#good news is it's a saturday. bad news is we'd have to stay overnight in london and my bf works sundays and probably couldn't get it off

[jakeperalta]

HELLO??!?!??!?! the learn more link says page not found but searching within that website says this is happening and goes on sale soon and I guess nobody thought to actually announce it??

[la-appel-du-vide]

01•23•21

I've been wanting to try snowmobiling for awhile now, but when my family went without me, I became even more desperate to try - I was so jealous. It worked out, because then Dad could recommend the rental shop, and have me copy all the details.

Beach, Logan, Brayden and I went, and because Beach worked the night shift that night, we had to do the morning rental schedule. Meaning, we had to be in Heber, before 8 AM on a Saturday, after driving in a snowstorm! We left around 5:45 AM, which was brutal - sucks to leave earlier on a weekend than a weekday - but we made it up there in one piece and on-time. The only hurdle? Brayden had told Logan we didn't need to be there until 8:30. We called him on the way up to correct the error, but he still didn't get there until 8:30, so we already lost half an hour of rental time. Unfortunate.

We made it up to the trailhead, and the employee gave us the rundown on how snowmobiles work, and how to get out of trouble, etc. Then we were off. I drove first, and immediately realized that driving it would be more difficult than I thought. I was expecting it to be just like driving a wave runner... but no. There had been almost a foot of fresh snow overnight, and maybe that makes a difference, because my family had no issues??? But likely, immediately, we couldn't hardly make turns, we nearly tipped over several times, and it was all around rough. On top of that, my helmet visor fogged so quick, and then the fog froze over in the cold temperatures. So I COULDN'T SEE A THING. But if I opened my visor, then I was getting pelted in the eyeballs by snowflakes and it was so painful. We watched Beach and Logan tip a couple of times, but they got up and back out just fine. Then Brayden and I switched, so he was driving, and things went downhill quick hahah. He'll deny it, but he drove into a trail marker, and then into a snowbank, tipping us over. My leg got trapped underneath it, but it wasn't a big deal - just had to dig out of it. It's nice to fall into snow, because it doesn't hurt! The problem was, our snowmobile was on an incline, so we couldn't easily get the heavy thing dug out of the deep snow and upside right. We worked on it until Logan and Beach came back to check on us. When we felt like it was in a good enough of a position to try to turn it on and reverse out of there, we attempted to start it with the pull cord (like a lawn mower). It didn't work, so we assumed the engine was flooded (which they told us would happen, and to just wait 10 minutes or so, and try again). Only, Logan wasn't really up for waiting. He just kept pulling, and eventually pulled so hard that the entire pull cord came out and didn't retract back in. Instant regret. We called the company to ask them what to do, and they said that if we were experienced, we could start it by popping the clutch manually. Well... it was our first time. So they said they'd send search and rescue out to take a look, or switch us machines if they couldn't get it. We were immediately nervous about being charged for the damages, and for the $110 an hour they charge for search and rescue labor. But what can you do, right?

In the meantime, there was no need for all four of us to just sit and wait, so we told Beach and Logan to go ride around a bit and enjoy the time so it wasn't wasted. Beach felt bad and wanted to stay, so Logan ended up taking it out solo. The three of us sat there for about 45 minutes in the blizzarding snow. Brayden's phone died before he could send a pin of our location to the search and rescue team, my phone had no service, and as time went on, we wondered whether or not anyone was actually coming to help us. We also wondered what in the world was going on with Logan - we didn't expect him to be gone so long. Either he was just hogging it, or something bad had happened. What a weird, helpless time. But eventually, search and rescue did show up! They traded us machines, and told us we should probably head back down the mountain since our rental time was running out. Only now, we had three people and a two-seater snowmobile. We figured we'd better go look for Logan and see if he needed help, and then bring him back for the third person. It ended up being Beach and I going together, and Brayden waiting there for us. We made it a few minutes up the mountain before search and rescue caught up to us and reminded us that we should turn around. We explained that we didn't know where Logan had gone, but that he had been gone awhile and that we were worried he'd ran into trouble. They said they'd go look for him and that we should head back so that we didn't have to pay a late fee for both machines. I asked about Brayden, and they said to tell him to stay near the trail and someone would give him a ride on the way back down. It felt weird leaving him standing all alone on the mountain, in a blizzard. But that's what happened haha.

Beach and I killed it on the way down. I still couldn't see, which was frustrating (next time, I'm wearing goggles instead!), but our driving and leaning went 100 times better. We didn't ever fall, and we made it back down in time! And it was actually super fun. Sucked to turn it in right as we were getting the hang of things.

When we got down, we realized Brayden had the keys. Also unfortunate. It would have been so nice to go get in a nice warm car, but instead, we just had to stand in the parking lot. As the minutes passed, it was surreal to not know if Logan was ok, if they'd found him, if Brayden was still standing all alone.... scary haha. They didn't make it down for another 50 minutes! That's a lot of time to worry! But they did make it down.

Apparently, Logan had tipped over several times, and digging himself out was exhausting. Then he slid off the trail and ran into a tree, and by the time he pulled himself back to the trail, he was so turned around and didn't know which way to go. Big yikes.

We drove back to the rental shop to take care of the damages, and we were scared. Us doing the math, we figured it was $110 for being late, another $220 for search and rescue time, and then whatever the parts/labor was for the damage. But in the end, they comped us time for the broken pull cord machine, as that's not supposed to happen and really cut into our time. So Logan only had to pay $230 for parts. Not bad, we've definitely seen worse!

Overall, what a DAY. I do want to try again though, because I really do think it could be so fun... I love trying all the new things. Even if it means I have to be in the snow! (;