Local freestyle mountain bike legend Skye Schillhammer’s heart still belongs to Spokane’s riding community
A little less than a decade ago, Skye Schillhammer arrived in Spokane with hopes of completing his college degree. A novice mountain biker at the time, little did he know that the two-wheeled journey lying ahead of him would actually keep him here much longer – and ultimately send him to heights beyond Spokane.
“By the time I graduated, I had fallen in love with mountain biking and I couldn’t really see myself doing anything outside the industry, so I went full time at the Bikehub, a shop that I’d worked at seasonally while in school,” said Schillhammer. “People would ask me why I was still in Spokane, as it’s not seen as a mountain bike mecca, and I would tell them it was the people. The riders in Spokane were more open to new people (me being one of them) than any other place I had ridden,” he added.
Not long after, Schillhammer received his first major sponsorship with Transition Bikes, a Bellingham based bike manufacturer. He slowly started climbing his way to the top of the local freestyle scene, routinely launching huge aerial maneuvers with ease at Spokane’s Beacon Hill bike park.
Schillhammer’s fondness for Beacon’s trails and his iconic status amongst the area’s local riders made him a perfect fit as Beacon Hill’s trail boss, a position appointed to him by Evergreen East, a local non-profit group that seeks to further mountain bike opportunities in Eastern Washington.
“As Trail Boss for Evergreen, I spent two years looking over Beacon, fostering positive trail development for the hill. We organized volunteer days, worked on building new trails, re-routing old trails, and general cleanup,” Schillhammer said.
“Now Beacon is really going off, and I hear people from all over the PNW and British Columbia raving about it. That shows how even just a small group of good people can change a riding area in a small time. It won’t be long until Spokane is a destination every mountain biker knows about and travels to,” he added.
While Schillhammer has enjoyed every minute spent on his bikes, it’s the times spent with a shovel in-hand that have really taught him to appreciate this journey.
“I’ve become totally hooked on trail building. It’s something I can do daily, before or after work to get a good workout, or just to spend time outdoors.”
But “riding” as he calls it, is still the big hook that continues to drive him down this chosen path.
“Riding has many different facets that keep me hooked,” Schillhammer explained. “Sometimes it brings me to amazingly beautiful and peaceful locations that are simply breathtaking. Other times it’s highly intense and your adrenaline is pumping so hard that your surroundings completely disappear. Another side is the social aspect. Many of my best friends I met because of riding.”
About the time Schillhammer was thinking he’d ridden out this bike thing as far as it would go, opportunity came knocking once more.
“After working in sales at the Bikehub, I transitioned into their marketing department, making videos and managing the brands imagery,” he said. “My work quickly gained attention and I was also doing many side projects outside the bike shop. Then one day I was approached by Transition Bikes, whom I was still an athlete for. Now I manage their imagery, and will be producing videos for them in Bellingham, right in the heart of the PNW mountain bike scene.”
As for his thoughts on where mountain biking is headed here in the northwest?
“Mountain biking has become main stream,” Schillhammer admitted. “What was once an obscure sport that the average person didn’t do, has become something families do, and kids might choose to participate in instead of team sports.
“I’ve witnessed such an explosion of legal riding areas and rider support all across the Northwest – it’s just so cool to see. I’m just happy I got to play a small part in helping this sport grow here in Spokane.”