I’m sitting on the back of a snowmobile holding on for dear life while pro skier Rachael Burks blasts the machine we’re riding up a snow-covered road deep in Utah’s Uinta Mountains. “This is so fun!” Burks yells over the buzz of the engine. We’re towing a sturdy plastic toboggan behind us, loaded with backcountry ski gear and enough food and beer to last us two days in the wilderness.
Our destination? Castle Peak Yurt, a dome-shaped backcountry hut that was originally installed in this area decades ago but was rebuilt brand-new last summer. Situated at 9,800 feet in the western Uintas, it’s a six-mile approach up an old logging road to reach the yurt, and while more purist backcountry skiers will do that on foot and carry in their own supplies, we’re getting a motorized bump. Lucky us.