New toy, Lynx Rave SC 600 E-TEC

I went riding yesterday with my new snowmobile, Lynx Rave SC 600 E-TEC, 2011. I drove a bit above 80 km, Ouluntulli-Muhos-Ouluntulli, and the trail was in the usual condition which means quite worn out and bumpy. I must say that based on the first experience the new sled is absolutely great. My old one, 2006 Lynx X-Trim 600 SDI, was so heavy and clumsy in tight corners. The new sled is tens of kilos lighter and the driving position is improved. I also invested in better suspension and better skis than in the original SC 600. And already now without any adjustments the package worked really good for me. I guess I'm the average size so the default settings work pretty good for me.

Also the wind shield is just the right size. It's big enough to actually cover you from the wind and yet it's not too big so it would look like a sail. It was -15 C degrees yesterday and it didn't feel cold at all. And I'm really not interested in driving in much colder conditions.

There were only two issues I noticed. First of all either the seat is really slippery or my new pants are more slippery than the old ones. And I keep hitting my right knee painfully to the edge of the hole in the hood for the starting device. So I need to buy knee pads but I was planning to buy those anyway.

I can't wait to get the breaking in phase to end so I get to use the full potential of the engine. Only 400 km to go to that :)

Snowmobiling in Riksgränsen

I was on a snowmobiling club's trip to Riksgränsen, Sweden last week. And I have to say WOW! It was simply amazing. The fells there are something else compared to the low one's in Finland and you're allowed to drive anywhere, no need to stay on dedicated snowmobiling trails. This means you get to do hill-climbing on untouched snow.

This time there was a lot of snow and it was packed hard with only 5-10 cm of loose snow on top of it. This meant you could basically drive anywhere climbing unbelievably steep and high hills. And there wasn't much of a risk to hit a stone hidden under the snow.

We drove to Riksgränsen on Thursday and arrived at around 10 pm local time. Kari's Ford Excursion did a good job towing all our five sleds on the trailer, no problem there. Only small hick-up was when we started the trip back and the break of one of the trailer's wheels was dragging. After a few kilometers we stopped to check if everything was ok and saw smoke coming from the breaks. A little knocking on the bolts released the break and snow on the rim cooled it down so we were able to continue.

We stayed at Katterjåkk in a new apartment hotel that was opened last year. Another one of the two apartments we had had a sauna so it was ok. The apartments were specified to be for 2+2 but really 3 is the max number of grown ups for one room. Based on the number of sleds on the parking area there were more than twenty other snowmobilers also staying in the Katterjåkk.

But back to the snowmobiling. First day the weather was just great, sun shining all the time. Somehow we ended up driving our sleds to Abisko which made absolutely no sense at all as there was no snow left there. And we even knew it as we saw it the day before when we drove by it in a car. One of the sleds, Pekka's Yamaha Phazer almost died there as the cooling fluid started to boil and and there was a problem with a broken slide runner that ripped the track. Also Kari's Polaris had cooling problems when there was only ice or very icy snow. Anyway after a lunch in a restaurant in Abisko we headed back to fells except Pekka who's Yamaha was broken. In the end Pekka was able to fix it into such a condition that he was able to drive back to Katterjåkk in Riksgränsen on the ice of the lake Torneträsk.

The rest of us drove to Unna Allakas and were planning to drive to see Kebnekaise as against our original thoughts we had been told that it is allowed to drive there if you stay on the trail. Well it was not allowed and we were told so and we had to ditch that plan. Then we ended up spending the rest of the day moving back towards Katterjåkk climbing up nice hills we saw along the trail. The second day started also well as the weather was ok. We headed to northern side of Riksgränsen and basically did hill climbing all the day until early afternoon when we went to Katterjåkk for a lunch and a short break. After the break the weather was turning worse with clouds covering the sky and after an hour of driving it started to snow lightly. After about 2 hours of driving the it started storming and visibility was so lousy we had to quickly head back to Katterjåkk.

