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Harnessing the Winter Winds
Snowkiting Soars on the Camas Prairie

By Greg Moore
Photos by Adam Majors

Until recently, few people would have believed the Camas Prairie, 50 miles southwest of the Wood River Valley, would become a national sports mecca. The pastures and barley fields, the tumbleweeds and the quiet farming town of Fairfield, population 417, seem a world away from the sports buzz of Sun Valley. Pickup trucks down on the prairie carry hay bales, not skis or bikes.

And yet, word has spread: Camas Prairie is one of the top sites in the United States for the emerging sport of snowkiting.

What's snowkiting? It's kiteboarding on snow instead of water. The snowkiter, on a pair of skis or a snowboard, wears a harness attached to a small paraglider-type kite. The kite catches the wind and pulls the skier or boarder across the snow and, if the rider wants, into the air.

Sun Valley native Andrew Monty Goldman first saw snowkiting while engaged in big-mountain free-skiing competitions in Europe and was hooked immediately. The 30-year-old Boise resident now runs a snowkiting school, Snowkite Soldier, on the Camas Prairie, where he says he's reached speeds of about 60 mph and been lifted up to about 300 feet off the snow, staying aloft for a minute or two. "I like the speed. I like the adventure. I like the air' - that's a huge part. I like the sport because it's new - people are out there every day doing things no one has done before."

The Camas Prairie is a draw to snowkiters because the altitude preserves the snowpack throughout the winter over huge, almost treeless expanses with reliable wind and a highway parallel to the prevailing wind. Snowkiters cruise across a mix of public and private land. Goldman says suitable conditions there average about five days a week in the winter.

Local snowkiters, which currently number about 100, had the prairie to themselves for years, but now the word is out. Snowkiters flock to the area from far-flung locales, in particular from places popular for kiteboarding in the summer such as Hood River, Oregon, and the Hawaiian island of Maui. Goldman estimates a thousand or so annual visitors.

Camas Prairie is flanked by hills stretching north into the Soldier Mountains. It's a place where beginners can learn on the flats, then venture into more challenging terrain as they acquire more skills. Ryan Waite, a 31-year-old Boise resident and owner of Idaho Kitesports, teaches kiteboarding in the summer and snowkiting in the winter. He says that when winds are optimum on the prairie, he covers between 50 and 80 miles in a day. "Your kite will take you wherever you want to go," he says. "You have an amazing amount of control. You can always tack into the wind."

Goldman calls his kite a free lift ticket to the hilltops. If a hill's high enough - his minimum for efficiency is about 1,000 vertical feet - he stuffs his kite into a pack when he reaches the top and lets gravity take over as he skis the powder. "You're up there really, really fast, at least as fast as a high-speed quad," he says. "The difference is you're not fighting for tracks. There's first tracks all day."

The most popular launching site is at the western end of the prairie, from the Malcomson snowpark, 21 miles west of Fairfield.

There are also some suitable sites within the Wood River Valley.

"Phantom Hill is the hot spot," says local snowkiter Chris Campbell.

"The sport has definitely taken off around the valley." The Phantom Hill area, about 11 miles north of Ketchum, has open, rolling terrain suitable for beginners, bigger hills along the foot of the Boulder Mountains and some halfpipe-style features. It's best in the spring when the area often gets winds from the south.

Waite and Goldman say people who are already accomplished skiers or boarders can pick up snowkiting with just a half day of instruction. Goldman says an increasing number of the sport's participants are women. "A huge misconception about kiting is that it's an upper-body sport. But you're hooked into a harness - it's very comfortable."

Another concern of those unfamiliar with the sport is that they might lose control and get dragged forever across the snow by the kite. However, every kite-and-harness system has a release device that also collapses the kite. "You can stop the ride whenever you want to," says Goldman. Waite acknowledges that eight or 10 years ago, he would have called the sport extreme, but with advances in equipment, it's become considerably safer. A beginner snowkiter can get set up with a new kite and harness for between $1,000 and $2,000. And, as everyone knows, the wind blows free.

Skis and snowboards work well for snowkiting, though Goldman says boards are better for doing aerial tricks and may have the edge in riding through powder on the flats. "You can make these huge turns into pockets of deep snow," says Goldman. Use whichever you’re familiar with, he advises.

Though snowkiting's a great way to explore new terrain quickly, one rule of the sport is "Don't ride any farther than you're willing to walk back.” Even experts use alpine touring bindings or a split board in case something goes wrong and they have to hoof it.

Snowkiting works well in hilly terrain, but the sport's aficionados say that so far, using a kite to climb serious mountains and ski down them is not very practical, especially in areas with rocks and trees. However, Goldman says, it's not something that can be ruled out. "Who knows?" he asks. "It just takes someone to figure it out."


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