Winter is now upon us, at least in Utah 
, so I got’s questions.
Though I know the lower trails’ll melt off soon enough, I guess it’s time to finally put my 700c to use and do some climbing now that it’s snowing. That’s why I bought it, and sadly, it’s only been on one ride so far :(.
There’s plenty of open roadage right now, but one of the bigger rides I wanted to do is seasonally gated at the top. What I want to know is, what’s the policy is on riding closed roads. Is it frowned upon? I know in the summer I’ve ridden closed roads with no problems (along with other bikers), but I don’t know if that changes when there’s the chance of snow on the road and avalanches and all that…
Thanks!
go for it your on your own - adds to the adventure maybe be aware of any avalanche - either control work or natural avalanches
It is soooo appropriate that aspenmike replies to this question by “Aspen Mike in training” 
Yeah, I just didn’t know if there were any freaky laws or ‘unwritten rules’ against it or something.
Klaas, indeed it is appropriate. Roads like these are part of my training.
The only issue I can see would be if there was avy control work going on - then you’d want to avoid them during the posted closures. But, I know of no gated roads around here that have control work done on them.
The only other reason not to is if the road is groomed for nordic/skating. Usually around here there’s a conspicuous “no bikes” sign in that case.
Go for it. It’s one of the benefits of the cycling sports. 
There’s no skiing in the area, but there is snowmobiling. I’d assume there wouldn’t be any controlled avalanches, but I’m not sure. The road is paved as well, so I don’t think it’d be groomed.
Guess one of these next weeks I’ll go for it and see what happens.
One thing I’ve done when wondering about riding in questionable areas is to consult the local mountain bike forums that cover the regions where I wanted to ride. Like americanforkmtnbiker.com or deseretdirtdownhillers.com (disclaimer: made up, not real).
I didn’t even have to stick my neck out by creating a thread (easier to ask forgiveness than permission and all that). In my case some forum skimming indicated that the community considered it perfectly ok to be riding in those areas. If it’s good enough for the mountain bikers…