A hill of a good time
It starts off steep and ends off smooth – that is, if you can bail before the road. Besides the possibility of sliding into asphalt, Utah State University’s Old Main Hill could be considered one of Utah’s most famous and premier sledding hills. “It’s something you have to do when you’re at USU,” Michelle Allan, a math education junior, said. She came with her family on the sunny Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as did around 100 other Cache Valley residents and students. Old Main Hill was congested with people flying down on inner-tubes and toboggans and walking back up for another slide. But since the hill is more than a few hundred feet wide, everyone found room, although some sledders did trip a couple people walking up. One young girl went flying down on a plastic tube and as she neared the parking lot on 700 East, she just kept going, hit some piled snow and rolled over onto the pavement. Then she just brushed herself off, picked up the tube and headed up for another ride. One group of seven students held together four tubes together and flew down the hill. Allan said it’s the “steepness” that draws the crowd to Old Main Hill for a sled ride. The hill drops about 70 feet from top to bottom. Her brother, Greg Allan, is a sophomore majoring in English, said Old Main is “a really big, nice hill.” Greg was riding the primitive but very useful red plastic saucer which had quite a few dents on the bottom from the bumpy way down. Some children riding the saucers would get a couple feet of air each time they went over a small mogul in the snow. Even though the saucer offers speed and the thrill of spinning, Greg said the best sled for Old Main Hill is the old-fashioned wooden toboggan with metal skis. And, he said to go at night for the iced snow and to avoid hitting others on the hill. However, be careful and cautious, warns USU Police Lieutenant Shane Sessions. He said, so far this winter, three people have been reported going to the hospital with injuries – one in December and two in January. On Saturday, a 12-year-old boy injured his left leg after launching off a jump and a 27-year-old sledder hit his head on a car tail light while the car was parked at 700 East at the bottom of the hill. However, Sessions said there have been no sever injuries this season. The decline on Old Main Hill lessens, but doesn’t stop at the very bottom. Sessions said the hill usually has a two foot drop at the end on the curb, but with all the snow, the hill is “smooth all the way into the roadway.” “They should probably at some time say to themselves ‘I should probably bail,'” he said. In past years, USU Landscape Operations Maintenance has set up straw bails at the bottom to keep sledders away from the road, but after a couple serious injuries and leaving one child left with a broken femur in January of ’02, administrators decided the bales acted more like a wall of concrete than safety nets. “[Sledders] need to recognize that they are sledding and tubing at their own risk,” Sessions said. Bailing off the sled or tube before getting to bottom is the best way to avoid injuries, he said. If anyone goes to the hospital with an injury from Old Main Hill, hospitals are required to report the incident to USU Police. Cache Valley resident Nicki Denoyer, was tubing on Old Main Hill for her first time with her friend on Thursday. She said the hill is “really fast” and she had to use her feet as breaks before hitting the bottom. “This is serious,” she said. “You have got to be prepared.” -joelfeathers@cc.usu.edu
A tuber flies off a jump on Old Main Hill on Monday. (Photo by Jamie Crane)
John Schultz gets some air as he tubes down Old Main Hill. (Photo by Jamie Crane)
A mother, daughter and dog slide down Old Main Hill. Hundreds of people came to the hill to sled over the holiday weekend. (Photo by Jamie Crane)