Downhill mountain biking is awesome! I'm just saying that in case you are thinking of trying it. I went to Panorama "Ski" Resort in British Columbia a few times and really enjoyed it. You buy a lift ticket, go to the chair lift, lifties help you load your bike onto the chair lift and remove your bike at the top, then you get to bike down and do it again! I do not really enjoy x-country biking (call me lazy) but really enjoyed down hill biking.
I used my Kona Dawg bike which is full suspension and worked great. I can't imagine not having full suspension for downhill. I bought a full face helmet, shin and elbow guards. I use shin pads often when I'm x-country biking since I'm a clutz and bruise my legs lots (yes I don't love x-country biking but still enjoy it as a way of getting outside).
I did mostly green bike trails with a few blue. Bike trails are marked the same way downhill skiing is with green being easiest, blue moderate and black difficult. I saw deer and a grizzly while biking! Keep your eyes ahead on the trail and not just down! The person I was with almost ran into the grizzly on his bike and managed to stop, tell me to stop and we walked our bikes to a clearing and just road directly down not on a tail (little freaked out). The grizzly seemed just as startled and continued on its way but of course the grizzly went directly down the bike path which is why we got off it.
Hope to check out some other places if anyone has recommendations, I'm likely a beginner for a while...maybe not though :).
