COMPARISON / 2025 MOUNTAIN SLED COMPARISON
Arctic Cat M 858 Mountain Cat Polaris 9R Pro RMK Ski-Doo Summit X with Expert Package 850 Turbo R Lynx Shredder DS 850 Turbo R
BY T . J . KROB PHOTOS BY WAYNE DAVIS
Constant Evolution Powers The Mountain Sled Class
t wasn ’ t that long ago , in the big picture of things , that a mountain sled was just a standard trail sled with a slightly longer track and narrowed ski stance . Thank goodness for evolution ! The powder-churning , hillside-dangling long-track machines of today seemingly get more mountain-capable with every passing year . Places that seemed nearly impossible to reach in deep-snow conditions not that long ago are now just a braap away when a skilled mountain rider is paired with one of these extremely capable machines .
Beyond that , even just moderately experienced western riders can now do amazing things in the backcountry when aboard a modern deep-snow sled .
Our attempts for a direct mountain sled shootout featuring sleds with similar powerplants , aspiration types and track lengths / lug profiles was once again thwarted by the machines the factories had available during our test time . But we still have a lot of feedback to share on the 2025 Arctic Cat M 858 Mountain Cat Alpha One with ATAC , Polaris 9R Pro RMK 165 , Ski-Doo Summit X with Expert Package 850 E-TEC Turbo R 154 and Lynx Shredder DS 850 E-TEC Turbo R 3900 we rode together last spring in Montana .
We ’ ll share details on the makeup of each machine , and then shift our focus to how each of these slayers fulfills the needs of various riders and ride types , based on feedback from our test team .
20 / FEBRUARY 2025 / SNOWGOER . COM