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DOWN THE LINE: Sledding is enjoyed by all three generations of Finnbogason family members. Pictured (back to front) are Linda, Carolyn, Wally and Chris. —Daryl Finnbogason photo

A love of snowmobiling is part of the Finnbogason bloodline. For this highly winterized family—who are descended from the hardy Icelanders who settled the nether regions of Manitoba’s Interlake—nothing can beat the excitement of a day on a sled.

“We go every chance we get,” said Daryl Finnbogason. “If we could, we would be out there every weekend.”

A typical Finnbogason sled day includes Daryl and his wife, Carolyn, along with their children, Jennifer and Chris, and his parents, Wally and Linda, making for a fully tri-generational event.

The roots of their sledding dynasty lie with Daryl’s father, Wally, who first got on a sled—one of those classic, box-like Ski- Daddlers—as a teenager back in the 1950s. It was an instant passion.

“It was just the thrill of it and being able to ride over deep snow,” he said.

But more than that, snowmobiling brought Wally’s family together as it was an activity everyone could enjoy.

“It became a way to get out on the weekends with the kids and the family,” he said.

One of the best snowmobiling experiences shared by the Finnbogasons was out in the coastal mountains of B.C. It was the early 1970s, and Wally had just purchased a brand-new Arctic Cat. Daryl still recounts this time—nearly 40 years later—as the best sledding of his life.

“Dad would pull us up the mountain—we had a Cat cutter—and we would all go up as high as we could,” he said. “Then my brother and sister and I would ride Crazy Carpets back down the mountain.”

Riding in the mountains was a rare treat for this prairie family. However, the Finnbogasons have found some fantastic riding in Manitoba at Spruce Woods Provincial Park, an isolated stance of boreal forest in the western portion of the province.

“It’s beautiful,” said Daryl. “The groomed trails are really nice, there’s lots of snow and you get a little bit of hill.”

But spending time together as a family remains the prime motivation for the Finnbogasons to keep hitting the trails.

“It’s staying together and playing together,” said Daryl. “Just getting to the outdoors for the fun of a family get-together. We all just like to go out snowmobiling and have a good time.”

The snowmobiling dream for this sled-enthused family is to one day combine their love of the sled with a heritage tour of the geysers and volcanoes of their ancestral homeland.

“They have snowmobile tours in Iceland—hopefully we can put that together one of these years,” said Daryl. “That’s something we would like to do.”