We head to the majestic backcountry of Saguenay, Quebec and bring along the winner of the Widescape Great Wide-Open Sweepstakes to experience the ultimate WS250 adventure.
AJ does a deep-dive into the extensive Polaris 2-stroke snowmobile engine lineup including the Patriot 650, 850, BOOST and 9R highlighting each engine’s unique attributes and strengths over previous generations of Polaris engines.
Then Luke explores the expanded versatility of the Ski-Doo Backcountry snowmobile line-up and how there’s pretty much a Backcountry model for just about any level of rider whether your focus is riding mostly on-trail or off.
AJ does a deep-dive into the extensive Polaris 2-stroke snowmobile engine lineup including the Patriot 650, 850, BOOST and 9R highlighting each engine’s unique attributes and strengths over previous generations of Polaris engines.
We’ve never hidden the fact we think Ski-Doo’s rMotion skidframe delivers the most compliant ride of any trail suspension in the marketplace. Certainly, the competition could argue against that claim – because, frankly, the current state of ride quality has never been better for snowmobilers, no matter what brand you choose.
We’re going to stick with our viewpoint, but deliver a caveat. Despite denials from the yellow faithful, we are equally as adamant, Ski-Doo, in the past decade or so, has not delivered number one rated handling prowess.
A giant shift occurred in model year 2025 with a complete redesign of the front steering and suspension with the new RAS RX front end.
By raising the sled’s roll center and keeping its center of gravity low, the engineers have allowed the chassis to have less leverage on the skis, to corner flatter and reduce inside ski lift when cornering at speed. The changes have also made the turning arc of the sled more linear and predictable to steering inputs over rough terrain.
Roll Center refers to the imaginary point at the front of a snowmobile’s chassis (between the skis) where the inputs from the skis and suspension intersect as the sled cycles through its suspension movement or steers through corners. If it’s too low, you get ski-lift, body roll and imprecise handling.
Ski-Doo raised the roll center on RAS RX adding completely new castings that have lengthened the distance between the A-arm attachment points and the distance between the lower A-arm and the ski saddle. This longer spindle raises the front of the sled slightly and has much to do with raising the roll center.
Besides the longer spindle, the ski’s pivot bolt has been moved backward a bit resulting in a steeper steering angle. This makes the sled much “quicker steering” or responsive to the driver’s feeding of input into the handlebars.
Other changes to the swaybar, shock angles and the addition of new curved upper and lower wishbones helps the RAS-RX deal with bumps better and particularly, the curved A-arms help deliver increased useable travel.
Does all this work and actually make a tangible difference? You bet it does. Our test riders are sold on RAS RX and unanimously, very impressed.
Over the years I’ve participated in countless incredible snowmobiling adventures around the world with our crew but a trip with my little bro, Mike, was long overdue.
Individually, Mike and I have both had memorable experiences riding in Upstate NY, so when the call came for an opportunity to visit the Adirondacks region once again, we jumped at the chance to go together.
Departing from our headquarters in Central/Northern Ontario, we were looking at about a six-hour drive to Lake Placid where our adventure would commence. For reference, Lake Placid, NY is about a three-hour drive from Canada’s capitol city of Ottawa and only two or three hours from New York State’s capitol of Albany as well as the Vermont state line.
Lake Placid, infamous for twice hosting the winter Olympics and USA Men’s improbable Olympic hockey Gold Medal in 1980, is a stunning and picturesque town set in the middle of the Adirondack mountains.
Herb Brooks Arena, site of the “Miracle on Ice” where USA’s 1980 Men’s Hockey team surprised everyone by winning the Gold Medal.
The finest place to stay there is the Crowne Plaza Hotel, situated atop the town’s signature vista overlooking the many quaint shops, restaurants and, of course, the Adirondack mountains with Mirror Lake in the background. Truly breathtaking!
For us though, the best part about staying at the Crowne Plaza was the abundance of parking for snowmobiles and trailers with immediate and easy access to the main snowmobile trails.
The Crowne Plaza is perfect for snowmobilers with its warm décor, top notch restaurant/bar, indoor pool, hot tub and comfortable beds.
For this trip, we hooked up with Sara-Placid Sled and Spoke in Saranac Lake and rented a pair of sweet Polaris Patriot 650 Switchback XC’s. Sled and Spoke has a fabulous fleet of new Polaris sleds to rent and it is located right on the Rail Trail in Saranac Lake, just a few miles from Lake Placid.
Our sleds were perfect for this adventure and we can’t thank Sled and Spoke enough for being so awesome to work with and helping us get on the trails quickly.
There are many advantages to renting sleds in NY and we definitely recommend looking into SledandSpoke.com
Off to the Races
The first morning, after a solid night’s rest and hearty breakfast at the Crown Plaza, we rode directly from the parking lot onto a short jack-rabbit trail linking to the wide-open Rail Trail (C7B) towards the town of Saranac Lake and eventually Tupper Lake. The Rail Trail from Lake Placid through Saranac Lake, with a fresh dumping of snow from the night before, got our blood pumping.
