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PLEASE BE SAFE OUT THERE!!!!!

Mileage Quest

Mileage Quest

Expert
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
387
Location
MPLS, MinneSNOWda
Country
USA
Snowmobile
'12 Apex X-TX
As a safety professional I want to bring to light the fact snowmobiling can be dangerous in many ways!!! Please post up your close calls or links to stories about snowmobile deaths... this way fellow riders have a sense of the impact snowmobiling can have on ones families and loved ones... Lets all get home SAFE!!!

We all have stories about sketchy situations we’ve been through on our sleds... I’ll bring to light the two major situations I’ve encountered...

First one was about ten years ago when in early January my group decided to ride across Portage Lake from Dreamland to Chassell... Might I mention I didn’t really want to... I felt I had no choice because the group I was riding with was going and I didn’t feel comfortable going around by myself (peer pressure)... It was dark when we left Dreamland... all I remember them saying was wait a full minute so you let the dust settle and you can see our taillights... Once you get on the lake pinch it and if our lights disappear... turn around!!! We got aways out and all I remember thinking was where are the fish houses... that’s when the fear really set in!!! We all made it but thinking back what would have happened if I blew a belt and had to stop on shady ice or worse yet found open water!!! My loved ones wouldn’t even know what truely happened!!! I doubt anyone would have known what happened to us that night!!!

Second situation was just last year... I was on my 520 mile day ride and about midday my group decided to pass a group of slow riders... It was a group of six and their lead rider wasn’t fully stopping at stops and allowing other groups to pass safely... so during a long straight away our leader passed a number of their riders... At one point I thought I was being waved by to pass but was ultimately forced off the trail and struck a tree... The impact was minor but only by chance... It could have been major and ended my riding enjoyment if not my life!!!

AGAIN PLEASE BE SAFE OUT THERE AND PLEASE BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS!!!!!

BUZZED RIDING IS DRUNK RIDING!!!
 
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https://www.uppermichiganssource.co...bile-accident-on-Lake-Gogebic--503554351.html

Riding at dark can lead to limited visibly... Mix in alcohol and you can end up with deadly results!!!

I’m not sure if alcohol was involved but time of accident was 2:31 AM... Either way she was probably not familiar with the area being from out of state... Now her family is left with the grief and remorse to suffer... She was someone’s daughter and probably someone’s wife and mother!!!

PLEASE PLEASE Ride SAFE!!!!
Know your limitations and be aware of your environment!!!!
 
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I have been and seen many bad situations! I have been T-Boned and Rear ended a few times !! 5 friends of mine went down in water by accident at night in a blizzard , slightly of course lost for 1 min but that’s all it takes !You just never know what the day may bring! Both party’s can be totally sober and bad trail conditions can lead to head on collisions also !! Heart attacks too ,when your out riding all day moving a machine in these conditions can and will put a body to the test ! Sorry for all who lost or have been in situations..

Yamaha Revs Your Heart !
 
Back when I was young and dumb I was riding with a group of friends, all in our early 20's. Had been riding all day in spring conditions and had not noticed my carbides were completely gone and shot off a corner at HIGH speed, After Dark, when the temperatures iced over the snow melt. Put my almost new SX600R right between 2 large pines and traveled another 150' before bending over a small birch tree and ONLY breaking the front bumper and bending a radius rod. Two feet either way and would have smoked one of the pines and may not be around today! That moment in time STILL controls my throttle thumb to this day. Also involved in a hit and run with the same sled, a guy came around on my side of a corner and we locked skies, both of us riding Solo. After we got the sleds apart he immediately took off and left me there with fubared trailing arm and broken tierod, THAT was a very slow 10 miles back to my house, tied the ski tips together with some rope and a stick! No cell phone back, never caught the guy. I rarely ride solo anymore and if I do SOMEONE KNOWS my travel plans!
 
Thankfully no close calls on snowmobile yet. Only time we’ve had any problems on the trails was our last ride. The soitnwiere we have fueled up at in the past was closed when
We got there. We had counted on getting fuel there was the problem. We had to alter our route and make a beeline to the next closest gas. Everyone made it fine but some tanks were getting close to dry.

