Lofty Peaks Adventures LLC — Attraction in Heber

I cannot say enough about Lofty Peaks! We had the most amazing experience with our tour guide, Jacob. Our family of 10 did 2 guided excursions and were able to see the most incredible views ever. We are experienced See-Doo and 4-wheeler riders but had limited experience with snowmobiles. They are a completely different animal, which we found out the first day we went out. Jacob was a work-horse for us as we overturned our machines countless times, once, being buried pretty deep in snow. There is no way we could have done this without him. The trails he took us on were breathtakingly beautiful, and we found places off the beaten path we could not have found without him. He made sure we rode at a comfortable speed for all of our group, and did not venture anywhere that was remotely unsafe. We would have been so lost had we not done the guided tour. I HIGHLY recommend to ride guided.... we saw several wrecks, including one machine whose front ski was completely broken off because they wrecked. We found out first hand how easily you could wreck because snow, no matter if it's fresh or packed, is not forgiving. Another nice feature of the guided tour is Lofty Peaks provides a wonderful lunch of bakery made sandwiches and crazy-good cookies and waters that you will work up an appetite for. There are a lot of snowmobiling companies out there, but from the moment I called this company for information then calling back numerous times with many questions, I felt 100% confident in our decision to book with them. Tyler and his team are incredibly knowledgeable, trustworthy, caring and patient, and truly desire to make the experience not only worth every dime you spend, but as safe as possible. The team spent so much time outfitting us and making sure we felt warm and comfortable in our gear. Some people have commented that other tour operators skimp on the ride time because they spend so much time going over procedures, paper work and such. However, Lofty Peaks has you come in early enough so that your ride time and orientation time to the machines does not interfere with the time you've paid to ride. We got exactly what we paid for in terms of time, but way more of an experience than we had hoped. Ask a lot of questions because the guys want to make sure your experience is terrific! Ours could not have been better. A special thanks to Jacob for all the time and attention he gave to each of us in our large group, making sure every one of us was having a grand time. You worked your tail off for us and gave heart and soul, as if you were one of us! God bless you, Jacob, and all the team at Lofty Peaks! We'll be back to 4-wheel! ...

Here are my issues with this place, which is unfortunate, because otherwise this could be a cool business:

If you do a "half day" rental, you only get max 2.5 hours of riding time. The fastest they can get your equipment up to the trails and ready (snowmobiles for us) is about 9:30am, and you have to be back by 12pm for pick up. That's not a 1/2 day rental.

When we called to do the reservation, they said the rental was from about 8:30am to 12:30pm, and then not until they put the machines on the ground for the orientation did they say, "we need to have them back to the shop by 12:30, so you need to be back here by 12pm." That's some shadiness. They also chew up time doing paperwork, getting gear, etc., all of which they count towards your rental time.

They require you purchase liability insurance. How in the world are you going to require mandatory insurance to rent your equipment? I've used 4-5 other rental groups in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Georgia, Florida, etc., and not one "required" it. If somebody wants to rent with the repair liability, let them.

They nickle and dime you with fees. "We provide helmets," but if you want anything other than what looks like one from dumb and dumber, they make you pay $5 more. They say IF your machine needs to be topped off with gas when returning it, then they charge you $1.00 more/gallon than actual prices to refill it. Of course the machine will need to have fuel replaced after riding it, just be upfront about it. "We deliver machines for you," oh sorry, "that'll be another $25."

Bottom line: there's unfortunately not tons of options to rent snowmobiles up in Heber, and these guys have pricing and policies that you leave like you're getting ripped off. Give people another hour+ of riding time, just bundle all your costs into one rental price vs. hitting customers with a thousand add ons, and your customers will have a MUCH better experience. For the $100 extra and less riding time from my rental (of 4 machines, close to a $1,000 for 2.5 hours), I won't be back vs. being a renter 2-3x's a season. It's not...

Keep your family safe and do NOT take a snowmobile ride with this company. My husband and my children nearly lost their beloved father and grandfather. We all witnessed our guide tell him he had to rev the machine up an extremely steep, 15 foot incline so it would not tip back on him. My father in law did this not knowing that four feet from the top of the incline was a 65+ mph highway. Our guide waved him up and sent my father in law into the highway. My children watched as a red car and black truck missed their grandfather's snowmobile by inches. This was an insane lack of safety or care for our well being. We are so very lucky we did not watch the death of our family member. Before this incident our guide took our novice group through difficult stretches resulting in many overturns. Our Lofty Peaks guide was always a half mile or more ahead of our group, so we were often overturned without help. Our day ended with tears, screams of terror and traumatic shock. When we went into talk to the manager, he did not say sorry. He said nothing. They didn't offer us a single word of concern. The manager tried to blame the incident on us, saying when we agreed to cross "the road" to find a better trail, therefore we had given our consent. What? We trusted our guide and trusted he was taking us to safer ground and trails more appropriate for our skill level. I called the next day to talk to an owner. Fortunately I did get to tell our horrific story to someone who could do something. He heard me out and said that they would reassess some of their procedures. I did receive a good apology. It is days later and we are still having trouble sleeping. What we witnessed on our day with Lofty Peaks will stick with us...