Sno Park Comedy

[No Name Guy]

So, the SO and I went to one of the local Sno Parks over the weekend.  Our chosen winter sports are cross country skiing and snow shoeing, probably amongst the more mustachian of the winter sports (a season pass to the Sno Park cross country & snowshoe trails is less than a single lift ticket for down hill skiing for example, classic fish scale cross country ski set up is a fraction of down hill ski gear....and I'm still using the set I bought ~10 years ago, etc).

This particular sno park is a dual access one - there are both X-country / snowshoe and snowmobile trails out of this area.  After a short ski up a dual side access (one side for moto, the other for human powered) it's onto the non-moto only trail for some nice freshly groomed set tracks.  Anyways.... a quick count of the sled set ups across from those of us parked near the ski trail was 21 rigs.  There were more in the "back" part of the parking area.  I'd guess a total of 30 or so snowmobile rigs out there.

So, the typical set up was this:  Large 4x4, extended cab truck.  Large dual axle enclosed snowmobile trailer, minimum of 4 sled capacity, some with room for 6.  Of the groups hanging out in the lot, it seemed like most of the big trailers had 4 sleds in them, some more.  At a minimum, each of these set ups were 50k.  I'd guess many were north of 100k for the set up (~7-15k / snowmobile, trailers 5-15k, and then the truck....40-60k price point seemed typical).  My cross country ski set up (skis, bindings, boots and poles) was only a few hundred back in the day.

The most "frugal" I saw was a guy in an Nissan XTerra with a single axle, open trailer and 2 sleds.  The vehicle seemed pretty "normal" up in the mountains around here in winter.  I'm guessing the pair of sleds & trailer were fit to the tow vehicle capability, rather than the other way around as I'd suppose on some of the other larger trailers up there.

Each trip up to the pass from the Seattle area (or more likely from points east) in one of those monster rigs was prob 15-20 gallons of fuel, plus more for the sleds.  It cost us perhaps 5 gallons to round trip in the smaller, non-trailer towing vehicle we took.

I find it amazing the level of capital equipment & ongoing expense required for a hobby / sport that only can be pursued for ~4 months out of the year.

To each their own I suppose.....

[gimp]

Money can't buy happiness, but I've never seen anyone crying while riding a snowmobile.

Except the skiers who broke their hand and are getting snowmobiled back to base, I suppose.

[honeybbq]

Yeah, but snowmobiling is really fun!

Signed,

a downhill skier

[bacchi]

Money can't buy happiness, but I've never seen anyone crying while riding a snowmobile.

Except the skiers who broke their hand and are getting snowmobiled back to base, I suppose.

They do cough a lot when waiting in line.

[gimp]

Yeah, but snowmobiling is really fun!

Signed,

a downhill skier

Real men ski uphill.

[scottish]

Both ways...

[Prairie Stash]

Not everybody lives near a lake and can have a boat. Have pity for the landlocked!

[I'm a red panda]

We didn't get enough snow last year to XC ski, and I'm worried we won't this year either. We get huge dumps of it- but then it warms up just enough to not stick around :(

Thankfully, the XC trails around here don't also have snowmobiling. I'd think it would scare the wildlife away.  And our trails are all free to use :)

[Metric Mouse]

Not everybody lives near a lake and can have a boat. Have pity for the landlocked!

I laughed way too hard at this. :D

[nereo]

I've been shocked at the snowmobile culture here in Quebec - like how No Name Guy described, but often there will be literally hundreds of rigs parked at trail access points.  There's a Polaris dealership that runs commercials that put most car lots to shame (financing, no down payment, all the 'buy-on-debt' tricks in full swing).

What irks me is how many will describe themselves as 'outdoorsmen' because they ride around on 2-cycle powered beasts at high speeds through the woods with heated suits and radios blaring. The idea seems to be to have as little actual contact with nature while driving over top of it.  There was actually a story on CBC recently about how out-of-bounds snowmobilers are destroying the flora within a large designated reserve. The article estimated that they'd see over 1,500 snowmobilers in a 3 month period.

Money can't buy happiness, but I've never seen anyone crying while riding a snowmobile.

snowmobile deaths outnumber murders and homicides here by a wide margin, and the hospitals see dozens of accidents each weekend.  But yeah, it's fun until someone spins out of control.

[No Name Guy]

snowmobile deaths outnumber murders and homicides here by a wide margin, and the hospitals see dozens of accidents each weekend.  But yeah, it's fun until someone spins out of control.

Backcountry skiers see this as well, but.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u4CR_i6pg4

Dude is lucky to be alive.