Sledding at ISAT
When the water in the clouds sublimes into flakes and falls to the ground as snow, it means wintry fun for JMU students around campus, thanks to the up-and-down topology of the area. Hills here, hills there, hills everywhere. A popular hill for sledders from the Village (an area just over the bridge), and from CISAT to slide is off to the side of the ISAT Building, heading towards UREC. It’s even equipped with stairs for going back up! I went down there to see what was up, and saw a lot. People were sledding with mattresses, inner tubes, sleds… even Festival and D-Hall trays (despite that stealing the trays was a big no-no). And people were also constantly wiping out, often on the makeshift ski-ramp. Still, it was lots of fun. Here’s what we saw…
On my way out to photograph the snow festivities, I ran into some Potomac-ers who helped show me to where the majority of the action was. Turns out it was out by the front of ISAT.
Getting there, I went through the building (hey, it’s warmer), and encountered the snow-plow, clearing the snow.
And here’s the happy sledders!
People sledding used nearly everything – linoleum, trash bags, mattresses, seat cushions, trays… you name it.
WIPEOUT!
However, this does not deter him, as he climbed up and went down for more.
Occasionally, people doubled up for a trip down the hill.
This person got inside of a garbage bag to slide down the hill. This seemed to be quite an effective way to get to the bottom.
Meanwhile, everyone stands up at the top of the hill planning a strategy for their next slide, especially those going over the makeshift snow ramp.
Now, here come Raleigh and Lindsay from Potomac to join in the sledding! Raleigh brought a real sled, believe it or not, which made this the most sophisticated piece of sledding equipment that there was.
Raleigh did like many trucks do – “How’s my driving?” Just call his JMU extension and tell him.
GO, RALEIGH! He didn’t wipe out, amazingly enough.
And now he takes it back up the hill the hard way.
And now, Raleigh joins up with Lindsay for some more fun in the snow,
Meanwhile, other people tried to take a large blue mattress and use it for sledding. The raw mattress, unfortunately, did not work. It stopped, and sent its occupant on ahead.
Meanwhile, a snowball is always a splendid treat!
Their next attempt was to use two tubes as runners to slide the mattress down the hill. This, unlike the previous attempt, worked.
While the mattress-people did that, Raleigh and Lindsay got up the hill above the sidewalk, and sledded down that into the sidewalk.
After getting to the sidewalk, Raleigh did some kind of dog-paddle on the sled to get past the sidewalk, and then the two of them went down the main hill, directly into a small pine tree, causing no more than a bruise to Raleigh’s pride, a wipeout on both of their parts, and a minor snowfall from the tree.
Meanwhile, how many people can we fit on one inner-tube?
Seems that in theory you can hold four, but get that inner-tube moving, and it’s not so, as three of them bit the frost.
Meanwhile, Raleigh and Lindsay gave the sled another go. This time, fortunately, they didn’t hit the tree…
Now, the mattress people loaded the mattress up with six people, and amazingly enough, made it down the hill intact.
All the while, Raleigh threw caution and his jacket into the wind, calling the day “unnecessary risk day”, and went down the hill again with Lindsay, this time putting her in front, because he couldn’t steer to save his life.
In returning from the hill, I ran into some of my residents and their friends, raring to give it a go for themselves.
