Here are a few tips on how to ride for free. One is to ride the free lift (which is usually just a beginner trail & I talked about that earlier), there are days or nights that certain resorts offer a free day (usually for locals or other stipulations), but my favorite free way is hiking. If you’re a little more aggressive of a rider meaning, you’re an intermediate snowboarder or advanced snowboarder strap the board to your backpack and start hiking. Look at weather reports and know what the avalanche danger is. If the danger is high you’ll want to stay on slopes less than 30º or just wait and don’t risk it. When the conditions are good and you feel ready, get out and hike.

I like to hike where there’s a bit of slope. In the backcountry the conditions vary. The snow is usually powdery and you’ll need more momentum to plow through fluffy white. Groomers pack the snow down in the resorts and make the trails fast. There are pros and cons to hiking. Hours of hiking could lead to just one run depending on how fast you hike and how fast you ride. The best thing is that you’ll be out in the serene mountains with some of the best snow to be had.

There are ways to get out there and to enjoy the sport for free. Hiking allows you to go big without going big on your pocketbook. Make sure to bring some food and plenty of liquids just to be prepared. It is also advised to always go with a partner and to have safety equipment like backpack, shovel, probe and peeps.

A lot of resorts are on National Forest land in the US. Look up the laws in your area. Resorts can also be privately owned land. Veer onto private land at your own risk. Depending on the rights of the land you can hike and use it to snowboard. I do this a lot during the pre/post seasons at resorts that are on a lease with the Forest Service. There’s a lot of snow and it’s public land free for anyone to use. During the season the resort runs the groomers and other equipment so find other places to hike. During the season there’s a lot of other National Forest land I ride. There are a lot of areas like this where you can find backcountry trails to hike. If you’re serious you’ll have a splitboard setup.

Other Info

The slopes are marked with green circle- easy very mild slope. Blue square- intermediate steeper. Black diamond- expert steepest slopes. In Europe it goes Blue- Easy, Red-Intermediate & Black stays as expert. There are double greens, blues and blacks which means more difficult that a single shape (example: double blue is harder than blue but not as difficult as a black). This is a basic description of the trails but, most importantly stay on green terrain when you’re a beginner snowboarder.

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