As the trip takes about 9 hours from Riksgränsen to Oulu, we didn't do any snopwmobiling on Sunday but just drove back to Oulu. On the way back it was agreed that we will be back to Riksgränsen next year the same time. The only exception to this year will be that we'll leave there already 5 AM on Thursday so we get to drive snowmobiles a little already that evening.

Snowmobiling season started

So I went snowmobiling with couple of friends on Saturday more than a week ago. We took the sledges to Puolanka (~130 km from Oulu) on a trailer. The load on the trailer was way too much on the front, which made driving interesting. But there was no way to load these three snowmobiles any differently on that trailer. And in the end my CR-V managed the task quite ok.

We drove the sledges from Puolanka to Paljakka ski resort and back. It wasn't too long trip for the seasons first one, 95 km all together, but the trail was in quite bad shape. Especially when the trail after 15 km leaves the pretty straight power line and you turn towards Paljakka.
I was totally beaten after the trip. My back muscles and thighs were absolutely finished. It took until Wednesday before I was fully re-covered from the trip (what comes to muscle pains). I also got influenza after the trip. I don't know if the disease kicking in is partly the reason I got so sore or whether the exhausting trip made way for the disease to get hold of me.

I must say that I haven't seen anyone treat touring snowmobile as my friend did with his Yamaha RS Venture TF. It's a very heavy touring sledge with 4-stroke engine and he drove it like it was a light sports model. I must say I didn't think that snowmobile can take that kind of beating.

Some comments about the new snowmobile gear I bought before the trip. The cloves felt very good in the beginning. Very tight grip and good feel with the break and throttle. But after 30 km jumping up and down on the worn out bumpy track
my left hand palm started to feel bad. By the time we got back from driving, I had 5 huge blisters in my left hand and one on the right hand. So these cloves were a bit of disappointment.
The boots on the other hand were very good. They are relatively light and support the ankle very well while also giving good cover for heel and toes against shocks.

Snowmobiling and greenhouse effect

It seems like there's going to be a second snowless Christmas (at least Christmas Eve) in a row in Oulu. Last year it happened the first time in 30 years. I have no doubt that the greenhouse effect is true and actually happening right here right now. There's no denying global warming.

This raises an important question: is it ethical to drive around for fun on a snowmobile burning oil and causing CO2 emissions? I'm sure all the "tree huggers" think it definitely is not ethical and should be banned all together. And then there are the sledheads and all other motor crazy people that don't ever even stop to think about this. Most of the people, such as I, are somewhere between these two extremes. Personally, I think this is not an insignificant question at all. So far I have been driving my snowmobile with a mad grin in my face having a lot of fun. But I have to admit I do think about the environmental effects of snowmobiling and in recent couple of years more and more. Although I only drive 1200-1500 km/year this concerns me.

I know the emissions caused by my motoring even including commuting to work by a car are so small it doesn't affect anything. This makes it a bit easier for me to enjoy my hobby. But surely if everyone thought this way, no one would do anything to cut down CO2 emissions. So this still doesn't get me off the hook.

I also know that CO2 emissions caused by all the traffic on earth represent only a very very small fraction of all the CO2 emissions. Now it's getting a bit easier to breath but still I'm not quite sure if I can sleep and still keep snowmobiling.

I've also learned that this is not the first time the global warming is taking over. Actually our beloved Tellus has "lately" seen warmer periods in about every 100 000 years. Now it is almost 100 000 years from the latest temperature peak and we are getting close to the temperatures back then. So I believe that even if man never inhabited the earth, it would be about as warm now. But surely the emissions caused by us do have an effect but how big it actually is, I don't know. As far as I see no one can really say if what we have done so far has affected the global average temp by 0.5 Celsius degrees or 3 Celsius degrees. Phew, what a relief.

So I will still keep on snowmobiling but I'm not at all sure for how long. Will I stop when there is enough evidence to show that what man do actually has a great effect in the global warming? Probably. Will I stop if the great public opinion becomes hostile against it? Likely. Will I stop if my wife says so? For sure.
At latest I'll stop when there's no more snow, but will I start a new hobby with equally bad environmental effects like replace the sled with an ATV? I hope not.

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear scooters roar and moan