Snowmobile Sidehilling Tips | EP 21

So far on the Proven Progression YouTube series, we've talked about hopovers and bowties. Those are both advanced maneuvers. I teach them in the advanced clinics. Today I'm going over something from the intermediate clinic, and that's sidehilling. I'm not going to go over the basic sidehilling stuff. This is more for guys who can get their sled on edge, but maybe aren't confident in the trees yet, and don't really understand how to control going up and down on the hillside. They just understand, oh, you countersteer, get it on edge. If you're at that point, this video is for you. One helpful thing when navigating the trees can be to break it down into smaller sections. So I have maybe 40 feet here that I have to get my sled through. And I'm going to work that section first, stop, reset, and then work the next section. That allows me to really process the terrain and think about what I'm doing with my body and how my sled's reacting. And it'll help me progress faster because I have enough time to process where I'm going. So I'm going to countersteer, have my weight all the way forward, arms bent, and that's going to give me a really aggressive stance, and that's going to help keep the back end from washing out into that tree. I kept my sled up high in between these trees. That way I'm not getting stuck and wedged down into a tree. That gives me a little more flexibility because it's always easier to go downhill than it is to go uphill. Before I continue my line, I'm going to make sure I find a good line and I know exactly what I'm doing to the sled to carry it through here. What looks good to me from back there is putting my ski right by these tree branches. And I'm going to hook it and stay above this spot. This spot's steep. That's going to make my back end wash out. I want to stay above that. I want to get to the high ground, and I'm going to take my sled right through here and across through that opening over there. That's going to allow me to reset again and then pick my next line. I'm going to try to carry a little speed below this tree so I can get up that hump and carry that momentum forward. It's kind of a flat spot here. That's going to help me get more momentum when I carry my line through to that big opening over there. I'm going to try to take the high line because, like I said, it's always easier to go down than it is to go up. If you can carry more momentum and stay higher on the hill, you're better off when navigating the trees. So when you stop on a flat spot like this, sometimes you can even back up to get more of a runway and get more speed going into this line up. It might not look like very much, but a couple more feet of traction and a couple more feet of runway can make all the difference when you're getting into really technical stuff. Anytime you stop on the hill, it can be beneficial to pull the sled into the hill more than it actually needs to be. It keeps it from rolling downhill, and it just gives you a nice starting point. So when I get going again, I roll it downhill just a little bit and get on the throttle, and I can get going smoothly and easily. It packs where the track's sitting and makes it really easy to get going. Straightening your handlebars out lets the sled fall downhill more, and then counter-steering into the hill is what brings it over into the hill and helps you maintain edge. So little tweaks in the steering, that's going to have a huge effect on how your sled handles on edge and how you ride through the trees. I want to talk about foot positioning. Foot positioning is so key in the trees. Generally speaking, when you're side-hilling downhill or even straight across the hill, you want your weight forward, you want your foot all the way forward in the footwell, about a 45-degree angle coming out of the footwell like this, and you want a really aggressive forward stance. You want your arms bent, you want your weight up over the front, and that's going to give you the most control. That's going to make it really easy to push the front of the sled downhill to get around trees. It's also going to make it easy to maintain a horizontal line across the hillside. So if the snow's deeper and I'm traveling at a faster speed, I move my foot back a little bit, about halfway on the running board, and that's kind of my go-to spot for riding trees like this if I'm riding at a high speed. The slower you're going, the farther you want your weight forward. The faster you're going, the more you want it centered over your gas tank and a little bit farther back. That keeps the front end up and gives you a lot more control. You can wheelie over holes, over old tracks, up pillows, and it helps you just maintain control because you can control the ski lift. When your weight's forward, you can't really control the ski lift because all your body weight's up there on the front. So because we stop with our sleds pulled into the hill farther than necessary, we have to keep in mind when we get going that our track's not actually getting traction in the snow. If I'm sitting here like this, my sled's not moving. So when the snow's deeper, the key to get going in a side hill again is the rate that you feed the track into the snow pack. You control that rate by how hard you push the sled downhill. So you're almost pushing the sled downhill, getting some momentum going, and then pulling it back into a side hill. Thanks for watching. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe. There's going to be more videos like this coming to YouTube. 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