I'l have to conceed, I've never seen a Tapex in trees until about 3 weeks ago, and I'll have to say I was just a little more than impressed. The snow was damn deep too. My friend(riding a 910 in an edge mod w/all lightweight parts &163 track) and I(riding 800 edge W/SLP single, intake, & 159 track) we're working are way up through some tight trees(the deep dark forest as 383 used to put it) to get to one of our riding areas and in the process of digging my sled out for the 100th time, did I mention the snow was deep?? I heard this sled coming up from below us with the engine just screaming, turbo a whining, all of sudden this Tapex crests the hill below us and goes sailing past us all while mowing down trees that were slightly less that 2" in diameter. The part that really impressed me was the fact that the guy was able to get off the throttle to do some manouvering through the trees and still be able to hit it again and get back up on the snow and keep going up without planting it and in the conditions we were in, I was stuck if my throttle had more than .030" clearance to the bar.
The guy on the Tapex ended up turning around to give us a hand to get out, his machine apparently had an Alpine set-up, he ended up getting stuck later on and needed a little help to get out, but in that snow you were stuck at least once no matter who you are or what you ride, fact of life.
Obviously the skill of this rider played a big part and it may have been impressive to see him on a lightweight 2 stroke with 200 - 250 hp. Either way, unlike Bigfoot, the Tapex in trees is no longer a myth.
