Odd-Balling

Beyond skiing this winter. 

With the arrival of winter, Bozeman feverishly gears up for the upcoming ski season—but not everyone gets their kicks from these pursuits. Winter offers a number of other activities and even the most hardcore skier can need a change in routine. The following offers some fun abnormal winter activities.

Curling
Trading out the fast pace of typical winter sports, curling requires extreme concentration and precision. Curling teams consist of four people offering an opportunity to get out with family and friends. Two teams compete at a time, each aiming 40-pound granite disks (called “stones”) for the “button” or center of a bull’s-eye pattern at the other end of the sheet of ice. Points are added at the end, scored by the position of the stones in relation to the button. Bozeman is home to a curling club that has seen significant interest since being started by Bozeman Parks and Recreation two years ago. Check out them out at facebook.com/bozemancurling for more info.

Over-Snow Biking
Snow on the ground doesn’t mean biking season is over. Over-snow bikes, or “fat-bikes” have become extremely popular among the mountain-biking community and offer an opportunity for other outdoor enthusiasts to switch up their winter recreational routine. Designed to pass over drifts, fat-bike tires are twice the width of a normal tire and cruise right through wintertime snow and ice. If sleeping in the cold doesn’t sound too daunting, fat-bikes are a great way to get to camping destinations—just bring a good sleeping bag. The Custer-Gallatin National Forest recently decided to allow over-snow bikers to use groomed snowmobile trails.

Sledding
Tearing down a hill on a sled isn’t just for kids—it can give adrenaline-hungry adults quite a thrill, too. Add affordability and an afternoon of sledding is easy to make happen. Bozeman has a number of sledding spots, including the Snowfill Recreation Area, Peets Hill, and the Langohr Campground up Hyalite. Venturing outside of Bozeman, some pieces of state and federal land also have uncrowded hills. If sledding seems too mundane, you can always step it up a notch and go Clark Griswold-style, hitting light speeds on a greased trash can lid and leave the actual sleds for the kids.

Snowga
What happens when you combine snowshoeing and yoga? You get snowga, a new kind of outdoor yoga challenge. The absolute opposite of hot yoga, snowga participants snowshoe to their destination, do a yoga class, and snowshoe back home. Doing yoga on snow offers new challenges and for veteran yogis, can be a way to hone skills even further. Yoga on a mat at home will probably seem like a piece of cake after this. Bozeman Parks and Recreation offers affordable classes starting in January, as does Bozeman’s FLOW Outside, which offers snowga classes, adventures, and retreats.