Joshua Herrera doesn’t appear comfortable.
The 11-year-old white-knuckles a safety bar as a carpet begins sliding beneath his skis; wobbling sticks attached to unwieldy boots he’s never before worn.
But within an hour with instructor Branden Burden, Joshua is carving across the rolling slope, his head up, hands in front and a giant grin showing a mouthful of braces.
“He got it pretty quick,” said Sadler Merrill, the 42-year-old entrepreneur who is bringing European-style indoor skiing to the Front Range with Snobahn, set to open Friday at the Streets at SouthGlenn in Centennial.
“I didn’t think it would be like this,” Joshua said, admitting he wasn’t sure what to expect when he showed up Monday morning to try skiing for the first time. “I didn’t really know how we would ski. I didn’t think there would be snow. But I kind of thought I’d just start at the top of a hill or something.”
The ramps at Snobahn, made by Maxx Tracks in The Netherlands, can be adjusted to as steep as 20 degrees with plush plastic carpets rolling up hill as fast as 18 mph. There are 150 facilities worldwide outfitted with the rolling ramps that approximate skiing, but only two in the U.S. The other is in Florida.
Unlike indoor ski ramps, like those at Boulder’s Shredder gym, Thornton’s Progresh or Copper Mountain’s Woodward action sports training facility, there’s no hiking up the stairs for another run at Snobahn. The run lasts as long as long as leg muscles can withstand.
Merrill’s Snobahn hopes to spawn the birth of indoor skiing in the U.S. You can surf inside. Millions of rock climbers flock to indoor gyms. You can even skydive inside.
It’s time for skiing to move indoors, Merrill said.
Not as an alternative to riding mountains, of course. Merrill hopes Snobahn — with three ramps that can each accommodate three skiers or snowboarders at a time — will become both a teaching and training tool.
For first-timers, a half-hour of skiing at Snobahn can equal a day on the slopes.
Think of all the reasons a person who has never skied avoids taking a trip to a ski resort for a day, Merrill said. It’s costly, challenging, crowded, unfamiliar and awkward.
“This can take all those intimidating factors out of the equation,” said Merrill, a former member of the CU freestyle ski team who says he tapped mostly friends and family to fund his Snobahn dream.
Snobahn is an easy transition for first-timers to learn the basics of skiing. Outfitted with new Salomon skis, snowboards and boots, and POC helmets, never-evers can find their ski legs. After a visit to Snobahn, maybe a trip to the ski area isn’t so scary anymore.
“This will be a bridge to the great outdoors and it makes skiing more approachable,” said pro skier Chris Anthony, who enlisted Herrera as part of his non-profit Youth Initiative Project, which aims to improve the lifestyles and educational opportunities of students by introducing them to outdoor sports like skiing.
Merrill plans to introduce Snobahn facilities in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles soon. Those gateway training centers could spur more Snobahns across the West and Midwest.
But it’s not just about teaching first-timers. Several international ski teams use Maxx Tracks slopes for training. Merrill expects ski clubs and ski racers to grab slope time in the fall as a way to prep for early-season training.
With big name ski racers like Bode Miller and Erik Schlopy on board as consultants, Merrill hopes to establish a video system that enables athletes to train alongside rolling clips of pros on the same slope.
He envisions a custom bootfitter setting up shop in the Snobahn retail space, a hip stone-and-timber room with a full bar designed to feel like a modern European ski lodge. A bootfitter could dial in a customer’s fit after brief sessions on the ramps. A meeting space can host events like birthday parties or corporate retreats.
He’s got 21 employees on staff right now and that number could double if demand mirrors what happened when the Maxx Tracks-equipped WinterClub Indoor Ski & Snowboard opened last year in Winter Park, Fla. — the ramps were quickly booked weeks out.
Sessions run $40 an hour for adults and $35 for kids, with prices dropping for 12-packs and season passes. A typical visit includes three 10-minute sessions on the three-at-a-time ramp with an instructor, rotating with another three-skier group.
Joshua, who plans to attend Grant Middle School next year, is ready for his first trip to the snowy mountains.
“I don’t think I will fall that much after this,” he said, revealing those braces yet again. “That was really fun.”
