New sport of snowkiting sees surge in popularity

Imagine yourself at the base of a mountain looking up at a powder field that stretches to the peak of the 8,000-footer you want to summit. But instead of snowshoeing up this monster, you’re going to fly. As you strap on your snowboard (or skis) you grab a hold of a bar that is attached to a 100-foot line, which is then attached to a kite the size of a parachute. You pull the kite into a draft of sky-bound wind and steadily begin to glide uphill.

This is the scene that snowkiting, an up-and-coming sport in Montana, can offer any snow-lover who doesn’t want to hike for their backcountry lines.

“If you know how to ski or snowboard, it makes it a pretty smooth transition. It’s like the ultimate crossover sport,” said Joel Beatty, co-owner of Montana Kite Sports.

Snowkiting is an outdoor winter sport using a board or skis propelled by a giant kite in the shape of an airplane wing. It uses the techniques of sailing in order to propel you, and your skis or snowboard, uphill. It is an off-branch of a greater kiteboarding community that involves people attaching kites to their surfboards, mountainboards and wakeboards.

“There is something about it that appeals to people in those sports,” Beatty said. “A lot of kiteboarders seem to have some sort of background in those sports, but kiteboarding is the common ground.”

Bozeman snowkiter Noah Poritz flew stunt kites for a number of years before getting into snowkiting. He once covered over 90 miles in one day, with 15 to 25 miles of constant movement while doing freestyle tricks.

“The 3-dimensional part of it is what I call insane. You can fly up a mountain, or turn it off and just ski down the mountain or turn the power on and ski down the mountain really fast. And then there are the freestyle aspects of it. You can spend the day using the terrain and never realize how far you’ve gone,” he said. “Generally, you are riding in untracked snow all day long. And the other part is there is no waiting around. You hook on to the kite and it’s on all day long, as long as you can stand. There is no chair lift lines, no waiting around and also a lot of solitude.”

When Beatty got into kiteboarding about five years ago, he was attracted to snowkiting because of the endless possibilities offered in Montana.

“Snowkiting is kind of its own sport now – it’s trying to define itself still,” he said. “It takes a few years to learn but you start to see terrain in a different way. You start to see the possibilities out there. Montana especially is just made for snowkiting.”

The history of snowkiting can be traced back to the invention of the foil kite.

The foil kite is preferred by snowkiters because its airfoil shape (just like an airplane wing) uses wind to inflate the cloth kite and produce more lift, turn and pull. By attaching a line with a bar, the rider can control the directional movement of the kite. Even with just a slight breeze, snowkiters can use technique to propel themselves uphill or across a powder meadow by using a birdlike, figure eight weave of the wing to create resistance.

Snowkiting has been around since the early 1980s, but began to be seen in Montana about 12 years ago, Beatty said. But it was mostly an unheard of sport with a few die-hard followers.

One of those followers was Keith Kallio. Kallio, a native Montanan who died in 2006, was the founder of Montana Kite Sports and taught the three current MKS co-owners how to snowkite and kiteboard.

“Just to keep the sport of kiteboarding going, Keith established a community of kiteboarders here. He took a non-existent sport and he put it on the map – in Montana at least,” Beatty said.

When MKS was started in 2001, there were only a handful of kiteboarders and snowkiters in Montana. Beatty estimates the kiteboarding community has grown to over 150 active members.

“It’s hard to keep track of because it’s growing so fast,” he said.