With everything being equal, is anything equal? That's the challenge we have when evaluating the best of the 800 class snowmobiles in the 2011 SnoWest Deep Powder Challenge that took place this January.
We gathered 15 different riders from across six states to see what snowmobile was considered the best for this year. We used the same three sleds, logging over a total of 800 miles, in a variety of snow and terrain conditions.
Although our goal was to declare a Deep Powder Champion, we soon realized that depending on the riding style and familiarity of the sled, our riders had a tendency to score more favorably on the snowmobile they feel the most confident on. In this regards, each snowmobile received first place votes in practically every category, as well as third place votes.
But even with that built-in prejudice, there is still a lot of surprises in how they rate all sleds in the 15 different categories. The complete story will be in the March issue of SnoWest Magazine.