Cure for winter months. Tubing.

I know, its not coaster related, but I guess you could somewhat tie it in with the Russian ice slides. :)

My daughter and I decided to try snowtubing this past weekend at a ski resort in Illinois (Villa Olivia).

Haven't done this since highschool. I must say it is a rush and helps beat the off-season with no coasters. This particular snow tube hill was solid ice when we were there so we were flying down the hill.

They have a tow rope that your tube latches on to to climb up. Everytime I went up, I envisioned climbing a coaster lifthill. :)

I also had the employee at the top of the hill spin my tube before descending down the hill which got me prepared for the new spinning mouse coaster coming to SFGAm. :)

So, until the parks start opening up, give snowtubing a try. It helps. :)

Helpful tip of what not to do (courtsey of myself and HeyIsntThatRob):

Do not have one person wait at the bottom of the hill on their tube while the other comes down and hits them. That can hurt.

Mt Hood Meadows, home to some kick-ass alpine slides, has some tube runs that are spoken favorably of. Thanks for reminding me to give them a try!:)

Good idea Chitown! I haven't done that in years as well. I would LOVE to learn how to go bobsledding, especially SKELETON!

That just looks insane. :-D

-Tina

Hey Robo, one of the resorts on Hood has a new toy for this season. It's sort of an inflatable sled that you ride lying down face first. Mt. Hood, I believe Keystone and one of the Cali resorts are the only ones offering them this year. From the reports that I've heard, they sound awesome. I'm looking forward to giving them a go at some point. You should find out which resort on Hood has them and try them out. That is if you can even make it to Hood with all the nasty weather you've gotten this winter.

Personally, my cure for lack of coastering is snowboarding. I go up to Seven Springs (Western PA's try at producing a mountain) every friday night and I absolutely love it. No matter how bad the conditions get, I never fail to have an absolute blast. Now, if there were anywhere around here I could take Tina up and try my hand at bobsledding, luge, or skeleton... wow. Now THAT would be cool.

-BB (loving winter just as much as summer)

Snow tubing is where it's at. I thought it was just for kids, but I was persuaded by my friends and I reluctantly went. Hot diggity damn it was so much more fun than boarding. Hoping to head to Lake Tahoe before the snow melts :)

As luck would have it I now find myself with the opportunity to do some tubing this weekend... can't wait.

Snowmobiling happens to be my fix. That gives me my speed and adrenaline. Especially doing a take off. Just brings back great memories...

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BBSpeed26 said:
I go up to Seven Springs (Western PA's try at producing a mountain) every friday night and I absolutely love it.

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I love Seven Springs (I usually go to Whitetail, which is closer), but unfortunately haven't been there since the Great Blizzard of 96' where we were almost trapped at the resort for the weekend. It was my first time skiing in powder, and wouldn't you know it, I ate it really bad on the North Face and my boot broke (they were old). Man does that place get cold too. The previous trip reached -40 with windchill. Do you know if they still have the Alpine Slide? Everytime I go to Kennywood, I'm tempted to take a detour at Exit 10 of the PA Turnpike just to ride it.

I actually prefer skiing (tubing too ;) over coasters in the first place.

I like coasters but I love the atmosphere at mountains better than parks. I mean its nice and cool out instead of 95 degrees with people around you that smell bad :(

I love skiing so much..

I decided that its pretty much impossible to design coasters so I'm going to college to get a Ski Resort Management degree. I think that ski resorts are a good field to be in. It doesn't take as much money to run as amusement parks, and as long as you have the right equipment (Snowmakers, lifts, groomers,) you are good to go. Even if you aren't a huge mountain you can still do a good job with snowmaking and grooming, and have families attracted to it..Thats just me..

But NOTHING beats the launch on dragster NOTHING :)

There is a pair of half mile long refrigerated toboggan shutes south of Canton Ohio that are fast as all hell. Feels just like a coaster on frozen rails with wooden friction beams at the end to slow down on. Advertised at 70mph, but I bet it's more like 50-60mph.

Wood - anything else is an imitation

Snowboarding is fun, although I'm not very good at it. Tubing is cool, as is alpine sledding (although I don't know that those run in the snow ;) )

My college has no hills around it for miles so I unfortunatly anything snow related that needs a hill is out (which is pretty much every snow activity there is save snowball fights and XC sking) so I just focus my mind on other things like college basketball.

There is a snowtubing place about two hours from where I live called Massinutten or something like that in Virginia.

They had this cable that someone would attach your tube to. It would tow you up the hill, then you would go down a small hill to detach from the cable. Then you could get in a lane, and slide on down when someone said it was okay.

Story Time! I was snowtubing, and I had a thrill of going down head first. I'd run, flop on the tube, and shoot down my lane. Well, at the bottom, you go up for a bit, then there is some hay, then a padded wall.

Well, I did the above, and we going really fast. Flew right through the hay on the ground and into the padded wall, head first. When I collided, fell off the tube and was knocked out. About 15 seconds later, I come back and people are around seeing if I'm okay. I was like "Yeah! Lets do it again!" Got right back on the tow. Good Times.

OHHH....so thats why I'm dumb. ;)

Mike, thanks for the tip; now I'll make it a point to get up to Hood even sooner. I'll write a TR as soon as I return; not like that day we were at CP this summer that I never got around to posting. Someday, perhaps, but lately I've been busying myself bothering other people to finish their summer trip reports.;)

There are quite a few state parks and Ski Resorts in Northern Ohio that offer tubbing. It's a lot of fun around here because they have lighted tubing hills so you can go all night with your friends.

The big thing coaster enthusiasts due around here in the Winter is toboggan chutes. There are two places in Northern Ohio. The ones mentioned above in Canton, and the Strongsiville Chutes. The dual chutes in Strongsville aren't as fast as Canton's but they are much steeper. Canton's just builds up the speed faster and faster. Strongsville has the nicest chutes witch operate all the way up to 60 degree weather and the place is set up like a ski resort with lodge and everything. I think Canton's is $15 and gives you rides to the top, and Strongsville is $8 and you have to walk up MANY stairs (in which many guys prove if they are man or not on their dates by caring the toboggan by their selves all the way up it) ;)

It's always a good time here in Ohio when it snows!

"The Future of Roller Coasters"
-RollerCoasterGod
http://OhioThemeParks.com

They still have the alpine slides, though at the moment they're covered in snow and off limits. I haven't been there in the summer for a couple of years, but as long as you can catch a run where you don't have anybody slow (read: mothers)in front of you, they're an absolute blast. I was up there last weekend and it was possibly the coldest I'd ever been. To give you an idea... it snowed the night before so we had about a foot of powder. That morning it was in the single digits mercury wise, and the wind was so strong that after an hour ALL the powder had been blown away. Still had fun though.

-BB

Alpine slides? I'd be happy just to go tubing down the side of a hill! Unfortunately, a full-time job keeps one from doing those kinds of things (although my weekend does look pretty open). A full-time job does not, however, keep one from having CBuzz minimized!

There is a place in Michigan where you can luge.http://www.msports.org/luge.htm I think there is a place that you can bobsled also.