I recently attempted a summit, with the plan to ride snowmobiles up a logging road, then ski up to the summit. My friend had picked up the pair of snowmobiles for $1000 for the pair and got them running. Unfortunately, one died 2 miles up the trail, so we had to tow it back.
Given the need for a trailer and/or truck, the difficulty loading (a non-running machine) and such, I’m not sure a snowmachine is worth the trouble for where we live in Western Washington. However, I saw an ad for a Snowdog, and thought it might be more appealing. They are significantly cheaper than a new snowmobile, and can fit inside an SUV or on a hitch mount carrier. And they could be used for other work year-round.
Here is a link to one:
https://snowdog.com/catalog/models/snowdog-standard-b13mer/
If we had one or two of these, I could see us having one driver pulling two people on skis uphill. Has anyone used one? Any thought on use in the PNW? It would be nice to be able to rent something like this, as I might only want to use it a few times per year.