Counter-steering: How it works and why it is the essential backcountry riding skill 

I have a different take on why it works but I appreciate this explanation because it is certainly true that the ski deep in the snow is adding yaw. Unfortunately it's in front so that yaw has limited authority. I believe everyone ignores the fact that the sled, in powder, is operating in 3D. It has not only yaw, but also roll and pitch. The weight shift of the rider is important. But just like a motorcycle what the coutersteer does is move the sled out from underneath you. The countersteer and weight shift now initiates a roll motion. As you find you can increase the turn by throttle applied at the proper time to unload the skis and thus increase pitch angle (through trenching) and increase roll rate through everything just happening faster. Go go death ride ;) It is this pitch and roll angle that turns you. Just like an aircraft. If it was the ski, you could countersteer, weight shift, and release the throttle and that would increase yaw as you increase load on the skis. But it's the opposite. --> Increase pitch, unload the skis, get that mass rolling in the correct direction, magic sharp turn. The snowmobile is climbing around a banked corner it has created by its roll and pitch angle. You can add your fore and aft CG change to make the sled do even more aggressive turns in addition to throttle work. This eventually leads to Bowties and other wacky moves.

i am a "old" bikerider, counter steering is natural on my Yamaha R6 or my Husaberg FS650. but i never thought riding a snowmobile was SO similar to ride a bike, not entierly. i did see it another video. and i do see on the extreme snowmobile riders it looks very alike a bike rider. so i tride my self now that we had much much more snow and had deep powder snow in Sweden. And yes it was mindblowing. i applied some of my bike thinking and skill. and the sled where just going there i looked without thinking. I am still very novies as a sled rider. and i have to practise more and my throttle control needs to be improved. but what i can say is sense the day i understood it was very similar as bikeriding many things become easer and more flow in my riding. to add some context, i did ride for 3 years a Arctic Cat zr 440 with a 600cc EFI engien. low, flat wide toad. but this winter i upgraded to a Lynx Xterrain 600R and that is much narrower and taller. and you sit in a very different posision compare to my 20 year old Arctic Cat. so the Lynx is more suited for "bike like" riding. Counter steering on my Yamaha R6 makes the bike "fall in to" the corner i am turning in.

You actually can’t ride a bike, motored or not, without counter steering. It’s caused by gyroscopic precession.

Great explanations! I've always pictured counter steer on a sidehill as turning the skis downhill, so the track tries to go uphill. Probably against those pesky physics laws, but in my mind it's Einstein levels of physics study. You should come to Utah, there are place you go and be at least 10-15 minutes away from the nearest restaurant! Incredible!!

Half the snowmobile enthusiasts out there do NOT know a thing about counter steering. It drives me nuts especially in the mountains. Heck anywhere actually 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂😂😂. Very good explanation dude!!!!!

Like #23. Great Job AJ. MINT! the animation of the "front of the left ski trying to drag you out that way"...that's what my 67 yr old buddy needs to see for this to make sense to him. Thanks. Umm, finally got him to do his first pin-n-wiggle it to get unstuck. [i talked him into a 154 summit instead of a 20 inch wide track, haha]

This is such an awesome and needed explanation! Bravo!

You have solved what is missing in my counter steering. PENGUIN FARTS! Jokes aside this video for some people like me might make learning counter steering easier then other big youtubers guides that are kind of a just watch this and copy this lol

great video

This was brilliantly done! Explaining the foundation like you did make perfect sense. God those penguins are nasty I have been their victim a few time in my snowmobiler career. No more. Now I understand.