowd were very grateful. The standout experience managing our bike parks over summer was our dealings with the biking community. With so many people committed to the sport, and its growth, the vibe was positive, friendly and easily compliant, despite the many changes COVID presented. Even in the heat, people readily raised their masks in line and thanked us for our efforts. For our staff, it was a wonderful acknowledgement of many months of hard work over the closure period, and excellent learning for our larger winter operation. We are a publicly traded company, so we do not speak to our numbers outside of our earnings release, but we can certainly acknowledge we served a smaller community without cross-border, international travel. For the moment, we are focused on winter operations, as we are still early season, and we do not know what COVID will bring; however, we can say our company deeply values its summer business and remains committed to this piece of our operation. |
“In North America, our U.S. resorts experienced improved demand from leisure travelers throughout the quarter relative to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, but summer visitation remained well below historical levels. At Whistler Blackcomb, demand remained significantly below prior year levels due in part to travel restrictions, with the Canadian border remaining closed the entire quarter to international guests, including guests from the U.S.,” Vail’s 2021 Fiscal Year Q1 Earnings Release noted.
What differentiates a bike park like Mammoth or Val di Sole, which thrived, from a bike park like Whistler, that didn't, seems to be the borders that allow or prevent access. Italy's borders reopened on June 3, allowing the usual visitors from nearby Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia to travel to the Val di Sole area for riding. Mammoth, on the other hand, has traditionally catered mostly to visitors from Los Angeles and the rest of mid- and Southern California so was largely unaffected by closed borders. Unfortunately, the US/Canada border closed on March 24, 2020, and Whistler draws large crowds from just across the U.S. border as well as from other continents. An open border would mean easy access for Seattle and its metropolitan sprawl, but those crowds had to remain stateside this year.
As borders reopen, riders will have new opportunities to travel to bike parks as they progress in their riding. The balancing game - COVID precautions vs. high demand - will (hopefully) be in the past, and the trail riding explosion will likely echo in the bike parks, bringing a bike park boom that could have lasting effects throughout the bike industry in years to come.
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their handling of Northstar was Looney tunes-esque. reserve tickets in advance as they were "limiting attendance". then they only ran 1 lift at upper mountain and made everyone queue for sometimes 30min to get a chair. then mind you they only ran the park for 4 days a week. also, it was busier than it's ever been so they weren't limiting whatesoever. their reasoning for only running one lift? wait for it........lowered attendance. LMFAO. you cannot make this shit up.
if they had run both upper lifts, the lines would have been dramatically shorter. never mind the fact that the tickets were still full f*cking price with shortened hours and less lifts. it was a f*cking embarassment.
If they ran that left side... would have been a whole lot better!
Thank God south shore area has lots of great pirate trails to occupy that DH need
Also, in what had to be a first ever, I shuttled a couple down from M peak. Dropped my kid and was flagged down by a 20 something couple who had parked at the bottom, didn't know where they were going and hiked for 4 hours all the way to the top with just a couple of water bottles. They were fortunately in good shape and stayed on the trail, but it could have ended poorly for them. They were happy to find someone that carries extra supplies and snacks.
I suspect that they sold more tickets per week in four days than they have on a normal week ever before. I'd also guess that that's true for about 75% of the weeks they were open last summer.
And not opening the second chair was thievery. The only plausible reason was a reduction of staff which is a joke. Theyve run that chair in the past with three people. Which probably amounts to the number of people they had on staff to manage that ridiculous line.
I don’t mind that. Mammoth Lakes is a gorgeous spot, even with all the jabronis.
Issue relates more to capability of enduro/trail bikes and easier trails meaning it's much easier to go ride for a day. Unfortunately bike parks are not responding to capacity needs at a sufficient rate. I get that they need to make money, but they've generally lost mine.
“Build it and THEY will come”.........
Trestle reservations only was great if you made a reservation or have a pass, watched people get turned away constantly. Snowmass was great, Gonzo trail is awesome. Copper mountain is not a bike park, thought i would give it a try, not worth a half price ticket.
2021 come on Vail, build anything new at Keystone this year, are you going to invest in any of your U.S. bike parks?
Normally I would bring tool/tubes/tires with me because Flatstar. The one time I'm not in my car...
When I told them California deemed bike shops an essential service and were allowed to remain open they doubled down and said "all bike shops in Tahoe are closed"
so I left and went to Olympic Bikes which was clearly open and very happy to help.
They even opened to hikers on the mountain but wouldn’t open for bikers.
