At Winter Park Resort’s Trestle Bike Park, mountain bikers can explore over 40 miles of dedicated trails. Just like skiing in the winter, biking comes with inherent risk, and accidents do happen, so the resort has a team of bike patrollers to lend a hand when bikers need help.

The bike patrol team this year consists entirely of people who do ski patrol at the resort in the winter, according to Winter Park Spokesperson Jen Miller. She said that is not always the case, but ski patrollers staffing bike patrol comes with the added benefit that they have at least basic medical training.

“They’re not all full EMTs necessarily, but they have first responder training,” Miller said. “That skill transfers from winter to summer, so ski patrol transfers well to bike patrol.”

Miller wrote in an email that employees have served as bike patrollers since Winter Park first put bikes on lifts in the 1990s. She said the program started organically from riders needing support on the mountain and it has grown since its inception, with patrollers getting upgraded and safer equipment throughout the years.

Miller said the Winter Park Bike Patrol, which boasts 25-30 members this year, is the largest in Colorado and one of the largest in the country — which aligns with Trestle’s claim of being the largest full service downhill bike park in the country.

The ski patrol program has around three times as many members as bike patrol, Miller said. Ski patrol also gets volunteers, mostly retired professional ski patrollers, who help on especially busy weekends over the winter. Bike patrol has fewer members because Trestle has less area to cover than Winter Park’s ski operations, Miller said.

“The (bike) trails are pretty defined,” Miller said. “We have 3,081 skiable acres in the winter that need to be patrolled and covered, so it’s just a different level of need in the winter versus the summer.”

Bike patrol, like ski patrol, does more than help injured guests. They perform basic trail maintenance at the start of the day to make sure no fallen trees or other unintended obstacles are blocking trails.

“At the end of the day, they sweep the mountain like they do in the winter, to make sure that everyone is off and that there’s no one who needs extra help getting down,” Miller said.

Riders who need help on the trails can call the same number they would call for ski patrol in the winter — 970-726-1480 — or visit one of the patrol stations at the base of the mountain or at the Sunspot patrol hut at the top of the gondola.

Miller said the resort is grateful to have its bike patrollers keeping Trestle safe for guests.

“They make the enjoyment of being up on the hill — they up that a little bit, just knowing that they’re there,” Miller said.