First ever female snowmobile backflip

The Swede Ella Snäll just became the first female to backflip with a snowmobile. Watch as she flips her way straight into the history books.

It might be the coldest and darkest time of year in Sweden with the sun never really rising and tempetures below -20 celcius, but 26 year old Ella Snäll from Kiruna, located in the very northern part of Sweden, was determined to attempt the stunt anyways.

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'' The way I live my life revolves around challenging myself, and one of my biggest dreams for a very long time has been to become the first woman ever to backflip a snowmobile. '' – Ella Snäll

Ella grew up in an environment where the snowmobile always was present – both as transportation and recreation. Five years ago she decided to buy her own sled and start riding more. Her skills and level of riding progressed very fast and the former gymnast started to realise that this was a new interest that she really wanted to put more time and effort in to. Since then, snowmobiling has been a big part of her life and all hours outside of work is spent either out riding, in the garage working with the sled or planning and thinking of what to do and where to go next.

The idea of a backflip came naturally as she started participating in freestyle shows and saw a lot of the guys perform the trick, but she had never heard about any women trying it.

'' The guys made it look so easy. However, even though this is a sport that is very much dominated by men, I felt like there was no valid reason to why girls wouldn’t be able to do it as well. I was curious to see if I could make it happen and decided to do it. '' – Ella Snäll

Preparations involved everything from a lot of training in the gym to hitting big kickers to get the feel for some proper airtime tuned in. For the jump itself Ella knew exactly what she wanted from the beginning, which was to have a steep ramp and more of a step-up looking jump.

''I really thought through the design of the jump carefully, taking what would be the safest option into account.'' – Ella Snäll

Before the attempt she visualised and went through the jump over and over in her mind. Imagining what it would feel like. Practicing the exact movement she would need to do to get the sled around that she had studied closely when seeing others do the trick.

On the day of the attempt Ella’s boyfriend said that he had never seen her that focused and determined before. Afterwards she admits that she was scared of the consequences before the jump, but in her mind success was the only option and that helped to manage her fear.

'' It’s so easy to doubt yourself and question weather you are ready for it or not. Thinking if I will make it or land on my head. All that went through my head before starting was to really hold on tightly to the handlebar and then just go for it. '' – Ella Snäll