Flying down the mountain on 2 inches of fresh powder, we hit a bump and lift off – one, two, three – catching air.

Bend after bend, we drop into one blue run or another, passing slower skiers and snowboarders. Suddenly the village of Mount Crested Butte is splayed below us. We dig in the edges of our skis ever so slightly and come to a sliding stop, small rooster tails of snow spraying ahead of us. “Yeah!” I shout, grinning wildly.

Zipping down the slopes on a snow bike is a blast. We’d come to Crested Butte the day before Thanksgiving to snowboard on opening day. We stayed for the fresh powder and to see what else the mountain had to offer.

Testing our skills at snow biking seemed a no-brainer: We love mountain biking and we love snow; what’s not to love about mixing the two? It’s every bit as fun as it sounds. Snow bikes resemble small BMX frames with short skis in place of wheels. The skis, with tips and edges, can be turned independently (the front ski responding to a twist of the handlebars, the back by a twist, or shift, of your hips). You either rest your feet on pegs instead of pedals or strap mini skis to your boots to amplify your ability to quickly turn or stop. At the Butte, we rode pegless bikes, our snowboard boots bound to mini skis.

“It’s like you’re Fred Flintstone, using your feet to move across the flats and digging your heels in to stop,” our instructor, Shawn McKeag, said as we crab-walked forward in the lift line.

It didn’t take long to get the hang of turning and stopping the snow bike, and that’s a huge draw for first-timers, McKeag said. “I can get people riding down from the top of the mountain in a couple of hours. It takes most people a few days to do that on skis or a snowboard.”

The bikes offer people who do not ski or snowboard a chance to experience the thrill of bombing down the mountainside, to capture a bit of the magic, a bit of the adrenaline rush, that their family members and friends feel skiing and riding. The bikes also give people with disabilities and those trying to preserve old bones and ligaments access to slopes they may have enjoyed for decades but thought they were forced to give up.

Snow bikes, also called skibobs, have lingered on the fringes of ski culture for decades. They date to 19th-century Europe, according to the Canadian and American ski bike associations. The first American version was patented in 1892. In 1949, Austrian Engelbert Brenter won a patent for his Sit-Ski, which employed skis and a suspension system.

Ski biking grew in Europe through the 1970s, at one time supporting 70 manufacturers. The bikes’ pop culture zenith came in 1965 when The Beatles played around on ski bikes in a scene in the movie “Help!” Yet they’ve never really caught on.

In the lift line and atop the mountain, our “biker gang” of three gets a lot of stares. “What is that?” people ask, again and again.

Two snowboarders look me over.

“What is that thing?” asks Zach Williams, 12. His dad, Mark, glides over. “Is it hard to ride?”

We discuss the merits of snow bikes for a moment. Zach wants to ride, Mark is unconvinced.

“Can you do tricks?” Zach asks. A quick check of YouTube reveals riders taking snow bikes into terrain parks, landing flips just like at a skatepark or BMX track. Some ski areas allow snow bikes in their terrain parks, but most restrict the bikes to green and blue runs.

McKeag is a downhill biker who pushes the limits of the snow bikes as he explores the mountain. “You can’t ride the blacks,” he says of Crested Butte’s mountain runs. “Well, it’s not that you can’t ride them, you just aren’t allowed to.”

Romuald Bonvin, a speed ski biker, was clocked at 135 mph on a modified snow bike. The bikes’ limits seem limited only by a rider’s patience and hours devoted to practice.

I can’t imagine giving up snowboarding in favor of snow biking, but riding a bike provides a fun change of pace on a multiday ski trip. At the top of another chairlift, we head toward a run that’s just opened. Fresh snow awaits. McKeag rips down the hill ahead of us, blasting into pockets of deeper powder.

I look up and he’s facing me, grinning, gliding backward. With a twist of his handlebars and a shift of his hips, he’s facing downhill. He motions for us to follow and leans into the hillside, picking up speed. In seconds we’re flying across the snow faster than I ever did in my first year of snowboarding, whooping with joy.

Sean Holveck of OutThereColorado.com rides a snow bike at Crested Butte.

Dena Rosenberry, editor of OutThereColorado.com tears up the mountain on a snow bike at Crested Butte.

Sean Holveck

Snow bike instructor Shawn McKeag demonstrates how to ride a snow bike at Crested Butte.

Sean Holveck