Is there an uptick in using small sleds to descend?

[SpencerVT]

This winter I have seen a bunch of people in different areas using these small sleds; I think they're called Sonic Sleds from LL Bean. They sit down and then descend down the mountain on the snowshoe track on them. I have seen more people doing this this year than in all previous years combined. It definitely smooths out and "grooms" the snowshoe track, but I prefer to snowshoe or ski down!

 

[JoshandBaron]

They've been getting more popular the past 5 years or so and really bring out the curmudgeon in me. Had two guys take myself and a partner out on Whiteface when they came around a blind corner near the ledges.

 

[Finnski]

I saw 3 or 4 of them just yesterday on Monadnock. I may be a curmudgeon too but I don't like them. Several of us had kicked in some nice footholds ascending on the steep sections only to be smoothed over and undone by these sleds. Even worse if the packed trail gets rain and/or ices over then very difficult to rekick the steps in.

 

[skiguy]

More people in the mountains equals more sleds in the mountains.

 

[sierra]

This is another example of how Social Media is killing the mountains. I was out there before the internet was invented. Its my opinion that the mountains were a much better place back then. I'm trying to think of one good thing, the internet has done for the wilderness and I cannot.

 

[Grey J]

I'm searching for a counter-argument. Online fundraising to protect and preserve wild spaces?

 

[peakbagger]

There was a year or two where VFTT folks used them a lot. The toy of choice was the swiss bob. During a low snow year, several VFTT folks bruised their coccyx encountering roots and rocks with minimal snow cover.

No doubt that increased use of the woods with more new folks equals more sleds. I dont see them being banned. I have had as many close experiences with people butt sliding down a trail as encountering sleds.

 

[ChrisB]

There was a year or two where VFTT folks used them a lot. The toy of choice was the swiss bob. During a low snow year, several VFTT folks bruised their coccyx encountering roots and rocks with minimal snow cover.

No doubt that increased use of the woods with more new folks equals more sleds. I dont see them being banned. I have had as many close experiences with people butt sliding down a trail as encountering sleds.

When I tried a sled I found it tiring and not that beneficial.

Walk 100 yards to a steep pitch, sit down, slide as far as you can, get up, repeat, repeat, repeat. Meh.

I've also descended Lion's Head in winter where the entire section in the trees was like a luge run from butt sliders. There were sections where I faced in and front-pointed down! People!!!

 

[peakbagger]

I went on one fairly well attended VFTT event when DaveBear finished his winter list on Cannon so his family could join in. Some of us met him at Lafayette place and he lugged up an unusually large pack which turned out he had brought a small gas grille and his usual meat tips for the celebration. After the event many of us headed down via the Kinsman Ridge trail to the Tramway lot. The KRT is or was collocated with a glade trail for much of its length. Conditions were perfect and my guess is it took us 15 minutes top to bottom with various butt sleds. I have had similar runs on other trails including several on the Sherburne but many others similar to Chris's experience. Wildcat is usually fun in the spring once the ski area shuts down.

 

[Tom Rankin]

When I tried a sled I found it tiring and not that beneficial.

Walk 100 yards to a steep pitch, sit down, slide as far as you can, get up, repeat, repeat, repeat. Meh.

I've also descended Lion's Head in winter where the entire section in the trees was like a luge run from butt sliders. There were sections where I faced in and front-pointed down! People!!!

If you use the last 3 or so feet of your slide, you can lean forward and stand up much easier. I consider myself an advanced butt slider!

Yes, they do make the trails slicker, but you need to be prepared for anything when you go out in Winter.

 

[JoshandBaron]

Yes, they do make the trails slicker, but you need to be prepared for anything when you go out in Winter.

How do you feel about postholers?

 

[maineguy]

How do you feel about postholers?

You must have been reading my mind

 

[B the Hiker]

I'm a Taoist, and one of the foundations of Taoism is that the world is always changing. The question is whether it is changing for the better or for the worse.

A friend and I did the Hancocks two weeks ago. Uncovered urine left and right. People sledding down, which made the trail quiet dangerous for those of us trying to hike down it. Folks everywhere with tiny day packs--packs so small I wouldn't hike with them in the summer--that clearly had no gear in case something went wrong.

