Ridden: Deep Snow and Rocky Mountain Air Can’t Tame the 2024 Ski-Doo Summit Adrenaline

Compared to the relatively small and nimble four-stroke Grand Touring Sport, which accepted novice riders with all the good graces of a well-to-do kindergarten teacher, the two-stroke Summit Adrenaline was an entirely different animal. This snowmobile will kill you if you don't respect its capabilities. It has the potential to hurt you, maim you, and debilitate you with all the uncaringness of the asteroid that tombstoned the dinosaurs, assuming you decide that you don't want to follow trail rules or the bare minimum of common sense.

It's just a part of the natural paradigm that comes with such a lightweight vehicle packing as much power as this one does. Even from a totally untrained eye, ignorant to the hobby of snowmobiling, there's a discernable visual difference in the sitting demeanor of the Summit Adrenaline compared to the smaller, less powerful Grand Touring Sport we rode earlier in the day. If the Grand Touring Sport was almost cuddly-looking in its stature, the Summit Adrenaline was positively menacing. Even the front LED headlights make for a menacing permanent scowl at the front end of this sled.

With proportions of between 122.4 and 130.6 inches (3,208-3,318 mm) in length, depending on the trim package, and 42 inches (1,073 mm) wide, the Summit's dimensions lend well to its aggressive, low-slung design language. The positively beefy rear track from Ski-Doo's proprietary PowderMax line measures either 146 x 16 x 2.5 or 154 x 16 x 2.5 inches, depending on the trim. Simply mounting yourself on top of the Summit Adrenaline for the first time and getting to grips with the controls gives the feeling of something far more powerful and capable than what we'd spent all morning becoming acclimated to.

Simply leaning one's body from side to side as if pretending to power through loose, freshly laid powdery snow reminds you how much weight there is to throw around on this sled, between 445 and 449 lbs worth, depending on trim. Without even starting the motor, the Summit Adrenaline had already made a huge impact. But then our guides, who'd been chaperoning and showing us the ropes throughout the day, told us to disengage the Summit's battery kill switch and start the engine.

As a part of Ski-Doo's in-house designed REV Gen5 snowmobile architecture, the Summit Adrenaline represents the best of both worlds when it comes to terrain. A machine capable of carving trails like it were smooth tarmac, as well as carving through feet of fresh powder like it's nothing at all, the Summit Adrenaline gives all the capabilities of a purpose-built crossover snowmobile while still being marketed very much like a deep snow sled.

In truth, there isn't much a person could ask of a snowmobile that the Summit Adrenaline can't handle. With 8.5 inches of suspension travel up front and 10.2 inches in the rear via KYB 36 shocks front, back, and center, there are side-by-sides and light trucks without suspension hardware that robust. As far as solid foundations for the considerable level of engine power of this sled, the two pair together like overpriced wine and unpronounceable imported cheese.

Speaking of the engine, it's a marvel within itself. It's an 850 cc, liquid-cooled, two-stroke Rotax V twin engine with electronic fuel injection and positively chunky injectors. Compared to the relatively docile and easily controllable 600 cc four-stroke Rotax V twin we trialed that morning, this two-stroke motor with just 250 more ccs of displacement is enough to change the riding mannerisms profoundly.

It's easy to think of this little Rotax E-TEC two-stroke engine as like a Honda V-Tec system built for the snow. I.e., an engine all too happy to rev with delight no matter the spot in the rev range or the ride conditions. A tiny blip of the thumb-operated throttle of the Summit Adrenaline is enough to get you moving. The fact the clutch won't let the engine free spin when it's at idle is another key factor. With 165 hp to play with at sea level, we were at least a few horses down from that figure well north of ten thousand feet into the Rocky Mountains. Not that any of us noticed this, of course.

