Awesome Snow

After Handy Geng’s brother rigged a leaf blower to give him an advantage in a snowball fight, the inventor felt outgunned. So he got to work building a drivable mech that fires frozen projectiles. The armored lucky cat rolls along on caterpillar tracks and makes snowballs by gathering snow from the ground and shaping it with motorized scoopers. (Turn captions on.)

The DEEPRobotics Lynx is one of the most agile robots we’ve ever seen. The wheeled quadruped can balance on 2, 3, or 4 wheels while zipping around on rugged terrain. In this brief demonstration video, it dances around in the snow, splashes in a creek, and finishes things off with a fireworks show. Here’s another clip showing the Lynx in warmer weather.

With air temperatures as low as -37°F, photographer and filmmaker Drew Simms captured a series of extraordinary images of Yellowstone National Park. In the extreme cold of winter, the park is devoid of tourists, so it provides an extraordinary opportunity to witness the frozen bison, coyotes, mountain goats, and other snow-covered wildlife.

Ice-drifting in a Miata is a fun way to spend a day. The guys at Garage 54 had a different idea for driving a Mazda in the winter. Their plan? Take the front half of a junkyard Mazda, attach an underbody sled, and slide it around on the snow. Since the donor car was front-wheel drive, no rear wheels were needed.

There’s a big difference between the dirty, packed snow we get in cities and the beautiful, unspoiled snow in the country. Photographer Marius Krey captured this brief but incredible footage of snow-capped trees while snowmobiling through Finland’s northernmost region, Lapland. The picturesque scene is like something from another planet.

Beyond the travel and expense, most of us don’t have the stamina to climb to the top of Mt. Everest. Thanks to photographer liulangCooki‬ and drone maker DJI, we can virtually climb to the summit of the 29,039-foot mountain, starting at base camp. The video was captured using a DJI Mavic 3 Pro, which packs three cameras, including a high-end 4/3 Hasselblad unit.

Intent on breaking the world record for the longest ski jump, Ryōyū Kobayashi and his team realized there was no ski jump long enough to make it happen. So they flew to Iceland and carved a massive ramp into a snowy mountain, enabling the Olympic medallist and FIS World Cup Champion to fly 291 m (954.7 ft) and stay airborne for 10 seconds.

Here’s a fun winter activity – a tractor that pulls 28 people on innertubes around a frozen lake. This ride can be enjoyed in Heihe, China, a popular destination for tourists from nearby Russia. We see no reason the same can’t be done anywhere you have a tractor, a frozen lake, and a bunch of rope – the more powerful the tractor, the more people you can pull.

Getting all the snow off your car when you park it outside can be a pain. Chinese automotive company NIO shows off an unconventional use for its SkyRide active suspension system: making its flagship ET9 sedan shake off a thick blanket of snow like a cold puppy dog. Just don’t do it inside the garage, ET9. Good boy.

Diesel Brothers Heavy D and Diesel Dave know a thing or two about modding vehicles. For this build, they outfitted a Tesla Cybertruck with an upgraded suspension and giant snow tracks. This clip teases us with footage of their CyberTrax electric pickup dashing through the snow. They plan on releasing a full-length video on YouTube soon.

Most of the snowboarding videos we’ve seen have been edited to show the best action. Olympic and X Games snowboarding medalist Sage Kotsenburg shared nine minutes of unedited first-person GoPro footage from his rides through the fresh powder at Eagle Pass, BC. If you’ve never taken a backcountry route, it’s the closest you’ll get to being there.

Athlete Fabio Wibmer headed to the slopes of Kitzbühel, Austria, to take in some winter sports. But his high-speed ride down the challenging course known as The Streif was on two wheels instead of skis. Beyond his brass balls and cycling skills, his only advantage was the studded tires on his bike and a SICK! outfit from Nineyard.

We learned the hard way that riding a skateboard through school was a no-no. So we can only imagine the detention we would have gotten if we rode skis through the hallways like freestyle skier Matěj Švancer did after graduation. Though, we’re guessing Red Bull got permission to lay snow down in the hallways.

Skiing can be incredibly fun – but it can also be quite dangerous. Big mountain skier Owen Leeper shows how scary things can get with this first-person footage of an avalanche that started beneath his skis as he headed down a rocky chute. Fortunately, he survived with only minor injuries. Here it is from another angle.

The guys from Grind Hard Plumbing Co. are known for their work turning Barbie Power Wheels and other kid’s vehicles into high-powered playthings for adults. A while back, they outfitted a Dream Camper with a 750cc Kawasaki UTV engine and 4-wheel drivetrain. Now they’ve upgraded it for wintertime with snow tracks.

Didn’t make it to the mountains for winter vacation? Then live vicariously through this first-person toboggan ride captured in the Swiss Alps. The 10 km (6.2-mile) downhill trail goes from soothing, to thrilling, to awe-inspiring and includes a few especially sketchy spots zooming close to the edge near the trees.