Santa must have been in an extra good mood the other day. Perhaps Mrs. Santa granted him a night of bliss or something like that, as he seems to have dropped a snowmobile off at our house. It had the key in it so we used the sled today and indeed…
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| … the goods were had. In this turn, Jason was thanking Santa as well as the supreme being, though not necessarily in that order. He and Louie did six muscle powered laps, and Jason still made it to work that afternoon. Yep, thanks. (Zone we accessed on this trip is private land in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, we’ll re-visit some old public land snowmobile accessed haunts and blog them over the next few weeks.) |
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| Okay, it’s a 2008 Yamaha FX Nytro MTX (40th Anniversary Model so it has red accents), 4 stroke, 153 inch track, reverse, electric start. three cylinder fuel injected 1049cc screamer. Amazingly quiet, no 2-cycle exhaust issue, tows anything, scares the heck out of you when you hit the throttle. What’s not to love? Yeah, it’s tipsy on sidehills and a bit on the heavy side. But overall this thing blows our minds. |
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| Louie gets some too. Homework on the horizon but I don’t think it was on his mind at the time. |
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| Another shot before Mr. Nytro gets too beat up. (The “Mr.” designation was arrived at after he almost ripped my arms off.) We waited about fifteen years for a new snowmobile after wearing out our previous, which was a beater to start with. I’m glad we waited that long as we can now own a 4-stroke like this that’s so engineered it makes our old sled look like something from the stone age. We use our snowmobiles primarily as “work sleds” to reach remote zones where we then climb and ski under muscle power. Using a 2-stroke that expels acrid exhaust and makes an obnoxious racket has always seemed a Faustian bargain for such, this sled feels much more appropriate. It even gets better gas mileage! |
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| Couldn’t resist publishing this one. |
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| And this one of Jason. |
Be sure to check out our Snowmobiles category, lots of blog posts about purchases, racks and more.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