Had a semi close call one time on the atv’s. Came upon a group that was on a bachelor party. One guy came screaming around the blind corner at us and I had to duck off into the edge of the bush for him to get by. I yelled at him to slow down as he went by as my friend was a little bit behind me.
 
Get off Tug Hill by dark!!! It's not as bad as years back, but when 4 guys are at a table with a dozen empty bottles, near dusk, it's time to head out. Heard 3 dead already in New York, around Thanskgiving. Snow is gone now. Didn't read the details. Very sad.
Many many close calls over the years. Last one was a poo rider with a go pro on our side, in the woods, but I caught a glimpse of motion coming and stopped. Good thing.
 
It is sad to read about riders being killed on snowmobiles it happens more often then we think, snowmobiles today are built to ride better, steer better, and that being said most riders travel at higher speeds and sleds today are really fast and powerful, so that being said I find that peer pressure can get you into trouble traveling with a group more so traveling across lakes, if you are following the leader of a pack that has know fear of lakes or speed and has a small buzz on than it is just a matter of time that someone is going to get in trouble, I have seen it and have been in that situation more times than enough in the past, isn't it funny how a really responsible snowmobiler that is on the ball while trail riding will save some idiot on a another snowmobile life, I have come across warming huts that there was not one sober rider in the bunch and the leader of that pack could barely walk yet was turning the key on his snowmobile to go, does this sound familiar, I bet it does for some.
 
I hear that.... we are all guilty from time to time.

The thing that I see with regularity is people being complacent and blocking the trail. Even cruising at 60 mph on trails up north your rate of closure is insane.

Rode with some new guys a few years ago and they were constantly pulling up along side one another when stopping. Drove me crazy. Lost my mind on them. Needless to say I don’t go out of my way to ride with them anymore
Ms
 
As a mountain rider I know I can get in some very bad situations and sometimes they happen so fast that you don't realize it until it too late. 3 years a go I was out in Wyoming. It was a pretty good day to be riding. Super deep snow and not a cloud in the sky. We found some very big hills so we were all seeing who could make it the highest. After everyone had taken there shots it was my turn and there was a lot of fresh snow up high so I was going to give it my all. I put the throttle to the bar and went way up past everyone else tracks. I made it as far as you could go and started to turn out and that's when things went bad. I don't know if I hit a rock or hard snow but the sled bucked me hard. I literally fell 200ft almost straight down before I land in the snow. I actually landed facing up the hill. That's when I saw my sled coming down the mountain end over end the long way right at me. I did everything I could to get out of the way and by the grace of god the sled landed up side down and magically stopped right next to me. I got up and flipped the sled over and was able to ride it all the way to the bottom without even starting it because it was that steep(probably 75% grade). I was pretty shook up from that and took it much easier the rest of the trip.
 
Last year on our way from Munising to Seney , Im slowing down pretty quick to make the next tight turn hugging my side of the trail, a woman on a Arctic cat with an ice fishing sled in tow coming out of the corner past the center of the trail, the ice fishing sled fish tailed directly towards me with 2 young kids in it with no helmets!! Luckily I just barely had enough time to swerve off into some open hardwoods, some people go through life with more luck than brains, I could've killed them.
 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mp...-snowmobile-goes-through-ice-on-lake-near-ely

Couple died when their sled went through the ice after leaving the bar... Happened a couple days before Christmas... What a sad time for this to happen... Imagine what the family to had to go through!!!

Knowing local ice conditions especially at night can be the difference between life and death!!!

IF YOU DON’T KNOW DON’T GO!!!!
 
Mileage Quest said:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mp...-snowmobile-goes-through-ice-on-lake-near-ely

Couple died when their sled went through the ice after leaving the bar... Happened a couple days before Christmas... What a sad time for this to happen... Imagine what the family to had to go through!!!

Knowing local ice conditions especially at night can be the difference between life and death!!!

IF YOU DON’T KNOW DON’T GO!!!!
Click to expand...
Ice always scares me unless I know the river when it doesnt have ice! Lakes or Flowage I dont go on unless marked.
 
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