I got offered a free snowmobile tour and having yet never been on a snowmobile I was totally amped to finally get the chance. Before you read on and think this was a snowboard snowmobile tour…it wasn’t. It was just snowmobiling without any riding. But it was awesome to check out terrain that definitely is accessible to ride as long as you have a snowmobile.
The tour was with High Mountain Snowmobile Tours based here in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Basically they offer this tour up in North Routt in the Zirkels.
It was supposed to be a 2 hour today, but ours ran close to 3 hours which was really awesome of the guide to give us such a long tour plus a ton of terrain that we covered.
I was a bit nervous about snowmobiling and not getting stuck on it. But man once I got on it…I was in heaven, I wanted to go faster and make turns in powder. In fact I kept saying can we go faster…but I was in the rear so I had to follow the speed of those in front. There were only 2 of us on the tour plus the guide.
Being out in the Zirkels…there’s just some awesome scenery to check out. It was a sunny bluebird day and man, the snow was glistening and it was so peaceful except for me revving my snowmobile to go faster.
The terrain was amazing…I wish I had my board to enjoy the fresh powder that was out there. Untouched fresh deep powder.
Sarah got this shot of me on the snowmobile, decked out in my snowboard gear and face mask to stay warm. Really I should just invest in a snowmobile because of this shot…it just looks good. You can see the snow on the side of the trails is up to the knees easily. We stayed on the trail for the first part of the tour so we didn’t have to deal with stuck snowmobiles in waist deep snow.
The best parts were when I could really go fast with it.
Sarah totally a natural on a snowmobile
Finally my favorite part of the day when we got to the meadows…aka a big open field of powder where I could go as fast as I wanted, get face shots in the powder on a snowmobile and freaking love it.
I had the best time just hauling, having so much snow coming over my head and not being able to see at all in front me…but still hauling ass. One thing I always see in snowmobile videos is them making S turns from one side to another…so I tried them and actually got it to happen. But man my adrenaline was pumping and the amount of upper body strength to control a snowmobile definitely surprised me. I was using my body to really lean into turns and get the full snowmobile effect. Sarah got this shot of me coming through the powder.
Coming back totally covered in snow.
Sarah and Shannon at the end of the day
On the last trail, the guide picked an awesome straight away so him and I could just haul ass. I had soo much fun going as fast as possible. It was such a fun experience…totally worth spending the day off the snowboard for the morning and on a snowmobile. Now I just need to combine them and I have everything I could need.
Funny thing is…only in Western Colorado do you see this on the way home.
