Some say it goes both ways, but I have not seen that in decades of riding. Anybody here ever see a snowmobiler (not skier on a sled) start something with slkiers? On the other hand I am getting about 40% skiiers being mouthy or rude gestures.
Twice, for me, personally. Once, it seems as though I did not move out of the way fast enough - went about 10' farther before stepping up to the side to get past a big drift, moved, started to wave, angry snowmobiler got on it, then lifted next to me and told me to "get my fat *** out of the way." He proceeded to leave quickly. Smart guy; the adjective may be accurate, but that's one that _really_ ticks me off.
The other time, I was making a traverse out to a road. Down one side, across a flat, slight uphill to the road. Someone on a sled came up the flat section as I was approaching the flat (carrying as much speed as I could). He'd been sitting at the bottom with his friends, do not know for sure if he thought I was going to turn down or not, I was well into the traverse, which, if done correctly, resulted in no walking. He started coming up, I did not stop, he lifted as soon as he realized I was not going to stop, turned around, went down to his sitting-area, called me names from down below.
The first one, the guy was a jerk, plain and simple. Second one, ehh, who knows. He might not have "gotten" what I was trying to do (any skier/snowboarder would have figured it out quickly). I'm not convinced that it was unintentional, not convinced it was intentional. Not sure, does not matter. The name-calling was simply a reflection of their intelligence level - he did not get stuck, nothing bad happened, he and his friends were just losers.
I've also had Subarus park directly behind my trailer & the driver tell me that he fully understood that I'd have to move to reload(IE, not just someone who does not get trailers).
I've had people on quads get b!tchy with me when I point out they're on a two-wheeled-only trail.
I've had hikers yell at me when riding my mountain bike.
The list goes on. There are jerks in every group. Snowmobilers, from my perspective (longtime skier, mountain biker, more recently, say, past seven years, dirt bikes, and sleds for two), snowmobilers are the most polarized bunch I've met - they'll do _anything_ to help another snowmobiler out, but they're (as a group) pretty outspoken about how much everyone else sucks.
Stuff like the deer incident from last year does not help.
Riding around in the little meadow above the upper lot under the powerline at Jones WHEN IT IS CLEARLY MARKED NO SNOWMOBILES really, really, REALLY does not help, even if that no-snowmobile sign were not NEXT TO THE LOT THAT ALL THE SKIERS PARK IN. People! Come ON.
I kinda yelled at one of the Vail Pass rangers a couple of weeks ago. Well, not really _yelled_, but sternly voiced my displeasure. I'm a pretty easy guy to get along with, had read on here that people were getting "crappy attitudes" from the rangers at VP.
Got there, sure enough - moneytaker was a bit of a d-bag, then the parking-ranger parked me _way_ close to the trailer in front of me.
As it turns out, the trailer in front of me was a V-nose & he could ride his sleds out, he'd told the ranger to park me close.
Did Ranger Rick SAY that when I asked if he'd have enough room?
"I've got the parking thing covered" he muttered, started walking away.
Dragged him back (figuratively), told him his attitude sucked & that he might get less negative attitude from the snowmobilers if he were less of a prick. Nice enough guy, ended on a good note, but, well, ehhh, who knows.
It comes from small percentages of _all_ user groups.
Most of the skiers I see when riding my snowmobile are nice, as Kaleb said. I'm not a "regular" there; they just seem to be used to sleds.
Who knows. I'm pretty convinced that there are stupid people everywhere.
Iain
If they wish to "chat" then chat we will. Wanna wave a ski pole? Ok, not sure where that ski poles final resting place will be though.
