Last week was hard. Emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining. Add in being sick for so long we were running on empty. We wanted to go and do something fun as a family to try and reset and refocus for the week to come. Unfortunately, things don’t always go right. Such was the case for our trip to the mountain to go sledding and tubing.
We went to one of the local mountains that we’ve gone to every year for sledding and tubing. Things started to go wrong right away. There was a massive line of cars where the road splits for those who are going skiing or snowboarding and those heading to go cross country skiing, snowshoeing and sledding.
The new thing is to book online for a time slot to get to go sledding or tubing, which we had done so. We’d been warned to arrive 15 minutes early. It seems that you may need to give it 45minutes or more as this is the time frame we needed between convincing the staff to let us drive up so the girls and I could pop out of the car, and Jason getting turned around to park on the side of the road a bit down the mountain, and his getting back to meeting us.
Evie was ready to go tubing right away. I can’t blame her with our waiting so long to get to where we needed to be for tubing thanks to the parking craziness. The time slot we were in was the first session of the day, and it was maxed out. It was much faster to walk up the middle than take the lazy tow up to the top. I let Evie go that way once, and the rest were walked so we could get as many runs in as possible.
At one point she and I went down the run together, holding onto the side of each other’s tube. This was the start of more unfortunate events. With there being no fresh powder, the run was slick as could be. Everything was compacted down and like ice. She and I ended up going up over the end thanks to a lovely bump. That bump did my back in a bit. A solo run did me in, where again I went past the blue line, and up over the edge. I ended up jarring my knee between that and trying to slow down the tube.
Sadly, Addie is not tall enough to be able to go tubing. Jason took her over to sledding right away to try and distract her. It broke her heart to not get to go. She is such a thrill seeker. Though, with the conditions that day I am glad she wasn’t going down in a tube. We know she would have loved it. She ended up in tears, which left me in tears too. There was nothing I could do to comfort her.
Things just continued to go awry with the girls doing one last sled run. They ended up crashing with Addie “high-fiving” the wall of the sled run with her face. Poor kiddo split her lip and had cuts on her face and hands. Thankfully, though a little timid from the crash, she did go two more times with Daddy and Evie. We were hoping to leave on a happier note.
Walking back to the car was an adventure in itself. I feel that the mountain needs to consider having a reserved parking area for families with young children in the parking lot near sledding and tubing. Parking and walking on the side of the road is extremely dangerous. We couldn’t help but notice the vehicles zooming past, over the speed limit. There was no staff controlling traffic where they had sent Jason to park the vehicle. Something needs to be done to change this, as a parent I do not feel okay walking my young children along the road this way. It’s actually caused us to ponder if this is our last visit to this mountain and if we will be going elsewhere for sledding and tubbing from now on?
I saw your photos on FB/IG of Jason and the girls walking down the side of the road and agree that is not ok!! A little longer of a drive maybe but I have friends who took their kids tubing at Sasquatch Mountain last weekend and they loved their experience. Their youngest would be similar age with Addie.
We also have safety concerns about the set up at this mountain and someone was injured when we went sledding. This also left us wondering if we will go back to this mountain. I emailed the director of operations to express our concerns.