Epic Snowmobile Hill Climb Save

We’ve had a lot of people ask questions about the video we posted a few months ago that showed an epic Pete Rose slide down a steep slope to save another dude’s 2016 Polaris Pro Axys sled.

It’s racked up a ton of views on Facebook (270k+) and was featured on national television on the Right This Minute show.

For your viewing pleasure, here’s that video again.

 

If you’re in need of a good laugh, just scroll through the comments on the video Facebook post!

After going through some of the comments I thought it would be a solid idea to provide a little context and insider scoop to the epic “FAIL BAIL”.

A little context to the “Fail Bail”

This particular climb has a name that locals may be familiar with – Yahoo. It’s part of a ridge line that runs somewhat northwest towards the Jefferson bowl.

On this day we were riding in a group of 5. All riders had been up and down Yahoo before so this wasn’t new terrain. Being late spring the snow was fairly hard-packed making the climb doable.

The only thing you needed to watch out for was getting near the top, not picking the correct line that would get you up over the lip, and spinning your track out. This would result in your sled falling backwards, out of control, and not being able to stop due to how steep it is.

At this point, you’re pretty much screwed unless your reverse driving skills are on point…

Anyways, Zach (the rider), was attempting the climb. He was second in line to blaze up the chute. Three of us watched from below as he got right near the top and turned out to return back down the hill.

We thought maybe he wasn’t giving it enough juice and decided to turn out instead of spinning the track out and having to get all western up there.

The three of us (me, Tanner, Mack) one-at-a-time took off up the chute.

As I approached the top I was still confused as to why Zach would have turned out. The snow wasn’t soft, the sleds had more than enough power to pound through.

He was on a 2016 Polaris Pro Axys 800 RMK for crying out loud.

Then I realized what probably caused Zach to turn out. There were only a couple spots that you could climb through due to overhangs/drifts. If you didn’t make your mind up early enough as to which spot you would pop up through, you could be in some serious trouble.

The fail bail happened on Zach’s second attempt up to the top.

The video doesn’t do a good job of really showing a couple of things:

1. How steep it is.
2. The length of this chute.

Steep? What do you think…

Literally, seconds after I got the sled to a complete stop, my uncle, who is the guy shown in the footage dropping down below me as backup, snapped this photo to show how close we were to watching this sled tumble violently down the 3/4 mile climb.

How did we get it on film?

Three out of the five riders on this day were wearing GoPro helmet cameras. I was also wearing one, and greatly wishing I had kept my helmet on and had the camera rolling. Wow. That would have been some fantastic footage!

Being Zach’s second attempt, we were all off of our sleds waiting for him to join us.

I was pulling my phone out to film the climb when his dad (Todd) told me to get ready to catch him in case he decides to do the same thing as last time…

He had his camera out recording so I was okay with that. I didn’t know that Tanner was rolling his GoPro still.

A different view of the fail bail

Todd doesn’t get the save in his video because he’s scampering down the hill to try and grab the sled. The commentary is classic, however.

When things settled down and Tanner mentioned he had his GoPro on we quickly checked to see if he got any of it in frame…

When we turned it on and saw that the fail bail was completely filmed and in frame, joyous eruptions transpired.

Quick facts

Sled: 2016 Polaris Pro RMK Axys

Season: Late spring

Area: Idaho/Montana border near Mt. Jefferson

Rider: Zach (age 16)

Pete Rose impersonator: Me (Trevor)

Camera guys: Tanner, Todd

Spectator: Mack

Some of our favorite comments

 

 

Moral of the story…

Get outside.

Push yourself.

Keep the cameras rolling.