Would have rode the bike park this year, but I'll happily shuttle with buddies if that's the value that Vail brings to their guests.Here's to hoping the Snoqualmie bike park opens up in the next few years.
The old fat due on the green monster.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/02/18/climate-solutions-alps
Been practically empty whenever i go
One consideration re wait lines is that there was no singles line and ability to jump on with a random group to fill each chair with 4 riders.
Also name a better jump line then A-line...
...Don’t worry I’ll wait.
Oh yeah and I’m from BC.
I rode Killy, Creek, Highland, and Thunder last year. Never a line at Killy, Thunder wasnt terrible, but Highland and Creek-the disrespectful riders in the lift lines drove me nuts. Nearly every time i moved forward the person behind me seemed to think my derailleur was their personnel tire stop
teechip.com/samuel-l-jackson-6-feet-motherf*cker-shirt
Canada's population density in 2020 was 3.78 people per square kilometer.
We need realy big sardines can!!
Also, the Squamish gondola gets literally cut in half and is back up and running in weeks. Ste-Anne gondola's been broken for what, 10 months now?
Paying $60 for 1/2 the normal amount of runs ain't worth it by a long shot.
Only managed to get on 1 uplift this year which was at Dyfi Bike Park - they were really on the ball with social distancing, wearing masks on the uplift and their Landies the windows taken out and limited persons in the vehicles.
I think they did a great job of following guidelines.
One positive - local trail have had a bit of TLC and are running well.
Yes! I missed Morzine 2020 - hopefully this year I can get over there.
If you head out there this year have a look at Pila Bike Park couple of hours from Morzine and if you like EWS tracks look at la Thuile - both just over the boarder in Italy.
Yeah local councils are doing the same our way too - blocking off the trail car parks, closing off mountain roads to hikers and local green spaces are getting closed. It doesnt really make much sense because the best place for everyone is to be outside exercising, getting fresh air, getting Vit D and is the place youre least likely to catch anything....but there we go mate.
Ill be coming up fort william this summer 100%
I have a privately owned woods 5min cycle from my house and I have the landowners permission to build so I literally go up there with the dogs and craft away!
I get it people want to exercise but my experience of UK supermarkets of recent times is that there are an awful lot of people out there who simply don't care about spreading this virus and a large number of those sorts of people have taken up biking. Again in my experience in the past BC (Before COVID) I've often seen groups of riders dumping litter and swearing at/being obnoxious to walkers and other wilderness users but I think the pandemic has really brought the worst out in our sport's fraternity, yet somehow ironically the best too in other respects.
Maybe I'm on the paranoid end of the spectrum, but frankly I don't care if I am. I don't want it, I don't want to roll the dice for long term chronic conditions or have to look after two young children while going through it myself so I've not gone riding anywhere near as much as I wanted to and battened down the hatches and minmised external contact as the Government decrees.
Great that bikes parks are making hay while the sun shines but was it worth it? There is no way that "record breaking" years equate to fully socially distanced and disease spreading zero-risk situations in the lift queues for example. And if private businesses here are anything to go by, they're not going to warn anyone and escort them off the premesis for not following protocol.
I understand we all need to get out and shred but can't we all just have a little more patience? It would go away so much quicker and we could all get back to doing what we love with impunity. This vaccine can't get rolled out fast enough, fingers crossed for this summer.
/puts on fireproof suit...
It's not about cowering behind the sofa in unbridled terror in the slightest, it's about making a pragmatic and evidence based decision to limit exposure to other idiots outside who couldn't give a rat's ass about anyone else. As I said, I don't want it and sure as hell don't want to be rsponsible for my family getting it because I couldn't wait and HAD to go out selfishly riding and crossed paths with a spreader. Ok it's a disruption to 18 month's worth of riding, but oh well I'll get over it.
But yeah, you go with your insults and pigheaded belligerence. Stay safe.
I really don’t care what medical/societal high horse you have appointed yourself and others with similar ideology. @veero:
I haven't appointed myself upon any high horse of anything let alone any "ideology" and make my opinions based on things I see with my own eyes from a variety of sources, including close colleagues who have had it and passed it on to their immediate family, and no I still don't want it so while there is a high level of f*ckwittery out there, then yeah I'll put things on hold for a bit to let it calm down. I don't know why you got so upset about 18 months, that was a complete guess, an estimate from last March through to maybe this Autumn, fingers crossed, that hopefully normality can start to return.
Carry on not caring, your choices don't affect me directly so knock yourself out.
Stay safe @veero: