Sled Down

One of the troubles with filming in the backcountry is getting good snow and light to shoot in. Often times that means either waiting for a break in the weather far away from home or driving 10+ hours to get a day or two of R&R with the girlfriend.

On a recent trip to Whistler Curtis Ciszek made the 14 hour drive from his home in Bend, OR to Whistler, Canada for a one day window of sunny weather and a modest dusting of powder. Unfortunately after 5 hours of sleep and a very early wake up call 2 miles on the trail Curtis’s sled starts to act up and begin to overheat unusually early on the trail.

This is a typical dilemma this time of year for these machines. The mountain snowmobile is designed to run in deep powder not an icy trail. Many of the areas we go out to shoot require travel over 15+ miles of bumpy, icy trail. Using scratchers and paying close attention to your machine you can avoid overheating but sometimes that just isn’t enough.

Curtis begin to notice early on that his sled was running strange. He would pull over and pack snow in and around the tunnel to try and cool it down, wait and repeat. This went on for a few rounds until curtis decided to tow it back to the truck.

The final verdict is a $3000 bill and a 10 day wait for a new motor.