Once you're off and running, the Summit Adreneline's throttle becomes the key to a symphony of madness that could only come from a well-sorted, two-stroke motor. Getting up to cruising speeds on packed trail snow took only millimeters of throttle input. Anything past that gets you moving so quickly that you could legitimately go flying off the sled if you don't brace yourself properly. Though it's hard to verify with a snowmobile, it wouldn't be surprising if the Summit Adrenaline could crack zero to 60 mph in around three seconds flat and possibly even faster.

Over pre-marked trails and deep snow banks along the sides, there was nothing the Summit Adrenaline didn't glide over as if to give each of Newton's laws of physics the middle finger. To veteran riders of Ski-Doo deep snow snowmobiles, this is nothing new. But to us newbies, this was nothing short of witchcraft. That was especially true when our guides lured us off the beaten path to a patch of three-foot-deep snow seemingly carved by a divine hand with its breathtaking vastness.

In the hands of someone even semi-competent riding over deep snow, the Summit Adrenaline was breathtaking in its capability. In our review of the 2024 Grand Touring Sport, we noted how our guides could glide over deep snow, almost like ballerinas on the smaller four-stroke sled. But their movements were more like Dance Dance Revolution in the Summit Adrenaline. Such is the way you have to move to keep enough of your weight over the front skis while the enormous rear track brute-forced its way through the snow so deep you'd expect a bear to think twice before walking through it.

That killer combination of power and track grip in the capable hands of our guides allowed them to effortlessly cross deep powder to assist us when we inevitably forgot to throttle our way through the snow and got stuck. All while we were writhing and gasping for breath as we lay there, our sleds tipped over and the Rocky Mountain air making a half-hearted attempt to suffocate us. As it turns out, the Summit Adrenaline can justify its existence as an upper-body workout as much as it can as a snowmobile. It was to the point one of the less experienced among us (me) was crying uncle after about 15 minutes.

Admittedly, you can't exactly pin any of that down to the sleds we were riding. In every department other than the out-of-shape goober (me) at the controls, the Ski-Doo Summit Adrenaline is nothing short of a marvelous machine. Albeit, not one without its faults. Maybe those of you who grew up and spent decades riding around two-stroke sleds feel differently. Still, a city slicker's sensibility, like mine, has a hard time coming home with clothes reeking that noxious scent of gasoline and engine oil combusting together. Furthermore, there's a sense that lower-end models of the Summit like this Adrenaline are a bit spartan in the features department.

You're going to have to pay a pretty penny more than the Summit Adrenaline's sticker price of $13,099 for more gadgets and tech. To upgrade to a feature suite including a 10.25-inch infotainment display with the companion app available to all vehicles in BRP's product line, you'll have to buy the next tier up from what we had on hand that day at Nova Guides trails, the Summit X. A Summit sled in this up-tiered configuration will run you $15,549 before taxes and fees. Summit X models also get the option to turbocharge their 850 CC Rotax engines to make an eye-watering 180 hp.

Something tells us the turbo would've been nice up in the mountains. On the other hand, it's also probably pants-soilingly terrifying to ride. Hopefully, we'll be able to make a judgment on that sometime in the near future. But this leads us to the most glaring issue with high-end deep snow sleds like the Ski-Doo Summit, the price. We just can't foresee the average North American snowmobile rider forking out five figures for the latest sled when the price of 91-octane can make or break someone's finances.

But that's where fantastic guided trail tours like NovaGuides come in so clutch. By acting as the middlemen investing their capital into buying fleets of Ski-Doo sleds, guided tours combine great snow, breathtaking views, and supremely capable sleds into a package the average North American family can reasonably afford. In short, it takes the most glaring issue of owning a Ski-Doo Summit and effectively nullifies it to the point almost anyone can enjoy it. As far as we're concerned, that's a win-win seven days a week.

As for a rating we could reasonably surmise for the 2024 Ski-Doo Summit, I think it's fair to give it the same rating as its little cousin, the Grand Touring. This means, of course, that it's a very healthy 4.5 out of 5. So to say, it was very nearly perfect, apart from the smell.