2007-02-18 Snow Tubing

Today, Hailey and her friend Emily went snow tubing at the local city hill. We had not been tubing yet this year, mainly due to the lack of snow. We have only have about a foot of snow total so far this year, compared to about 3-4 feet normally by this time of year.

Because it has been so cold now for the last 3 weeks, the snow we did get has not had a chance to melt. It has been compacted and is very icy on the hill, however. The warming house attendant told me they had groomed the hill a couple of times to keep it usable.

The city has upgraded the tubes at the hill this year. Where previously, they had a wide variety of tubes in various sizes and conditions, this year they bought actual snow tubing tubes. They have a hard plastic bottom and a fabric top with at heavy duty tire tube inside. They even have handles on them to hold on to as you glide down the hill. To help offset the cost of the upgraded equipment, they are charging a nominal fee ($2.25) for the first time.

The kids are now big enough to haul their own tubes up the hill. It is about 150 feet to the top and has a vertical drop of about 75 feet. It was not too crowded today, and when we left around 5:00, there was no one else there. A lot of families use the hill because it only allows tubes, so it seems less dangerous than uncontrolled locations that have sleds, toboggans, tubes, and sometimes even snowboards all going down together.

We went into the warming house a couple of times to warm up. They have fireplace going to help keep everything toasty. It felt chilly outside today as it was windy and damp. We have had a lot of sunny, but cold, weather the last few weeks. The sun this time of year can really start to warm you up not matter how cold it is.