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Backcountry Boys and Their Big Toys
the Thrill of Extreme Snowmobiling, April 2005
Light is just beginning to fill the Whitehorse sky as a group of young men load their massive snowmobiles onto a trailer. They're heading to the Skagway Summit in the mountains south of Whitehorse. It's a trip they make several times a week if the snow is good. These guys have one goal in mind: to transform snowmobiling from a means of transport or a Sunday pastime into an action-filled extreme sport.
Two hours or so later they pull off the highway and park the trailer. The riders unload their snowmobiles, or sleds as they're colloquially known, and fire them up. They strike out, heading deep into the backcountry, looking for a natural setting to be their stage. Above the treeline, they find an open space with perfect virgin snow, plenty of peaks and a stream of steady sunlight. Rob Williamson, of the film company Yukon Powder Hounds, pulls out his camera.
The snowmobilers, in helmets and shin pads, take turns performing: they ride off cliffs and soar through the bracing Northern air, they tilt their sleds back and do "wheelies" and heave the machines sideways, carving circles in the snow. On a good day, one of them might pull off a flip, circling completely in the air before landing. This is freestyle riding: there's no plan and no competition -- not officially, anyways. Just a bunch of guys in a spectacular, wild playground.
Riders from across the continent will later analyze the day's action on Williamson's website and on his DVDs, some envying the Yukon's long sledding season and pristine alpine setting. "I downloaded all of your videos on your site, and they're sick!" enthuses a 15-yeard-old Newfoundlander on the Yukon Powder Hounds' Internet message board. "Me and the b'ys always make videos of us flying jumps, but we don't have the conditions of snow you guys are on!"
Sledheads on film
The footage will end up in the next installment in the Sled Porn series of films produced by Williamson's company. He has shot and edited three DVDs of snowmobile stunts, set to pumping heavy rock and hiphop soundtracks. Action footage from the snowy backcountry is cut with inane scenes that would make anyone who isn't male and under 25 cringe: a guy opens a beer with his teeth, another throws a snowball at his buddy's crotch. The films won't be confused with fine cinema, but there's something mesmerizing about watching these riders in action, soaring into the air, falling off their sleds, tumbling down mountainsides.
Extreme snowmobiling officially began around eight years ago, when two American companies, Slednecks and Frontier Films, started releasing snowmobile videos that followed in the tradition of American filmmaker Warren Miller's extreme skiing movies. Soon a handful of amateur filmmakers cropped up, including Williamson. They shoot with hand-held digital cameras and helmet-cams. The films have grown in popularity alongside the sport, with each release depicting more daredevil moves. Advances in snowmobile technology have created more powerful machines and riders have raised the stakes, competing with each other to perform increasingly dangerous stunts.
"Just two years ago someone did the first back flip on a sled," says Williamson, now 30 years old. "The next thing you know, everyone starts to do it. In the next few years, there will be probably be something else done on a sled that right now, people think is undoable."
The DVDs are sold on the Internet, at snowmobile trade shows and in snowboarding and snowmobile shops. Williamson, who also works as a geological soil consultant, says he's distributed several thousand of his DVDs, many through the Yukon Powder Hounds' website. Electronic message boards, such as the one hosted by the Yukon group, provide meeting spots for young enthusiasts in snowy towns across North America.
Star power
Not surprisingly, almost all of the extreme snowmobilers are young men and they'll tell you there's a lot of skill involved in wrestling 225-kilogram snowmobiles over rough terrain. "Some people might have the idea that we're just sitting on these things and riding around," says Whitehorse's Ross Mercer, one of the better-known riders with the crew. "But it's about the most intense exercise I've ever experienced."
Dad's old snowmobile with the backrest doesn't cut it for this lot. They ride machines made in the last couple of years that are specifically built for racing. These snowmobiles cost around $11,000 and they are lighter, more durable and more powerful than standard consumer models.
Mercer, 23, works as a mechanic at a snowmobile shop, which allows him to take time off to travel to Alaska to perform for films. Some film companies pay Mercer by the day, but often he's content just to have his gas paid for and to get some free DVDs that he can sell. Mercer has also arranged sponsorships, including one from a local airline Air North, and he's currently trying to work out a deal with a clothing line.
If you want to go
If you're thinking of trying this sport, you might want to reconsider. By its nature, freestyle snowmobiling is marred by accidents. "I could spend an hour telling you about my injuries," says Jason Adams, a Whitehorse rider who has appeared in a dozen snowmobiling films. "I dislocated my shoulders, blew out my knee and my ankle, I've had wrist injuries." Adams' most serious accident occurred four years ago, when he tried to jump a creek on his snowmobile. He crashed into the riverbank and smashed his chin on the handlebars, splitting his jaw and shattering half his teeth.
But he's still alive. In 2002, the new sport claimed British Columbia's 24-year-old Josh Chapman. He attempted a wheelie on his snowmobile through a gasoline fire for an extreme film and died in hospital due to severe burns.
Since Adams' injury, his face aches all the time, but he continues to take his chances. For the young Yukoner and his fellow enthusiasts, nothing else comes close. "For me," he says, "It's a lifestyle. Nothing beats a day in mountains, getting your adrenaline fix and appreciating the scenery up in God's country."
The rest of us can enjoy the action too, safely bathed in the warm glow of our TV screens.
For more information and some sledhead gab, visit www.yukonpowderhounds.com.