wingnut and ollie tator soup

Ever wonder what it's like to ride in mashed potatoes?
Each spring after most sane people have put their sleds away by now we go tator riding.

Now tator riding consists of getting to the mountain around 10am. This will allow the rock hard snow to start to soften up as the days temps go up. As the snow melts it gets this kind of mushy feel to it. Sort of like mashed potatoes, thus, tator riding.

Another fun thing about spring riding is the run off. As the snow melts it collects in pools, small ponds really.

This makes for good water skipping. You generally don't have to worry about sinking too deep as the ponds are generally only a foot or so deep.

Well we decided to go for a ride on June 13th up to the Snowy Range, Wyo.

There was still around 2-3 feet of snow (white concrete would be a better description) so we figured it should be fine. Much to our amazement the temps were in the mid 30's and it was overcast. So we decided to just go water skipping since the snow wasn't going to soften up much with those temps. The day before was 55 degrees.

We came upon a pond that looked great. About 75 yards across and it had loads of slush mounds in it.

A slush mound is just a floating island of snow. You hit it at about 60mph and it makes a most pleasing SPLAT and goes flying everywhere. Yep, we're pretty easy to amuse.

At least they usually go splat.

I line up, I pin the throttle to the bars, run up the speed, brace for the splat and I hit this mound of snow that was hard as a rock and still connected to the ground. Well, this was a bit of a surprise.

The nose of the sled shoots straight up, the back of the tunnel hits the snow mound slamming the front end into the next rock hard snow mound with enough force it slammed me into the bars.

I have lost all momentum, the sled is sinking and I quickly hit the kill switch and wait for the sled to stop sinking.
One ski is on top of the mound, the other side is in open water. The back end is under water. It's about 2 and half feet deep of REALLY cold water.

About this time Wingnut who had gone just before me in a different area looks back and sees me sitting almost dead center of the pond. He turns around comes over to the edge of the pond and asks why I decided to stop in the middle of the pond. I told him I thought the sled needed a good washing and it seemed like as good a spot as any.

Ok, now, how do we get the sled out of here? Of course we tried the usual tactic. Wingnut came wading out to the sled where I was already standing.  Good thing Wingnut is tall because 2 more inches and he would have learned a whole new meaning to "on the rocks.” We figured if we could get the sled on top of the snow mound and turned around I might be able to just pin the throttle and ride it out.

We figured wrong. We grabbed the back of the sled and gave a mighty heave. I think the back of the sled was anchored to the center of the earth because that baby didn't budge, not even an inch.

Ok, on to plan "B". First thing, figure out what plan "B" is.
Well we have 2 snow bungees and lots of rope. Let’s tie the rope to the back of a sled and the other end to the snow bungees which were hooked to the ski loops on my sled. This should pop this sled out like a cork.

So, tie everything up, Wingnut hops on his Apex and hits the gas ..............
Did you know that if you stretch out 2 Snobunjes to their maximum length that when the rope snaps it will actually fly back at you with enough force to leave a pretty good mark? Yep, it hurt like crazy.

Ok, Plan "C", that's right, no clue what plan "C" was either.
When all else fails, go big or call a helicopter.
MORE ROPE!

We tie it all together, MacGyver would have been proud.

Now we use 2 sleds. We tie off to the back of Wingnut's Apex and my wife’s RMK.
Hook up the bungees to the skis, I give them the signal (and get out of the way).
They hit the gas, and then you see both sleds dig in and stop. Man you could play a tune on that rope it was so tight.

The sled is still anchored to the center of the earth because it's not moving. I rock it back and forth, I try pushing on it, heck, I even kicked it.

So here I am, standing in almost waist deep water, sled stuck in slush, I'm freezing and now my foot hurts.

This can't get much worse. Of course I was wrong. It started to snow. Yep, June 13th and it is snowing. Those nice big flakes that hit and go SPLAT. Now I am not talking "Oh look at the pretty snow", I am talking it is flat out coming down.

It's official. This really sucks.

I have tried several times to start the sled with zero success. The intake side is out of the water but the exhaust is completely submerged and full of water.
Well when all else fails, get stubborn. We tried this several more times and FINALLY the sled pops up on top of the snow mound.
I let the water run out of the exhaust and get it started. Let it warm up a bit. If you stick a motor in ice water, it doesn't like to start very much.

We leave the rope and bungee arrangement in place. Figured they could give me the momentum I needed to get out of here.
I give the signal, they hit the gas, the rope goes tight and I hit the gas. Wow, what do you know, it almost worked.

About 2/3s of the way out I hit another hard mound of snow. It pitches the sled hard to the left. The sled and I are about to roll completely over in the water. At this point there was no way I was going to let this fail so I kicked off hard to shove the sled upright. It worked the sled is now out and on solid snow. Unfortunately this meant I had to jump into the water. So I was now completely soaked and it was still snowing, but the sled was out.

At this point it sucked a little less.
Then I noticed my skis. They were straight. I'm not talking lined up with each other or anything like that. I mean they were literally straight and flat as a board. There was no tip up at the front anymore. We had put so much force on the ski loops that it had literally straightened the skis out. Wingnut and I spent a while trying to get the curve back in the skis. We had a little success, but I wanted new skis anyway so what the heck.

Head out for the trucks, it had taken a little over 4 hours to get the sled out and I am soaked, cold and tired as all get out.

Given everything that happened that day, it's still more fun than being at work.
Besides, my sled was clean as a whistle.