Risky sports - tubing, really???

On the lift with someone's mom, (about my age so we can comisserate) chatty old billski strikes up the usual banter. I notice the snow tube run nearby and make comment. She refuses to let her son snow tube because it looks DANGEROUS. She didn't want to have her son become a paraplegic. Said they looked dangerous, would rather see him skiing/boarding.

Without data, I countered that skiing seemed far more dangerous - I've seen a lot of skiing/boarding accidents, and not any tubing accidents, just a lot of bailouts. Sure, the freak, well-publicized lawsuit and injured kid, but that happens in most sports. I think most tubing runs are designed pretty safely ('cept those that go over the top of the end block at Pat's peak)

Then she skied away :roll:, unconvinced. Am I nuts? Am I wrong? I've not seen any stats on this.

at least it's not kite-tubing




Actually, I think people do get hurt snow tubing. Good design is vital.

The granddaughter of one of my co-workers was killed while tubing at Loon last winter.
http://www.wmur.com/news/11481774/detail.html
Not sure about stats though.

That vid was brutal.

The tubing run at SR was pretty insane when I did it at night a few years ago. If you manage to hurt yourself on the normal straight tubing lane that's at most places...the outdoors may not be for you.

billski said:

Am I nuts? Am I wrong? I've not seen any stats on this.

Click to expand...

Your wrong and the mom is right. I can't say what happen but lets just say some resorts had snow tubing and now no longer have snow tubing due to litigation and a lot of dollars being exchanged.

The best way to compare snow tubing is to a roller coaster ride where the friction and speed changes from minute to minute due to temperature and humidity with no Engineer there certifying that at this point in time the ride is safe.

I never would have thought of tubing as all that dangerous, but then again, my only experience with it is at a local sledding hill. Can't pick up too much speed there as it's no longer than (and possibly shorter than) the run on Lil' Joe at Sundown (with similar pitch). Interesting...

It's definitely more dangerous than I would have thought. We took my three kids up to Mount Cranmore last weekend to sno-tube. There were 3 major instances where I was more than a little bit unhappy with their running of things.

1) Continuing to allow people to upload on the upper tubing hill when the number of people at the top was so large that people coming off the lift were sliding into the people waiting in line. The young kids working the top were more concerned with throwing snowballs at each other than they were with addressing these safety issues.

2) Not keeping an eye out for people at the bottom who are having a problem exiting the lane. One time my daughter ended up lingering too long after she had gone down on her own and my wife ended up coming down and taking her out. There was AMPLE opportunity for the employees working the bottom of the hill to say something to her to get her moving out of the lane.

3) Flaky employees sending the next person down the lane too quickly after the previous person went. I found myself facing someone already halfway down the lane when I got to the bottom and was looking to exit the lane myself. After one particularly obvious case of the person up top being a complete idiot, I had a few short words with the guy working the bottom. I'm sure it didn't do a damn thing but it made me feel better at the time.


My kids loved the whole experience. The two oldest are 7 and 5. The youngest is 3 1/2 and she rode with her mother. As a parent however, I wasn't particularly impressed with the safety systems in place or the competence of the employees. I'd think twice about going back and putting my kids at risk versus taking them to a local sledding hill.