It wasn't just mostly cloudy for our three-day ride in west central Idaho-it snowed much of that time. During one part of the trip on day two, it was an all-out blizzard, close to what we envision Antarctica-like conditions would be like.
During one brief time, when the snow stopped and clouds lifted, allowing us to see the acres of untouched powder that stretched to the horizon, we were riding two-up sleds weighing roughly the same as a Buick. We were sorely tempted to dive off-trail, but held back 
because we weren't sure how many friends we had to help dig us out.
We passed meadow after meadow and hillside after hillside buried deep under a blanket of snow that hadn't seen snowmobile tracks for days, maybe even weeks. And those were just the land features we could see. Most were hidden by the falling snow, powder-laden tree branches and general cloudiness.
For some, these are dismal snowmobiling conditions and many would have opted to wait until conditions improved.