It was a perfect early spring riding day. Mother Nature had just cast a 6-inch blanket of dry snow upon a near-record snowpack in the high elevations near Mt. Jefferson along the Idaho/Montana border. The small group of riders had picked their way through the trees to reach the alpine region where the trees opened up and offered high mountain meadows and steep sidehills.

One twisty drainage provided a tight approach to a steep off-camber sidehill that crested the ridge to access the open riding. The snow was exceptionally deep as we picked our way up the north-facing ravine that offered a limited gap between two potential slide areas that we wanted to avoid that day.

The first sled up the drainage was an Arctic Cat. Setting the first marks through the tight narrow drainage, it shot through an 8-foot gap in the trees and attacked the sidehill. After about 15 yards the steep and deep quickly proved too much and the Cat spun to the right and quickly retreated back down through the slot in the trees.

Next up was the Polaris. Taking advantage of the Cat tracks leading to the gap in the trees, it blasted into the sidehill with nearly twice the thrust and shot nearly 40 yards up the sidehill before losing its momentum and being forced to spin around and retreat back down the drainage.

Although flotation rules in deep snow, track speed and quick spins have ushered in a new style of riding. It’s no longer a “point and shoot” your way to the top. The instant change-of-direction riding style where riders throw their leg out and step into a 90-to-270-degree spin and keep moving forward has become part of mountain riding. And there’s no better track length than a 146 to facilitate this maneuver.

All five manufacturers—Ski-Doo, Polaris, Arctic Cat, Yamaha and Lynx—carry crossover models that are based on the 146-inch track. Most of them have integrated the 146 track into their mountain line.

The SnoWest test riders took a closer look at the 146s in the mountain segment during the 2024 Snow Shoots held in West Yellowstone, Mont., last winter. We found that if you are aggressive and imaginative, you can take any of these sleds into areas most snowmobilers do their best to avoid.

Although both models feature multiple track lengths and configurations, we will focus mainly on the 154/155 lengths with 3-inch and 3.25-inch profiles. For 2024 Ski-Doo made a major change by putting a 15-inch wide track on the Freeride.

As the SnoWest Snow Test crew put these two models through a strenuous workout in extreme mountain terrain, it was difficult to tell which one they preferred. Both seemed to have some particular strengths, and our riders also had individual riding preferences.

“The Khaos RMK is consistently more active and playful in any track length,” explained Rhett Clark. “I needed to keep referring to the tunnel to see what track length was under me.”

But there’s a little more at stake when you look at the entire package. Track length, width, profile and lug pattern must match your snowmobile capabilities for maximum effect. The bigger the track, the more power required to spin it; the more effort required to steer the snowmobile, the more suspension required to handle the bumps.

For 2024, Polaris has introduced its 325 Series 9 track on select mountain sleds and the response from those who have had a chance to ride it are very positive. For SnoWest test rider Rhett Clark, the 325 Series 9 is the feature that stands out for the 2024 Polaris mountain line. “The 325 Series 9 track was a big surprise but a welcome one,” he explained.

Fellow test rider Bruce Kerbs agrees. “The major selling point for Polaris this year is the 3.25-inch track,” he said. “I would recommend this track to anyone.”

On January 7, 2023, I was leading a level 2 Motorized Avalanche Class for Mercier’s Mountain Riding School in Grand County, Colo. Jeremy Mercier is a big advocate of avalanche education and classes are taught at his school. We had a very experienced and accomplished group of riders in their second day of class; most had just completed an eight-hour avalanche rescue class two days prior. Part of the level 2 class is having students lead and route find, through avalanche terrain. They plan routes the night before and we evaluate terrain and their selected routes in the backcountry. The students did an excellent job of picking routes to avoid triggering and being in the runout for avalanches. It was considerable avalanche danger and the avalanche problem was a persistent slab with caution to avoid wind loaded slopes. We had just finished digging snow pits, analyzing the stability of the snowpack and were on our way out at the end of the day.