Event co-host Scott ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald has a post (with 8 photos) on his Fitzgerald’s Bicycles blog titled Fat Bike Summit 2013 – It’s a wrap!
Wow. Over the years, I’ve been involved with countless events at every level from sponsor to organizer but this year’s Fat Bike Summit and Festival was the most comprehensive event we have been at the head of. After months of conference calls, spreadsheets, emails, and brainstorm sessions, I finally found myself in the van driving up to Island Park Thursday night. At that point, my hope was that everything was simply on cruise control. (continued)
And blogger Dave Chenault has a post (with 6 photos) about the Summit on his Bedrock & Paradox blog:
I was on the fence about hauling down to the summit until Casey made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: a free ride and good companionship. I left town after work on Wednesday and did what has become all too rare lately, made a relaxed multi-hour drive away…
The whole weekend was very well organized, but the rapid-fire presentations Friday morning were the best. I’ll just say that in the world of mental health conference presentees don’t stick to their time slots very well, so this was a pleasant contrast.
Fatbike access, at least over snow, is a curious creature. Once the snow piles up fatbike are truncated to well-packed surfaces, which under all but extraordinary conditions means snowmachine trails or trails groomed for skate skiing. Fat bikes are thus beholden to potentially hostile user groups, until more places gain a critical mass of bikers and start bike-specific grooming programs. There seems to be three primary concerns here, each given over to a certain user group. Land and ski area managers worry about safety, snowmachiners worry about cost sharing (their registration often pays for the grooming), and skiers worry about fatbikes rutting up their trails. The summit organizers had compelling answers to all of these. (continued)
Global Fat Bike Summit 