The first true ditch-and-river cross-country of the USXC cross-country season went down in Oslo, Minn., this past weekend.

Arctic Cat's domination of the lake races led many to speculate that, perhaps, the tide would turn when the sleds hit the rough world of real cross-country.

Nothing changed.

Click for the recap.

X Games Gold in Aspen...

17 of 20 class wins at the Oslo XC...

Another pretty awesome weekend for Team Arctic!

Here's Team Arctic's press release about its participation in last weekend's Eagle River World Championship Derby.

Click for the jump.

Watch this awesome video of the 1984 World Champion duo Jim Dimmerman and the Phantom Sno Pro during the Friday Night Thunder portion of the 50th Anniversary of the Eagle River Derby.

Look for another video soon that highlights the Sunday ceremony.

Congrats to Dimmerman and the Nielsen crew!

A very, very strong fiscal quarter for Arctic Cat in 2013 Q3.

My favorite sentence from this release:

Arctic Cat is committed to investing in research and development across its product lines, in order to remain an industry innovation leader and in anticipation of manufacturing its own snowmobile engines.

Click to read. 

Want to know what it looks like to finish second place in the Semi Pro Champ class at the 2013 Eagle River World Championships?

Watch this GoPro footage from Team Arctic's Colt Dellandrea from Kincardine, Ontario, who notched the great result in his first year back to Eagle since sustaining a leg injury.

Congrats on the awesome finish, Colt!

The Eagle River World Championship Snowmobile Derby turned 50 this past weekend.

As always is the case at the Derby, there was plenty of pomp, ceremony and celebration. There was even a little bit of racing.

Click to read my review of the birthday party.

He got it done in time to bring to Eagle River!

I'm referring to the 1979 Arctic Cat Sno Pro Bob Elsner replica sled that collector Tom Ische built for this weekend's 50th Anniversary of the Eagle River World Championship.

This was the surprise I referred to in yesterday's post.

Click to see the pix of this beautiful machine.

As a tribute to Team Arctic legend Roger Janssen, and to help commemorate the 50th Anniversary Eagle River World's Championships, collector Tom Ische built a replica of Janssen's WC-winning 1969 Arctic Cat Panther mod.

Both the sled and Janssen will be at Eagle River this weekend, making a few laps together around the famed oval. What a sight it will be!

Click for the story.

(Special thanks to Brianna Ische for the great photos of the sled and Janssen.)

Arctic Cat has again added to its Wildcat 1000 mode mix. Some of the highlights:

*90-plus hp on the new Wildcat 1000 X model

*New drive and driven clutch that puts WAY more power to the ground

*FOX Podium shocks

*Swaybar

Click for more info.

I checked out the Pro 600 class yesterday at the USXC cross-country at Willmar, Minn.

As has been the case all season, it was a Team Arctic crushing of the competition with some familar names standing atop the podium.

Click to see some pix and captions.

Winning, Monster, RAM, autographs, FOX, Arctic Cat...

That pretty much sums up Tucker Hibbert's weekend at the 2013 ISOC Canterbury snocross.

Seven wins and eight podiums... pretty impressive stuff!

Click to read the Christian Brothers Racing story about their first weekend of racing in 2013.

Team Arctic won 16 of 20 finals at the USXC cross-country in Detroit Lakes, Minn., and five class victories at the ISOC National snocross in Shakopee, Minn. (including Tucker Hibbert's sweep of the Pro classes).

Yet it was still a bittersweet start to the new year for Team Arctic.

Click to read the press release and see some pix.

I will never forget the first time I saw Blair Morgan race.

I will never forget the shock and disbelief upon learning he was paralyzed.

And I will never forget the genuine and honest discussion we had last week about his life and career.

Click to read an interview with a real Superman.

Here's a great video recap from SnoX365 of Team Arctic's December 2012 pro class sweeps of the USXC Pine Lake race and the ISOC Bessemer snocross national.

It's cool to see how smooth Ryan Simons was carving the corners at Pine Lake!

As far as years go, 2012 seemed about as random as most.

To celebrate the end of this year and the beginning of another, here are some mostly Arctic Cat pix that are pretty random.

There are also some trivia questions for you hotshots.

Happy randomness this (and every) year!

Here's a short segment from SledHead 24/7 focusing on the 2013 Arctic Cat ProClimb machines with honch racer/riders Todd Tupper, David McClure and Rob Kincaid.

Last week in the Zedshed story I mentioned that a 1971 King Kat 800 was started, and that it sang a cool, unique sound.

Here's a short 1-minute video of that sled, the sound and the owner (Rich Pederson, who sits on the sled) giving it a little thumb.

Super cool!

Half of the United States is covered in snow this Christmas.

Most of Canada has some serious snow cover. And there are some wonderful purples in the Rockies (especially the Canadian Rocks)

Awesome!

Keep it coming Ma.