Great news all you sled heads out there......

The World Championship Hill climb from Jackson Hole is streaming live this year...EVERY minute of the action..

http://snowdevils.org/hc2013Live.htm

A friend of mine, and fellow pilot, is doing the hill climb again this year for his 13th consecutive season. He is in his late 50s, which is pretty f#*%ing impressive when you see what these rides look like:



I ran into him at the airport last weekend, screwing carbide tipped screws into his sled tracks. He said his ride usually lasts about 13 seconds, so he figures it only costs him about $100 per second.

He also said his #1 rule is to try to be higher on the hill than his sled when everything goes to shit.

I can't see why anyone in their right mind would try to grab hold and save one of these from going down the hill when they power out. And these fools don't have helmets and protective gear etc like the rider does. Grabbing hold of a 400 pound 200 HP machine with a 150inch carbide tipped buzzsaw underneath spinning at who knows what RPM looks like a way to loose body pieces real fast.

I'm watching them while packing for a raft trip. This along with the snow we are getting is making me wish I was riding right now.

These guys don't need no stinking chair lifts!

How many runs is the course good for before it's hopelessly trashed? Seriously?

A few runs like that and people are going to taste mud and rocks! They move a lot of snow fast!

Rhyppa wrote:I can't see why anyone in their right mind would try to grab hold and save one of these from going down the hill when they power out. And these fools don't have helmets and protective gear etc like the rider does. Grabbing hold of a 400 pound 200 HP machine with a 150inch carbide tipped buzzsaw underneath spinning at who knows what RPM looks like a way to loose body pieces real fast.

Keep in mind that most of those of those clowns would otherwise be fighting bulls, chasing topless Reineers, or mugging wild horses. I was friends with David Shepherd, who won it several times, and he talked me into dogging sleds one year. This was the same year that one of the local Hardeman boys decided we needed hayhooks and football cleats. Trying to force a 400 pound sled into the nets was hard enough but trying not to get perforated by a 250 pound fresh shod redneck sliding 30mph on his arse with a hay-hook in his hand was even harder.

Great explanation regarding the mentality of the sled doggers. In the video above I love the guy in the T-shirt who scrambles underneath the spinning track as the rider cuts a rainbow arc right above him.

I think Rhyppa kind of answered his own question in the first sentence:

Rhyppa wrote:I can't see why anyone in their right mind...

Now the fun begins.....................

Qualifying is over for the stock and improved sleds and they opened up the top of the hill.......

The net is going to get a real workout...

Ps... Tomorrow is going to be great as there is a deep snowpack and the mod sleds will wad themselves up frequently....

Nosedragger........ We must know each other as I ran the master class on my mod sled for a few years....

We've met at Bergs shop Ben. He built my rk tek nitrous rev.

I watched them in person this morning. I just happen to be in Jackson on a trip. Pretty cool stuff

We have the circuit up at Pebble Creek once a year, and yeah it is a pretty good show. Hard to believe the way they can accelerate up a 45 degree snow covered slope! The power, and the way that power is transmitted to the surface is impressive. I also like to stroll the parking lot of the racers, it's like a tricked out pickup/trailer show in itself. Money does not seem to be a problem lets just say. The first couple years we locals bitched, as we got screwed out of a weekends skiing, but then they managed to work it out so the mountain stayed open as usual for us less their track, and now we all look forward to it. We get to continue to ride the chair lift directly above the steepest part, you can almost reach out and touch them but you're safe from getting run over like the people grabbing them when they start to lose it. IMPRESSIVE!

Cubtractor and Tom.........

Most people cannot appreciate just how STEEP the hill is for those sleds to climb unless you are actually standing there in person and looking up..

Stol wrote:Cubtractor and Tom.........

Most people cannot appreciate just how STEEP the hill is for those sleds to climb unless you are actually standing there in person and looking up..

It is crazy steep. I used to snowboard at Snow King all the time and that run under the lift is so stinking steep and moguled out it is almost not fun.

I was surprised at the snowbikes, I thought they would do well but they flailed. My buddy Tyler won amateur today, he said there's some BIG holes. Tomorrow should be good for some yardsales of billet pieces.

Nosedragger wrote:I was surprised at the snowbikes, I thought they would do well but they flailed. My buddy Tyler won amateur today, he said there's some BIG holes. Tomorrow should be good for some yardsales of billet pieces.

The snow bikes did more then flail... They were boring and an embarressment to the idea..

Agreed on the yard sale thing.... Chans new net is ALOT thicker and stiffer and it will shred stuff like no tomorrow.

Ps... I thought the Shepard kid did outstanding.. He is taking over right where David left off.. Must be something real good in the water up in Jackson Mt..

He had a good teacher. Here's a tribute he did for his Dad. David was only 36 when he got buried.