Welcome to our “From Problem to Product” blog, where we tell the stories behind the inspiration for some of our most popular product designs. We share how a problem we faced out there riding inspired the Mountain Lab product that provides a solution.

Ski Pull Strap: How to Get a Snowmobile Unstuck

The Problem: Stuck Snowmobile

Our Ski Pull Strap was inspired by riding with the crew of Team Thunderstruck!

Here’s the back story:

Over more than a decade of producing content for Mountain Sledder magazine, we had the opportunity to ride a number of times with some of the core guys of the Thunderstruck crew.

The first took place in 2013 when the magazine had been kindly invited by mountain riding OG Randy Swenson to demo Yamaha’s following model year prototype for a story—an MPI boosted four-stroke 2014 Nytro M-TX.

Say it with me: "Booooooooooooooosssttt!"

Now those of you familiar with the boosted Nytro will understand that it had loads of power and is super fun to ride, but it is built like a tank and heavy—especially if you (unfairly) compare it to today's production two-stroke sleds.

Us, learning to find the balance point of the Nytro M-TX

You may also recall that forced induction four-strokes were the real deal big mountain mod sled of the day, and those who wanted to break trail and access the biggest terrain after a huge dump in the Monashees were commonly riding heavily modified Yamaha Nytro and Apex sleds at the time.

Randy, enjoying some of that deep pow pow

Now, these guys were getting into the true steep-and-deep where, despite all operator proficiency, there is an inevitable tendency to get sleds stuck. And when you bury a turbo four-stoke with a modified skid and 174” track, it can be a mighty big chore to get going again. So the Thunderstruck guys had come up with a pretty great plan on how to get a snowmobile unstuck in response to this problem.

Eagle Pass has many opportunities for uphill fun (and good stuck potential as well)

The solution is two-fold: 1) all hands on deck (it takes a village you know), and 2) pink straps. 

A few of the guys carried a loop of webbing (I don’t know why it was pink, but that stands out in my memory), which they would use to attach to low and hard-to-reach points to aid in pulling and heaving.

With the entire crew working on it and a few pink straps on hand allowing better pulling positions, that 600 lb. beast of a sled would be out and moving again in no time.

Team Thunderstruck, putting their ingenious pink straps to use

The Product: Ski Pull Strap

Thankfully, the modern production sleds we ride today are lighter and more capable than even the most highly modded sled from a dozen years ago. But they still are heavy and they still get stuck! Sometimes even going downhill when the fresh stuff is really bottomless.

You know it's an epic powder day when its possible to get stuck riding downhill even. This little old REV XM didn't stand a chance.

The idea behind the strap is it allows riders to pull or lift the sled from a better pulling position for greater strength but also importantly, to help prevent injury.

Like a lot of guys, I’ve injured my back by lifting a heavy object from a bent over position. In my case, it was the result of lifting an old trail sled that had snapped the jackshaft in the middle of a poker run. I tried to heave it off the trail by myself (like the hero I want to be) and felt a sharp pain in my lower back that 10 years later I’m still dealing with (like the regular ol' dad I factually am).

So when your sled skis are pointing to the sky and your track is buried halfway to the Earth’s core, you can attach the strap down low on the bumper and lift from an upright standing position above. Beautiful.

It also works really well for pulling on a ski to help get a little forward momentum for a ‘pin and wiggle’ type extraction. This is how I most often use the strap and why it lives permanently in my snowmobile bibs pocket, always ready for action at a moment’s notice. My riding buddies call it as the “Pat Strap” because I always have one handy, but I really can’t take credit. Perhaps a name like “Pink Puller” rings truer. But we just called it the Ski Pull Strap.

The Ski Pull Strap works very well for the ol' pin and wiggle extraction technique

As we do at Mountain Lab, we were inspired by the pink strap and looked at ways that we could improve on it. Here's what we came up with:

Compact and lightweight:

• A standard webbing loop is great for fall protection where strength is a matter of life and death, but for simply yarding on a sled we can get away with a lighter duty webbing. It’s still rated for 700 lbs, so unless you’re Superman you won’t be able to apply enough force to break it.
• Rather than using a full loop, we sewed loops into each end to reduce the total amount of webbing required, so it fits nicely into a pocket. And it eliminates the need for any bulky knots.

Fits nicely in a pocket

Pulling

• On one end, we’ve added two loops so you can pull with both hands without having them squished together. Or, if you have two people pulling on one strap, each has their own loop to pull on.

AA standard climbing sling works okay for pulling, but there is no way to adjust the length and your hands tend to get squished together

• Both ends have at least one sewn loop. This way, for example in a situation in which you want a short strap for a more ideal pulling position, it can be hitched around the middle and pulled on both ends by one or two people.

Our Ski Pull Strap allows for a variety of lengths and multiple pulling loops

Visibility

• We made our strap bright orange, so it’s easy to find when dropped in the snow. It’s maybe not as cool as pink, but we thought maybe it would be a more universally appealing colour and it matches our brand better.

She may not be pink, but she sure is pretty

So there you have it; the story behind our Ski Pull Strap and how it can help you get your snowmobile unstuck more easily and help avoid long-term damage to your lower back.

Don’t leave home without it!

– Pat Winslow, Product Manager