Results

This last weekend Team Summit made the trip from the Sierra’s to the Rockies for some real riding. Team Boondockers lead by Dan Gardiner, Phatty and Ryan Nelson showed them why Utah has the greatest snow on earth. I was able to spend one day with the entire group of 15+ riders and get to ride with some friends from Team Summit for the first time.

What a great bunch of guys. Everyone was there for one purpose and that was to see if Oberti could side hill. Actually no it was to just have fun, but we did find out that Oberti can ride, maybe it is his new sled or new sense of desire not to total this one, but he sure turned some heads. Smasher showed us he can side hill with the best of them and hopefully soon Smasher and Gardiner get the opportunity to duel it out. Jesse and Shane laid it all out on the line hitting some sick drops. Billy Goat even showed us how crazy he is as he climbed some sick shoots and showing us all up. Luckily we with the help of King and Gardiner they were all captured on film.

It was a great ride and I hope to be able to ride with them again. Everyone really made it worth it. Thanks to the entire Team Summit Crew for taking the trip out.

Wow, this winter sure has had its ups and downs thats for sure. Snow started a little late, but I was able to get a couple of rides in early. Unfortunately even though the snow was great I had problems of a different kind. Worked for months on both sleds, an 05 900 RMK and an 05 M7. Thought I had all the problems taken care off and even improved each sled slightly. It sure was a kick in the pants when things didn’t turn out like I wanted.

So I’ll let you in on my little winter roller coaster. First off the M7’s first ride was cut short about 2 miles from the truck as exhaust valve solenoid gave out. So while that was in the shop getting fixed I took the 9 out for its maiden voyage this year. That turned out to be worse than the M7’s run. Ended up taking the motor. Now I’m sitting waiting for some additional parts for the M7 to make it the sled I want and waiting for Polaris to stand behind their warranty and cover my sled that went down because of a bolt that was stripped in the crankcase.

Did that stop me from riding. I don’t think so, always have a Plan C if needs be. Luckily I’m able to be able to still be riding an 08 M8 that I have access too. I’ve been able to ride in new areas, with new people and go big. Even found some great gaps and cliffs that will be calling my name once the M7 is up for the challenge.

Its always a fathers dream to have one of his boys follow in his footsteps. I was able to take my boy on his first real ride. Boy did he have some fun. It was of course an easy ride, but one of the more fun rides I’ve been on in a while.

The little guy really held up to all the elements. It was cold and snowing, but that didn’t phase him. He just kept wanting to play in the snow. He really enjoyed getting people unstuck using dad’s shovel. He was able to experience all the joys of sledding on in one ride. It won’t be long before he is pushing his dad to be better.

All true riders have at least felt the urger to get out there and ride there sleds this year. I’ve been having this urger for about three weeks now. There was a huge storm that allowed some individuals just two hours north of me. I just about made the trip at that point, but decided to hold off and wait for another storm. Unfortunately there wasn’t another storm for quite a while and so I never hit the hill.

I just couldn’t stand it anymore I had to get on the snow. I’ve been working on an 05 M7 that I’ll be using for more of a free style sled this year. It needed a lot of work to get back into running condition and I was ready to finally test it out. Saturday I made the trip to Togwotee, WY to feed the need to ride. When we got there the snow was even better than I expected and we were able to play for a good 4+ hours in powder even.

However there was downside to the trip. Even after all the work I’ve put into the M7 it still will not rev over 5600 rpms. After messing with the sled for about an hour on the hill I ended up taking it back to the trailer and doubling up with a buddy. The good thing is I was able to find out the problem before the good snow got here, but it was a pain not being able to ride my own sled saturday.

Last year was a great year for snow, downside is we didn’t pull the camera out enough. Too busy enjoying the snow. I’ve taken what video we did gather and put together. I did this mainly for those of us in the video, but know that others would enjoy. We had some problems with the video camera throughout the year with either the battery dying early or it not recording or if it did record it had a dirty head so the recording was pretty crappy.

[vimeo 2033928 506 316]

I probably spent a total of 40hrs on the video over the course of the past three months. Hope you enjoy.

Too often we take things for granted these days. For instance how many times do you hear someone in California say they have never been through the Red Wood Forests or Yosemite National Park? How many people live in Utah and never been to the Arches, or Grand Canyon. One thing I’ve heard throughout my life is people saying that they have never been through Yellowstone National Park. I’ve heard this out of the mouths of people that have lived in West Yellowstone, MT. Its literally their back yard and they never taken the opportunity to go thru the park. Why is that?

Is it because the appeal of visiting the park isn’t there because it doesn’t take hours, or days to travel to it? Does it seem like an every day aspect of their life that there is no curiosity any more? I’m sure it is different for everyone. I bring this up because I was born an raised near Idaho Falls, ID only 2 hrs from the park. My family has owned a cabin in Island Park, Idaho since I was 5, only 20 mins from the West Entrance. We spent weeks there during the winter and rarely visited the park. I can barely remember the last time I went thru the park with my parents. However, I have very fond memories of the park during the time I worked in the park and in West Yellowstone.

This last Labor Day weekend I decided that since we were at our family’s cabin I would take the opportunity to take my 3 year old thru the park as well as my 1 year old, but he won’t remember much. It was such a great experience that we have decided to try and make it thru the park at least once a year. It is only 2 hrs away so this can be accomplished in just a day if needs be.

I have gone thru the park on several occasions, but in the summer and winter time. It had been a long time since I had gone thru the park for pleasure rather than work, which made it much more enjoyable than I expected. Its always exciting to see some of the large game in their natural habitat. The adrenaline that starts pumping as you snap a picture of a 6 point Bull Elk at 25 yards will always be a great experience no matter how many times I get that opportunity.

The next adventure once the kids get a little old will be give them the experience of visit the park in the Winter. It is an experience that if you have not yet had the opportunity to do so, you better take it at least once. Especially those individuals that are close to the park. I will admit for an extreme backcountry rider that I am, I don’t look forward to the ride, but there are very few places where you can get that close to the animals in the winter. Its worth at least one trip into the park during the winter, and if you have more than one day you can always take the opportunity to ride the thousands miles of trails outside the park or endless backcountry riding of the west.