UPside of Life: Cleaner, greener snowmobiles invade Houghton

There is no doubt that snowmobiles and those who ride them have become part of the culture here in the Upper Peninsula. Yoopers have embraced the snowmobile and it's evident no matter where you look--from the daily snow reports to the clubs that go out and groom the trails to the miles upon miles of snowmobile-specific routes throughout the peninsula.

If there is one complaint about snowmobiles that is sounded most frequently it's the pollution they cause in the pristine wilderness of the area--both environmental and noise. That, however, is in the process of changing and nothing proves that more than the competition being held this week up at Michigan Technological University.

The 2011 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, which runs through March 12, is being held at MTU's Keweenaw Research Center.

The challenge is simple in concept, though hardly so in execution. The collegiate design competition has students from participating schools take a stock snowmobile--like a Polaris or Arctic Cat or similar--and re-engineer it. The purpose? To reduce those pesky emissions and annoying noise levels, all while maintaining or increasing performance capabilities. There is even a zero-emissions category in the competition which is for battery-powered sleds.

This year there are 13 teams participating in the competition with seven of those entered in the zero emissions category--the most since it was added in 2006. The total number of entries this year--20--is the highest in the history of the event.

Throughout this week, the snowmobiles will be tested for noise, emission and fuel economy while zero-emission sleds will be tested for the distance they can travel on a single charge and how much weight they can pull.

By Saturday night, the winners in each of the categories will be announced and trophies will be taken home, but that's hardly the highlight of the competition. Instead, it's the snowmobiles themselves and what they mean for this continually-booming industry that will prove to be the spotlight of it all.

Who knows, it may not be that long until the roar of the snowmobile engines die down and the plume of exhausts are no longer found, all without sacrificing the industry nor the tourism dollars it brings to the Upper Peninsula.

Now that's an idea we can all embrace.

Sam Eggleston is the managing editor of the U.P. Second Wave and a full-time freelance writer. He was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula. He owns a 1985 Polaris snowmobile that, unfortunately, is far from being green--which Kermit the Frog even admits isn't easy. Eggleston can be reached via email.