There’s plenty of places to stop for food along the Rail Trail, like RiverTrail Beerworks in Saranac Lake where we popped in for one of the best dining experiences on the trip. As you pass through Saranac Lake you’ll eventually come across a well-known snowmobilers’ meeting spot called Charlie’s Inn.
From here, you can head west to Malone, NY but this time we continued straight ahead towards Tupper Lake to fill up with fuel and turned around for another fun trek back to the Crowne Plaza in Lake Placid to warm up and walk just down the hill to town for dinner.
We highly recommend making a stop at RiverTrail for outstanding food options and the most amazing service. You’ll see it from the Rail trail in Saranac Lake.
And Now for Something Completely Different
On our second day, we packed up the sleds in the trailer and took a 50-mile jaunt over to the infamous Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake where we would set up base and explore more technical riding around Newcomb and Indian Lake.
The historic Adirondack Hotel is super-popular with snowmobilers. It has been around since the 1800’s and features tasty comfort food and a super-cool bar to swap stories at the end of the day. Guest rooms are warm, cozy with on-suite bathrooms and owners and staff are fantastic people.
Riding directly from the parking lot of the Adirondack Hotel, we quickly hooked up to the C7B trail system and were lucky enough to be the first down the pipe after the groomer. Thank you, Indian Lake Snow Warriors! Needless to say, the pure peanut butter smooth trails were some of the best we’ve ever experienced all the way to Newcomb and Indian Lake. We’re not worthy!
Signage was really good up here too and we had no trouble navigating our way around without a guide.
Once we got to Indian Lake, we filled up the sleds and grabbed a quick bite across the street at Indian Lake Restaurant so we could get back to those incredible trails leading to Long Lake and some chill time at the Adirondack Hotel home base. The trails were just a sweet on the way home.
The scenery along the trails in this area really has to be experienced to be appreciated with wide, winding groomed excellence snowmobilers dream of.
If you haven’t snowmobiled in the Adirondacks in Upstate New York, you’re really missing out. Take your significant other to Lake Placid for more relaxed riding and plush accommodations and go with your buddies for a more down-home, die-hard snowmobiling experience in Long Lake, Indian Lake and Newcomb. We enjoyed every second in both areas and we’re willing to bet you will too.
You may have noticed we’ve been quiet regarding the situation at Arctic Cat. Since our last release almost two months ago we’ve been monitoring the status of what appears to be a deal in progress. However, we do not want to get ahead of what’s really transpiring.
In our last writing we announced ARGO, makers of legendary 4, 6 and 8 wheeled Extreme Terrain Vehicles, ATVs and SXS, was definitely in play to ultimately acquire Arctic Cat. We haven’t said more than that reality – until today.
If you read our last release you heard ARGO’s CEO Brad Darling, the pre-Textron Vice President of Arctic Cat, was strongly rumored to be leading a purchase of Arctic Cat. Darling’s roots run deep in the snowmobile industry and he is well respected by everyone at Arctic Cat. We expect if Darling stick-handles a deal with Textron his team will have the best interests of the brand, the loyal legion of Arctic Cat owners and an anxious and proud dealer network.
So why are we reporting on this rumored acquisition of Arctic Cat by ARGO? Today, March 5th, Darling is in Thief River Falls, Minnesota with an important group of business leaders who appeared to be inspecting the TRF production facility.
To be completely clear, what we’ve reported here is true and accurate. However, it does not mean there will be a sale of Arctic Cat. We will go out on a limb and say this move today is extremely encouraging and appears to point to a deal that’s well on its way. Our contacts say this inspection of the TRF facilities by the team Darling is leading is a strong indication a deal could be as little as 60 days away.
Obviously, time is of the essence to finalize a deal and still offer a MY2026 new model lineup. From what we understand at this writing it is entirely possible this can happen, pending a successful sale.
This story is moving fast – real fast – and we will bring any new info to our valued readers and viewers as expeditiously as possible.
Luke explores the expanded versatility of the Ski-Doo Backcountry snowmobile line-up and how there’s pretty much a Backcountry model for just about any level of rider whether your focus is riding mostly on-trail or off.
AJ takes a look at winterizing your side-x-side to get year-round use out it with a Commander HD4 track kit from Kimpex.
Then he’s in the TRAIL TECH shop showing you how to update your 2023 or 2024 Ski-Doo 10.25-inch display to get the most out of its GPS capabilities.
Then in TEST RIDE, Motorhead Mark hits the trails aboard the 2025 Ski-Doo MXZ XRS 137 featuring the 850 E-TEC engine, SMART-SHOX semi-active suspension and the all-new RAS RX front end with Pilot RX skis.
