Inverted snow is not your friend IP 2014

[xr650ryder]

The snow conditions were very different this President's weekend in Island Park Idaho. I have never before had the experience that the Mountain horses couldn’t outperform our sleds. The only machine that didn’t get stuck the 4 days was the “06” Switchback Polaris 155” x 2.25”. My history, I rode the XR650R MH s/n 00017 the entire year of 2011 without getting stuck learning curve and all.

Above freezing the T/S & Gen II ski would ride the upper crust and the skid would break through and trench down to mother earth. Or going downhill the front end would auger in up to the top of the forks. Yes, I got stuck going downhill 3 times. This first rule of riding the 6” ski was not cut the throttle going downhill. I know that also applies to the 10” ski with inverted snow.

When it was frozen it was still tough to get through the trees. . Even my “92” Polaris 440 with 136 x 1” would run circles around the MH’s in the trees.
I have not had the opportunity to ride with anyone else other that the 2 MH we own.

Thanks for the informative posts. It’s hard to ask all the questions when you see the TS team. I have learned a lot from this Snow West Thread.

Observations/Opinions from this week:

Inverted snow is not your friend.
The snow bikes were still the most fun to ride.
With a 150 lb pilot cruising @ 45-50 MPH the 2013 skid and T/S rides tail high by almost the paddle height.
(2006 KTM 2013 MH Stock 525 XC heaviest front springs available with shims) (Shocks fully extended I am over 300lbs)
With a small Pilot the ST looks plenty long.
Over 300lbs Pilot might LT might help with some conditions.
It will still be a toss up to go LT for the 3rd Kit.
6th gear close ratio tyranny is where it’s at!
The “06” 525xc still rules the XR650R in every way except that couch for a seat.
Never touched the kicker on the KTM all week.
I will never build another snow bike without electric start!

Thanks to All,
Tracks or Nobbys make happy trails!

 

[Rush44]

Absolutely correct. We had that snow up in the Flathead Valley, especially the Mission Range below 6,000ft. Normal lines you can pull in one shot became 5-7 switchback territory. Heavy snow and now we have avalanches everywhere. Our back country is dangerous right now.

 

[CATSLEDMAN1]

crust war

same conditions in varying degrees in upper Gold creek/Missoula east all weekend, lots of hp to go through the crust even when on old sled track with 4" of new with hard formed crust. Both of us burned record amount of gas for us. Weekend before handlebar deep fresh powder we used only about 60% of that amount of gas. sledders were companing about the herky jerky steering and no traction, just harder on the bikes because you only have 50hp or less.

oddly we didn't see any slides or avys, but worried about loading this crust now as the wind was howling when we left the high county Sunday afternoon.

 

[SteepNdeep450]

I've only rode on a timberlsed twice and both times have been in IP, we rented from a guy up there. This last time we got into more deep stuff and I didn't experience much of the ski sinking going downhill but they did seem to just dig a hole really fast when you got into a crappy situation. Crossing a creek or some kind of deep dip. I'm still learning how to ride one but the snow conditions in IP just seemed like the snow was very light and had no base at all. There was a couple times we had 4 foot deep holes in a hurry. Maybe it had to do with the low experience on one too, hard to say.

 

[JimBridger]

75% of my riding is in Island Park. This year has been pretty "sugary" an I do seem to trench a bit more than usual. The funny thing is that most of the time when you start trenching, if you just keep in it you can usually pull out of it. I used to let off when i'd start to trench, now I just keep in it and pray. lol.

This was a few weeks ago. 35" of Fun. It was dumb.

 

[SteepNdeep450]

That looked about as deep at the day we were there, it was a blast! I thought about it a few times just hammering down but wasn't sure. I've seen some guys get them out like that but I figured we should just cut our loses and get out forsure instead of a bigger hole. I did watch some gopro footage of me getting stuck that day and it still seemed to be creeping forward but was trenching down faster.

 

[CATSLEDMAN1]

hey the upside

one upside of last weekends crust, the crusty power robbing conditions magnified a problem I didn't like about my rear suspension...........a condtion sometimes where my bike tends to kind of porpoise in the snow. Way worse in the crust. My bike did, Dan's bike didn't. Last month or two we had changed out some shocks looking for a better setup. My bike had soft compression dampening and not a lot of rebound dampening. All good in soft snow, and trail riding bumps. In the crust though, the front of the suspension would ride up on the crust, break through and sink in the crust then try and ride back up on the crust and you get into a real power robbing humping along porpoise feel.
Dan's bike with a stock M7 front suspension shock and spring motored through the crust no big deal. stiff spring and a lot of compression and rebound dampening was good for the crust.

So, this week I revalved my suspension shocks to close to 2014 m8000 compression and rebound dampening. So we shall see. Probably won't see that kind of crust now for 2 years.

 

[Frostbite]

I think I may have run into the kind of snow you are referring to last weekend. I was getting stuck going DOWN HILL. The bike was just going under the snow.

Now, I was on a south facing slope in the afternoon, so it might be expected but, I had never experienced "submarining" before on a snow vehicle. I will say that it sucked and I expended a lot of energy getting myself off that damned hillside.