A skier’s nightmare is a fatbiker’s dream.

Most skiers and snowboarders loathe wet, heavy snow, but those are ideal conditions for fatbiking.

“A little bit of rain and a little bit of wet snow is wonderful,” said John Molloy, a lead volunteer groomer for the Central Oregon Trail Alliance. “Or even just 36, 37 degrees, allows us to pack it down and make it more firm.”

The past few days have made for prime grooming and riding on the fatbike trail network at Wanoga Sno-park southwest of Bend, which includes about 10 miles of packed singletrack groomed Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays by COTA.

Designed for packed snow

Fatbikes typically perform better on packed-down snow than on several inches of fresh powder. The bikes’ wider tires (3.8 to 5 inches wide versus 2.25 inches for standard mountain bike tires) allow for better traction in snow or sand. Central Oregonians primarily use them for riding in the snow.

Wednesday was the first day this winter that COTA was able to groom the trails. About 2 feet of snow is required to begin grooming the singletrack fatbike trails at Wanoga. The past nine years, Gary Meyer, COTA’s winter steward, has groomed trails from the sno-park with a rolling groomer pulled by a snowmobile. Via a permit from the Deschutes National Forest, COTA is allowed to groom the trails each winter from Jan. 1 until there is not enough snow to groom.

Meissner Sno-park ‘set for the winter’ after major storm

Meyer is taking this winter off and Molloy is leading the Wanoga grooming duties. When more than a foot of snow fell this past weekend with temperatures in the single digits, the snow was too light and dry for grooming and riding.

“If you tried to bike it you would sink into it,” Molloy said. “We go out with a snowmobile with no grooming implements and just lay down the track. Just take the machines out first and run them along the loops. Then we go back and pull the implements and groom it.”

Fatbikes are capable of ripping through about 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow. Anything deeper than that becomes extremely difficult, according to Meyer. Groomed trails give fatbike riders a firmer surface to avoid sinking into the snow. Tire pressure can be as low as 5 or 6 pounds per square inch on fatbikes — mountain bikes are usually between 30 and 50 PSI — to provide even more traction on challenging terrain.

Variety of options

The fatbike trails at Wanoga start across the parking lot from the sledding hill. Outer Loop is 6 miles, 3 PSI is 3 miles and Bootlegger is about half a mile. An adaptive athlete ramp is located near the start of the trails in the parking lot, and the ramp is groomed and plowed.

“So if someone comes on a sit-ski or an adaptive fatbike, they’re able to get through there without navigating a huge berm,” Molloy said.

Get outfitted for winter mountain biking

Fatbikes are also allowed on snowshoe trails and groomed snowmobile trails in Central Oregon, but they are prohibited at Nordic ski areas such as Virginia Meissner Sno-park and the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center.

Snowshoe loops at Swampy Lakes Sno-park and near Todd Lake are popular among fatbikers. Sometimes the cyclists themselves will snowshoe to pack the trails down for fatbiking.

Fatbikers can find other places to ride throughout the winter. In the right conditions, they can ride the regular mountain bike trails just west of Bend.

“If it’s 3 inches of new snow, it’s going to be difficult to ride any bike through,” Meyer explained. “But once you start to get that 3 inches compressed a bit, then the fatbike excels and you can float on top of the snow. A skinnier tire would continue to dig a rut in it.”

Fatbikers often report trail conditions on Bendtrails.org and on the Central Oregon Fatbikes Facebook page.

Many options exist for fatbikers, but Molloy said he prefers the Wanoga trails: “It’s packed snow, you’re really the only ones out there, you can take a dog if you want. It’s just really nice.”