Snowboard Shuttling Up a Mountain

For a lot of snowboarders, riding is looking for the freshest, deepest snow and finding a way down it. While resort riding has it's obvious perks, fresh lines everywhere isn't one of them. Well it's 4 days after a good snowfall and Whistler Blackcomb is pretty tracked out. Fortunately my friends Alex & Brent bought snowmobiles this year. Typically the learning curve on riding them in powder is steep, so for the first half of the year they've been getting accustomed to the machines and the terrain. If you don't know, the area around Whistler is a snowmobilers heaven with access to more terrain than you could ever hope to ride.

As a snowboarder, my thought around snowmobiles is 'how do we use these to ride better terrain?' If you can't access the areas to then snowboard down them, what is the point?

Well, there is an area south of Whistler which has long been popular with people shuttling up riders on their snowmobiles. For all of us this would be our first time shuttling, and with limited snowmobile experience all round, including Caspian's first time on one (he wouldn't be driving), this might get interesting. More generally: what is the feasibility of shuttling with sleds? is it worth it?

If this trip was anything to go by, the answer would most definitely be 'yes'. Top of the run was pretty nasty; wind blown hard crust with undulating features. Once we dropped down into the bowl the ground turned into a fluffy pillow. Some of the best and deepest turns of the year, with lots of pillows and drops around to keep the more advanced rider interested. The whole run was about the length of a long chairlift with minimal need for navigating due to the terrain all funnelling to the same end point more or less. The worst thing about it, was that it was so over so quick.

As the area is popular with other users the shuttling track for the snowmobiles is pretty worn in. There were a few steep sections that required some commitment but otherwise much easier than we had expected. Some of the usual things happened; flipped the sleds a couple times, overheated, but overall a pretty smooth running operation.

Obviously snowmobiles aren't cheap, and while cat skiing and heli skiing offer a lot of vertical, and split boarding gives a lot of the solitude, there is something about the freedom of heading up with your friends and planning the whole day and getting to ride what you want, which has shown me why more people are starting to do this.

What's your opinion on shuttling with snowmobiles? Have you ever tried this before? Would love to hear your feedback.

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