The number of travelers planning trips around adventure activities has increased by an estimated 65 percent every year since 2009, according to a report last year from the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Cold winter months only seem to fuel the fire, particularly in the western United States, where travelers are taking up activities like snow kiting and heli-skiing.

Add to that list snow biking. The sport, which requires so-called fat bikes, with wide, low-pressure tires to maneuver over ice and snow, allows tourists relatively easy access to backcountry areas.

Though it has been around for a while, snow biking has increased in popularity in the past few years as companies like Borealis and Surly have begun making new fat bike models.

"Last year, the owners of the Flagstaff Nordic Center bought one bike, to kind of check it out," said Joanne Hudson of the Flagstaff, Ariz., Convention and Visitors Bureau. "This year, they bought a fleet of 24."

Winter bike races are also popping up in the West, Hudson said, another indicator of the sport's growing popularity. There are also several such races in Minnesota, including the Arrowhead 135 and the Fatbike Frozen 40.

New York Times