<\/p>\n
Ed Klim was skiing a local hill in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in January when he ran into some skiers from out-of-state. He asked them where they were from.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said Colorado. We don\u2019t have any snow back there,\u201d recalled Klim, president of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. \u201cI thought oh boy, if Colorado is sending their young skiers to Michigan to visit our hills, there must be something going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a slow start to winter in Colorado and that\u2019s depressed not only skier numbers, but snowmobile traffic as well. But across the country \u2014 really the world \u2014 snowmobile sales are skyrocketing.<\/p>\n
Klim said new snowmobile sales in the U.S. for the 2020-21 winter are pacing close to 20% ahead of the 2019-20 season, when U.S. snowmobilers bought about 51,000 new sleds. But in Colorado, Klim said, sales of new snowmobiles are up about 2%, which mirrors past years when snow was not bountiful.<\/p>\n
\u201cSnow has always been the number one determinant for demand for our product. You guys are having a little bit of a slower season than the rest of us and that\u2019s because of snow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The boom in snowmobile sales across the country is an extension of last summer\u2019s pandemic-powered surge in the sales of boats, ATVs, RVs and other outdoor toys that help people get out and away from crowds.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are buying everything right now. You can\u2019t find a used or new snowmobile anywhere in the Great Lakes region right now. Really across the country. They\u2019ve all been sold,\u201d said Klim, who lives in Lansing, Michigan.<\/p>\n
Southern Colorado saw record crowds of snowmobilers in the early season, when heavy snow blanketed the San Juans. But popular snowmobiling areas in Colorado\u2019s central and northern mountains only recently began drawing crowds as storms opened trails.<\/p>\n
Snow was slow to arrive on northwest Colorado\u2019s Rabbit Ears and Buffalo passes. New storms have buried the rocks and stumps and trails are opening. And snowmobilers are making up for lost time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was up on Rabbit Ears yesterday doing some maintenance on trails and the parking lots were three-quarters full and that\u2019s just a regular Tuesday,\u201d said Ed Calhoun, the longtime president of the local Routt Powder Riders snowmobile club. \u201cUse is so high right now, everyone is grooming the heck out of trails to get caught up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calhoun said local dealers around Steamboat sold out of snowmobiles in the fall. But it wasn\u2019t until about three weeks ago, when storms arrived and groomers were able to carve in trails, that parking lots started filling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a lot more first-year users of snowmobiles, too,\u201d Calhoun said. \u201cSo we are offering lots of training and education to help get people up to speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heading into the 2020-21 winter, search and rescue teams were on high alert for a surge in newcomers in the backcountry.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a particularly grim season for avalanches, with 33 skiers, snowmobilers and climbers killed in slides nationwide through February. Of those, 20 were skiers and snowboarders, four were climbers and nine were motorized backcountry users.<\/p>\n
In Colorado, nine of 11 avalanche fatalities this season have been skiers or snowboarders. Two Colorado snowmobilers died in slides last month.<\/p>\n
Brian Lundstedt remembers a season like this. It was 2011-12. Like this season, the snow didn\u2019t really arrive until late. And when it did, it was dangerous, with the new snow stressing a buried weak layer that spiked avalanche risks. His brothers, Tyler and Jordan, were snowmobiling up near Buffalo Pass when they were caught in a slide. Tyler was killed.<\/p>\n
Lundstedt now runs a team of volunteer avalanche safety instructors who cater to snowmobilers. This season, Lundstedt sold out all his Tyler\u2019s Backcountry Awareness avalanche safety classes this winter in Montana, Wyoming, California and all over Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t do enough classes. If people didn\u2019t book in December and January, they can\u2019t get in,\u201d Lundstedt said. \u201cEvery time we drop a class, it sells out in a blink.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lundstedt is seeing some newcomers to the sport, eager to learn about avalanche safety. But the majority of snowmobilers filling up his classes are long-time riders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an alarming number of five-year-plus riders who are taking their first class because they are seeing what\u2019s happening on the news,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s tragic when a season like this is what drives people into education, but at the end of the day, at least people are starting to get wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lundsetd has been all over the West this season, teaching avalanche safety. And across all mountain ranges and all aspects, he\u2019s found that persistent weak layer buried deep in the snowpack. That layer collapses under the weight of new snow, shedding the avalanches that have made this one of the deadliest seasons for backcountry travelers in more than a century. The weakness in the snowpack is a big threat for motorized users because their heavy machines can add even more stress to faceted, rotten layers of snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are going much bigger than we\u2019ve ever seen before and because of that, we need to apply a completely different filter to things we normally do,\u201d Lundstedt said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve been riding for 20 years, this is the second time you\u2019ve seen conditions like this so the normal safe places we go and the methods we\u2019ve used for particular avalanche problems, they do not work this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late January, Scott Jones held the annual meeting of the Colorado Snowmobile Association. More than half of the 30-plus snowmobile clubs that make up the association reported they were not consistently grooming trails because of lack of snow.<\/p>\n
