Combine a sledhead and backcountry skier, mix in a bunch of fresh snow and Central Idaho mountains, and you have one very new breed of skier. With such a new breed skier, there are some conflicts. As a rule of thumb backcountry skiers do not like snowmobiliers. And vice versa is true, usually snowmobiliers dislike backcountry skiers.

Many telemark skiers are proud to be called Meadow Skippers, solitude seekers, pin-heads. The purists anyway. Skins, boots, skis, poles, peep, shovel and a mountain of good snow is all that is needed for an outing. Granted, not all backcountry skiers telemark, and not all consider themselves meadow skippers. The alpine tourings(rondenee) reserection, it's popularity turning in the form of outstanding gear, seems as popular as telemarking on backcountry slops. And then of course, there are backcountry snowboarders, benifiting in rescent years from the split board. With all of the backcountry gear available, it is no wonder why its popularity has stormed the mountains. As the current generation of backcountry skiers ages -- snowboarding, tele-skiing and alpine touring alike -- it is of no wonder that machines become a vertical leveraging option.

The inherent problem between backcountry skiers and sledheads stem from each disciplines roots. 'Meadow Skipping' agrees with long tours, the event of getting out, the enjoyment of winter stews and breads waiting for them after a days worth. Backcountry skiers are meadow skippers, just as a mogul skiers might have stick chacing roots. And vice versa is true. Enjoying a tranquil mountain setting is for a Meadow skipper, as a big air is for a dayglow freestyler. For us, un-tracked powder and fresh air are only complimented by solitude. Meadow skippers can also enjoy living on the edge, skiing everything they can physically approach.

Of these Meadow Skippers, many of them strong skiers with adventurous motives, some feel snowmobiles violate their right to untracked powder, exhaust free air, noise free drainages. These violations make many meadow skipping backcountry skiers contemptuos of sledheads.

If a meadow skipper embodies the North Artic, then the snowmobile is at the other pole, trying to high mark Antarctica's Mount Vinson Massif.

Horse Power. Raw Power. Throttle. BWAAAAAAA! BWAAAAAAAAA! Rocky Mountain Kings and Artic Cats. Long tracks, wide skis and extended handle bars. Piped. With a hotdog cooker on the exhaust manafold. Now you're talking sledhead.

Throw in a big trailer and a new diesel power stroke truck and you have what many a snowmobilier desires in a day in the mountains. Sledheads see a mountain for how far they can get, how high they can go straight up and high mark a slope or maybe get some air off the top cornice. The advent of the extreme generation has not left snowmobiliers diggin out.

Their dislike for backcountry skiers is common. The Boulder Mountains north of Ketchum, Idaho has been a hot spot for the contempt between the two rival backcountry enthusiests. Snowmobiles high mark most available slopes, and backcountry skiers complained. Then a bunch(maybe one) sledneck decided to torch a yurt used by skiers. Burned it to the ground.

In Idaho, the weekend jangle can be bitter. Winter mountain parking lots are commonly plowed with money taken from a state snowmobile licensing budget, where backcountry skiers frequent. Parking lots become full, leaving skiers and snowmobiliers to inhabit closed quarters. Pissing matches become common after contempt from each corner rears its head. Sledheads could give a shitless about the backcountry skiers as a whole, because they pay for the parking lot.

There is a lighter, family side to sledheads. Atop high ridge lines in the West Mountain area near McCall, large night rides take birgades of machines in groups to probably often unknown turn-around points. Seeing a trail 400, circa 1970 riding a steep trail with a large rosey cheeked Idahoan is local privilidge. Along groomed trails in the Boise Mountains ride families of weekend warriors on their prized sleds. Colorful groups. Peaceful. Friendly.

It is known that dedicated skiers turn sledhead once they get into a 700 or 800cc snowmobile. But, few have ever heard of a sledhead turn backcountry skier after buying new ski gear.

Skiers who use a snowmobile as a tool to their end -- skiing a great line -- are a new breed of skier. And nobody likes them. Skiers dislike them because they snowmobile. Snowmobilers dislike them because often they don't have a red enough neck for their tastes. While this new breed may not be popular in the parking lots for backcountry access, they are becoming more popular, appearing in more areas to ski what was often considered un-skiable without multiple days to complete the approach.

Any snowmobile skier worth there weight in two stroke oil, has lived the tea sipping life as a meadow skipper. They have trancended the limits placed on them by greenies and REI employees, and dig themselves out of snow troughs as deep as the new ground they break. They smile, and laugh, as they sometimes lead lead seasoned slednecks into untouched backcountry terrain, and smile when pulling three skiers and a boarder to a day of fresh turns. They're not going away, and will only push the boundries they posed to themselves as backcountry skiers.