Thanks pgkevet. In this case it's not close enough to borrow/test drive, unfortunately. I'm fairly confident it'll do for my slopes, based on demonstration videos of similar models. Less confident of my ability to be sure it has everything I'll need in terms of linkage, power, repairability, etc -- it's one of those I don't know what I don't know challenges
A neighbour topped most of mine for me last year (not the bit in the picture, but some bits that are equally steep but not so tight) on his fairly big normal tractor -- but he's been driving a tractor for 40+ years, whereas I'm a beginner.
I'm definitely a coward too -- but I can manage all of my land on my quad bike in 4wd going slow and careful, so I figure a small alpine should be much the same