But interest is high, especially among newcomers to the sport, said Jones, the executive director of the association.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pushing a lot of online education and our dealers have been doing a lot of avalanche introduction classes,\u201d said Jones, whose group also is working with the Colorado Tourism Office and other state agencies to promote the \u201cKnow Before You Go\u201d message of planning for backcountry adventures.<\/p>\n
Jones said his group is tailoring a more basic message for the new arrivals to snowmobiling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to tell people if they were going into the backcountry they should take a class, get avalanche safety gear and check the avalanche forecast,\u201d Jones said. \u201cNow, we have kinda dumbed it down a bit. We are telling people if they are going out they should be prepared to spend 24 hours outside. You might not make it right back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lack of snow \u201cis probably a good thing,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine avalanche conditions like this with biblical snow. I mean, it\u2019s bad enough now and we have people pushing deeper to find powder,\u201d he said, \u201csnowmobiling in places where you don\u2019t really think about people snowmobiling. As bad as it might be for some of our outfitters this season, I\u2019m kinda glad we didn\u2019t have a lot of snow this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roger Poirier, who manages recreation on the White River National Forest \u2014 the most trafficked forest in the country \u2014 said snowmobile use has been growing for the last five years. The forest increased its patrols and staffing at high-traffic areas like Vail Pass Winter Recreation Areas, where rangers on skis and snowmobiles are on duty every day of the week in winter. The agency is also working in partnership with Colorado Avalanche Information Center to better promote avalanche education and safety in the high country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our increased patrols and Vail Pass have helped prevent violations and accidents in the first place,\u201d Poirier said.<\/p>\n
At Vail Pass, the Forest Service collects fees from both human-powered and motorized backcountry travelers and those collections totaled more than $46,000 in November and December 2020, up from $31,000 in the same months in 2019.<\/p>\n
The fee system is part of the White River National Forest\u2019s winter travel management plan, which turns 10 this year. The White River\u2019s winter plan \u2014 the only one in the state \u2014 identifies areas where snowmobilers are allowed, restricted and not permitted.<\/p>\n
Poirier calls his forest\u2019s long-negotiated winter travel management plan \u201ca decision framework that affects and influences how people move across the landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have strived to really deliver a quality experience versus a quantity experience,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think more miles of trails does not always equal a better experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poirier said he\u2019s eager to see final numbers for motorized traffic at developed areas like the 55,000-acre Vail Pass in the 2.2 million-acre White River National Forest. He wonders if there is record traffic or \u201care they more perceived because COVID has thrown a new lens on everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is saying anecdotally, \u2018Wow we have never seen this level of traffic before,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIn my view, we are aligned with current trends and where we have been. That\u2019s a lot considering COVID restrictions to say we have the same use as the previous year. There are a lot of people getting up to the forest to recreate and find a breath of fresh air and find a bit of sanity that only the mountains can provide during a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Kelley, the owner of Power World Sports in Granby, has sold out of all his snowmobiles this winter. He saw a swell of first-time snowmobiler buyers last fall, well before the snow started falling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure a lot of them have even gotten out riding yet this season,\u201d he said. \u201cSnowmobiling is a tough gig. There\u2019s a lot to learn. It\u2019s not like getting on a mountain bike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelley is not surprised to see the slow start to the Colorado snowmobile season. And not just because of the lack of snow in the early season. Colorado is a tough place to ride, he said. It\u2019s not like spots in the Midwest, with thousands of miles of flat trails offering an easy learning curve for first-timers.<\/p>\n
\u201cColorado is a tough environment for snowmobiling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His team at Powder World Sports has helped newcomers pick the right avalanche safety gear when they buy sleds. The sales team also helps direct inexperienced riders to less fraught terrain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe certainly encourage people to go to places that don\u2019t have a lot of that avalanche danger,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cWe want them to have fun and stay in the sport, you know. One bad day on a snowmobile can really turn people away.\u201d<\/p>\n