Carl Kuster shows us how to properly work the 175" up a hill.
We rode the 2018 Gen4 Summit 850 175 in Sicamous, BC, in January. As we normally do, we start out the day on familiar equipment. Establish the baseline on something similar to current model year before you jump onto the new stuff. So we rode up the switchbacks and through the first tree sections on a Gen4 Summit 850 154––just like the 2017 model we have in our fleet.
We dropped off a ridge onto a long mountain side that stretched from the lake in the valley to high above us in the clouds. The 154 was playful, but the track wanted to drop below the skis constantly. We could shift our footing all the way forward on the board and hang a foot over the front end at times to stay driving across the hillside rather than spinning donuts on it.