My first transit of Boreas Pass since last year’s drive with the much-delayed Ford Bronco was a mysteriously depopulated, late-season experience — which made it an even better stretch to test out the actual capabilities of the new Honda Pilot TrailSport.

At the higher end of the 2023 Pilot lineup, the vehicle was priced at a grand total of $50,150, and has capacity for up to eight passengers.

Upgraded and given a bit more light-overlanding capability (just none of the Lego-styled boxes, tents, traction plates, jacks and fuel cans everyone else seems to be hauling nowadays), the 2023 Pilot is mostly aided by the addition of actual square-edged, 18-inch truck tires.

Those, plus a retooled suspension, allowed an easy cruise along the sometimes very rocky high Alpine stretches, and stable and effortless driving in even the rutted out and potholed part of the road heading down into Como.

And, while the Pilot features an array of specialized settings, including a low-speed trail and high-traction sand setting, the vehicle’s absolutely regular drive mode did just fine. On the highway, you can opt for a higher-revving sport mode and also switch the 10-speed automatic transmission into its own sport-shifting setting — which mostly did little more than holding the rpms, and not a lot of extra power. There’s also a hill descent control switch but no other modifications or controls for dedicated off-road work, which speaks to its intended purpose.

Actually, Honda itself uses the phrase “king of the carpool lane,” so … there you go. Its ability to travel comfortably in the light backcountry is just an added bonus.

I would call the vehicle’s 285 horsepower mostly adequate, with a 3.5-liter V6 producing results somewhere in Toyota 4Runner territory. That is, you’ve got to really wind it up to pass anyone on U.S. 285, but you can comfortably cruise up the passes and still regularly get mileage in the 20-25 mpg territory.

Given the outlandishly large box the Pilot represents, especially when you think of Honda’s not-so-recent history of smaller vehicles, it’s a three-row vehicle with enough rugged utility for family weekends.

This fourth-generation version of the Pilot is indeed the largest SUV Honda has ever made, with the overall dimensions now 3.4 inches longer on a 2.8-inch longer wheelbase (113.8 inches), and almost an inch taller, producing a vehicle that’s a considerable 200 inches in length, and more than 4,200 pounds in its chunkiest build. Total cargo capacity, with second and third row seating dropped, is 87 cubic feet, or 111.8 cubic feet if you were to fill the entire thing up with sand, I guess. As it seemed like previous drivers had attempted to do.

TrailSport’s off-road ready upgrades include steel skid plates, those heavy-duty tires, plus a slight suspension lift and overall suspension tweaks to provide more gravel-road stability. You also get industrial-grade rubber floor mats.

Some reviews have spoken less kindly about the on-road driving results that provides; my test vehicle had racked up more than 10,000 miles of other writers and bloggers presumably beating the living hell out of it (as well as apparently camping inside with their dogs and families), so I can’t speak to the fresh-off-the-truck experience you might get. 

The all-wheel drive system, called i-VTM4, offers torque vectoring to provide a more even distribution of power on wet or snowy roads and the very grounded feel you get off-road.

The TrailSport version featured second-row captains chairs and smaller third-row seating, and like the rest of the vehicle, it’s attractive but maybe a little austere by other import standards. A 7-inch touchscreen is standard, and a 10.2-inch screen is available on the Elite model, as well as a 12-speaker premium Bose audio system.

Andy Stonehouse’s column “Mountain Wheels” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Stonehouse has worked as an editor and writer in Colorado since 1998, focusing on automotive coverage since 2004. He lives in Golden. Contact him at summitmountainwheels@gmail.com.