The steep downhill sidehill - what's the trick?

[Jaynelson]

All technics require your body to be in the correct position. What works for one person might not work for the next. Learn to find the sweet spot of your running boards while using you body weight to allow the sled to perform. Throttle is key

DPG

You seem to be weird'd out by the mention of using the brake. I am thinking of a downhill sidehill where you must maintain a sidehill and maintain control because there is nasty crap below you. Not a nice area where you can carry some speed and stay on the gas.

My buddy just sent me this crappy cell phone vid of us coming down through some trees. It was a goofy line, hadn't been there before, pretty steep with a bunch of these headwalls we had to weave through, that had bands off trees between them too thick for a sled. At the beginning of the vid I had to poke slowly along a downhill sidehill and find somewhere to drop down that had enough space to turn, before the next band of trees...



Now that's a little pokier and slower than necessary but to my credit I was blisteringly hungover....lol. You can get an idea of the slope at the end of the vid where the left side of sled is stuffed into the hill. Few inches of super slippery, light hoar frost on top of a fairly solid base. Hadn't snowed in a few weeks.

 

[Matte Murder]

As phatty says some sleds do this better than others. The Pro lives for this maneuver and is very easy to do it on. The Cat also works good, especially with the stock skis. Wrong foot forward as far up the running boards as you can get. Counter steer hard down hill and work the throttle to get it up on the inside ski. You really want to bury the ski and suspension in the snow. I like to push my bars into the hill a little too. If you get it anchored well you actually have to use throttle to make the sled move downhill. Hold your counter steer all the way to the stop. You can post with your leg and just walk it down when it's really steep, kind of sit in the snow and drag yourself down or even let your leg stretch out straight behind you. Posting is the safest when it's really steep. The XM will fight you a little more than the other two and since it's narrower track and wider panels it won't anchor the ski as deep in the snow but you can still do it. The XM also will want to straighten up more and put both skis on the snow. If you get forced over, make a big move, counter steer hard and pull the sled hard over and try and get that ski buried again. Practice on hills with no trees for while. Once you nail this technique you should be able to do it on hills way steeper than you can climb.

 

[volcano buster]

The XM will fight you a little more than the other two and since it's narrower track and wider panels it won't anchor the ski as deep in the snow but you can still do it.

Can you explain the narrower track on the XM?

 

[byeatts]

as much as no one wants to admit it, certain sleds hold lines better while others will want to drop down hill, and others will want to cut up hill. That's not to say those sleds are bad, just different in design and features. The skis play a huge role in this too.

To get the sled on its side, countersteer, blurp the throttle and the sled should come right onto its side. From there, you want your weight as far forward (to the front of the sled) and uphill as possible. Your first time I would recommend just WALKING the sled down (wrong foot forward in the stirrup, with steps by the foot off the running board uphill in the snow) nice and slow to get a feel for it. If you feel the back end start to slide down hill apply a little brake. If you feel the nose start to slide downhill apply a little throttle.

As for switch directions, depending on how steep the hill is and how much powder you will either need to do it super fast, or have the ability to slowly walk through the direction change. 1st you want to stop the sled if you can (not always an option on super steep slopes) 2nd hop over the sled into the other wrong foot forward and plant your off the sled leg firmly in the snow and put your weight on this leg ( you will pivot the sled around this leg). Commit the sled to the turn, by countersteering the sled to the new direction, give it some throttle and let the sled go downhill, then tip back up hill in the new direction. Careful here as too much throttle will send the nose too far up hill and get you stuck, and to little throttle will send the sled downhill with you only half on the sled.

Practice on some not so steep and tree free slopes first in a foot of powder. Hope that helps.

He Said here, There are some Chassis that pull this off effortlessly, Thats soo true, The ergonomics of chassis and ski can make this difficult or effortless, Footwell to bar position are" key", I pull these off all day long almost everywhere , on ice on steep sidehills, I jump on other Chassis and it take everything you have to cleanly power out spending tons of energy, without this solid move Mountain riding in the steeps can be downright dangerous .

 

[Matte Murder]

volcano I used a poor choice of words for a snowmobile. I meant ski stance or width. The ski doesn't stick out much from the side panel so the ski doesn't work as good as an anchor on the XM. You can still do this maneuver on the XM on even really steep hills, it is just not as easy as a Pro.

 

[burnz]

pulled this manoeuvre on my rev this weekend its pretty fun after starting to get the hang of it, mainly about figuring out the spots on the running boards and getting the skis turned in a manner that work for your weight/height/sled as said previously it can differ from person to person for sure

 

[Matte Murder]

So we had a killer ride yesterday. WA has had about 5 plus feet of snow this week. I am riding a 14 Cat. The snow was really deep, probably 18" of fresh on top of 3-4 feet of new. The Cat downhill sidehills like a champ. I was riding off stuff so steep that the snow was trying to wipe me off the sled because the whole uphill side of the sled up to the bars is buried. One issue I found is that the Cat breathes through it's nose and the air was getting choked off every now and again because nearly a full side of the sled is buried in the snow. Also, when its deep like that you can just ride straight down hill slowly and it seems like 10 feet of snow on all sides just slides down with you. GOOD TIMES.

 

[IceCap]

Bottom line is that all sleds want to fight you to right side, then gravity takes over and the weight of the front of the sled wants to go straight down.

The key is to keep the sled on its edge then you can control it. If you transition on a steep hill you have to aggressively bring it back onto it's edge.
All these maneuvers are easier when it is deeper. Ground speed and angle of approach , snow depth are all factors and difficult to judge. Sometimes it works well.... and sometimes well ....not so good.

 

[NytroMTXPete]

How does a Nytro MTX 153 perform in a sidehill manoeuvers?

 

[turboless terry]

Can be done but running boards drag bad.