09/30/2026
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This summer Cal Taylor and Ben Hancock went to South America to experience riding snowmobiles in Chile! π¨π±
Swipe over to read what Ben (Ben Hancock) has to say about the trip!
Is Chile on your bucket list??
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This year I turned 40, and I felt like I needed to do something big to celebrate.
Outside of my family, snowmobiling is probably the thing I love most. Iβve spent a huge part of my life riding in the mountains, so when I started thinking about what I wanted to do for my 40th, a normal trip didnβt seem quite right.
I wanted an adventure.
For years I had seen Chris Burandt riding in Chile, and the idea always stuck with me. There arenβt many places in the Southern Hemisphere where you can find legitimate mountain snowmobiling in August, let alone the kind of terrain and snow that Chile can get.
So I found a buddy, Cal, who was crazy enough to go with me, and we headed to Chile to ride snowmobiles in the middle of our Utah summer.
Almost immediately, I realized how different riding in Chile was going to be.
We were riding around volcanoes in the AraucanΓa region, and the landscape was unlike anywhere I had ever ridden. The trees were enormous. At times it felt more like riding through Jurassic Park than going snowmobiling. Weβd weave through these huge trees and then suddenly get glimpses of the mountains and volcanoes surrounding us.
And it snowed.
Hard.
---> Swipe to read more.
We had hoped to spend a lot of time in the alpine, but with the weather coming down as hard as it was, we ended up spending a lot of the trip down in the trees.
That turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip.
We were in completely unfamiliar terrain, trying to pick our way through trees weβd never seen before, finding little openings, drainages and places to play as the snow continued piling up around us.
One of the most memorable parts of the trip was when we got to an area called La Paloma.
Our guide was staying with another customer and basically told Cal and me, βYou guys should go down in there and ride.β
So