The ski bike yields hours of fun at Lolo Pass

Missoula resident Matt McGrath launches into the air on his homemade skibike on Friday at Lolo Pass in Idaho. McGrath, a bicycle and ski mechanic, spends equal time building and testing his skibike throughout the season in and around western Montana with friends. Photo by Arthur Mouratidis

Johnny Stackhouse, from Missoula, takes a moment to collect his thoughts after sinking deep into fresh powder at Lolo Pass in Idaho on Friday. Stackhouse joined friends in building a kicker and jumping from it with a skibike built by local bike mechanic Matt McGrath. Snow conditions were impressive on December 18th at the pass with lots of deep powder. Photo by Arthur Mouratidis

These photos were snapped by my friend and coworker Arthur Mouratidis last Friday when he went with several buddies to Lolo Pass. Snow was “light powder and tons of it,” he reports back. This, of course, was before the weekend rain showers. Let’s hope rain in the valley meant snow on the pass.

They rebuilt a kicker that they constructed earlier last week, boarding and bike skiing. Now, this is a fairly new sport to this reporter.But Arthur says that his buddy Matt, seen in the top photo, spends quality time building and testing his ski bike. It’s made from an old Trek frame and uses hardware made by a friend who’s a welder, he said. After finding that skis kept breaking, Matt switched to a modified snowboard, which apparently worked great last week.

Chelsi Moy