honesty

Honesty is something you can’t buy, or fake. It’s what gives you respect for others, and how you earn it yourself. For 25 years honesty is what we’ve been selling, and what you’ve been buying. Thanks!

We ride the sleds, test the products, report the stats, and tell you what we think. Many times we like what we see, sometimes we don’t. We don’t pull punches in our articles, but we also aren’t here to bruise egos or pick on people. There’s already enough of that in the world. Our aim is to be honest, without being brutally so.

When Jerry Bassett started this magazine 25 years ago, he was packing a strong love for the industry and a straighforward attitude. No games, no favorites, no special treatment to parlay an extra dollar, just in-depth information and honest opinions.

We’ve carried that tradition forward and plan to continue for at least another 25 years by which time we’ll all probably be riding jet and hover sleds equipped with flux capacitors. Or whatever!
Time passes quickly though. As you can see in the picture here, 25 years ago I was a young punk learning to drive a Formula Ford. The need for speed has always been there. I suspect it has been for you too.

My cohort in all these years of snowmobiling and writing for AmSnow is Mark Boncher, a Michigan guy who loves to push the metal pretty hard. He’s still a young buck himself (I’d call him a punk, but he’d probably knock me off the sled next time we’re out!)

We’ve already shared more laughs and fun along the trail while running test sleds and trying out new products than most folks will ever get a chance to. But they should.

Also helping us with our testing and writing are two gentlemen that many of you have gotten to know through the years, Tech Editor Olav Aaen and Les Pinz our vintage expert. Olav (aka Santa) shares his memories (good and otherwise) from the past 25+ years on p. 26, while Les tells us about being a dealer 25 years ago in BackTracks, p. 74.

Our regular trail test riders, Lil Weber (also our art director), Brian Moore and Butch Veltum, along with our mountain men, Stephen W Clark and Josh Skinner, and wiley photographer, Kort Duce, all live and breathe snowmobiling, just like you. We are also indoctrinating our new editorial associate, Christie Green, into our snowmobile world.

We’re here to be your eyes and ears inside the industry and hope we can bring you the thrill of our experiences and the warmth of our friendships in each issue. Ride on!