But I am willing to be each of those people took a selfie, often with a sign holding a number, and posted it afterward on Facebook!

The problem right now, I believe, is that there is no mentorship going on.

 

[ChrisB]

*** Fun Fact ***

The city of Portland Maine supports and maintains sledding hills. They dump and groom snow when necessary on several popular runs.

They also install terrain features on one hill that serves as a snowboard / ski park. Both parks were busy this weekend.

 

[skiguy]

*** Fun Fact ***

The city of Portland Maine supports and maintains sledding hills. They dump and groom snow when necessary on several popular runs.

They also install terrain features on one hill that serves as a snowboard / ski park. Both parks were busy this weekend.

You never know what might be next. Rumor is that the aging less mobile demographic among hikers (aka:curmudgeons) and the new age social media types are converging on The White Mountains at the same time. That coupled with the AMC's challenges fiscally and other elements weighing on resource infrastructure ideas are being hatched to address increased demand going forward. Mount Washington already being the home of Trails, Roads and Railways is being targeted as the best place to funnel the multiple fringe activities like butt sledding, postholing, and of course extreme selfie behavior. Therefore the proposal is in the works to assist those involved. Why not just encourage these fringe activities to occur in one place and take the pressure off of outlying areas. In other words dump it all into one "Bowl".

 

[SpencerVT]

Social media can be utilized by some people in a healthy beneficial way (i.e. sharing pictures of grandkids with distant relatives, an outlet for folks who have a handicap, sharing historical information, beautiful photography of the full moon, etc...)
However, the vast, vast majority of all social media is a giant cesspool of garbage showcasing humanity at its worst and most Cro-Magnon.
I have never been a part of social media in my lifetime (I don't consider an informational hiking message board like this social media). I am talking about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc....
It is the most liberating thing to have nothing to do with it. Unplugged. Disconnected. Brings true joy and happiness.
Most often, social media is nothing more than a vapid continuation of all the worst aspects of high school. A giant insecure popularity contest of people trying to prove to distant acquaintances called "friends" that they are still attractive, popular, successful and have superior material things. The other nefarious aspect of social media is the millions of people who think they are Models, driven by insecurity and society's increasing importance placed on destructive narcissism. People sexualize themselves, taking off as much as the filters allow, to get "likes" and "followers," literally stripping their dignity and deriving a false sense of self worth. Misplaced values. It is ruining younger people especially. I feel like telling every self-important social media "influencer" - what is it like to know as an influencer that you've never made a true difference?"
95% of these "friends" would never be there on your death bed, at your funeral, there for you in need, or truly know the person you are. It is most often a complete waste of precious, limited time on this planet that could otherwise be spent living life and outdoors.
In addition, social media is a petri dish for misinformation and libel. Cowardly, insecure adult-high-school-children assassinate others via the safety of their anonymous keyboard while slinging aspersions which they would never dare say to someone's face. Meanspiritedness is allowed to proliferate on social media, thriving in a vacuum of bias confirmation, self-righteous insecurity, virtue signaling, and as Bob Dylan said: "pettiness which plays so rough." No one cares about the hurt they cause because they don't have to see their emotional bullets penetrate another human being from cowardly behind their anonymous keyboard. Countless lives are harmed by primitive judgmental viciousness abounding on social media. The world is indeed a worse place because social media exists. Thankfully, we are free to not participate and opt out of the never ending high school rat race.

Spencer "Bigfoot" Crispe

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Tell us how you really feel

I do mostly agree with you. I'll share with everybody how I generally approach social media.

First, I do share major family milestones, so my distant blood relatives can stay in touch - particularly appreciated over the past 11 months.
Second, I do most of my group/social organizational activities through social media (hikes, skis, bike rides, kayaking trips) and/or Strava (it considers itself a social media platform for athletes). Nothing against Trips & Events here, but I limit my invites to people I have vetted - those I trust to get me and/or help me get my dog out of the woods in an emergency.
Third, I find it useful for, and partipate by contributing to, crowdsourced information such as conditions, openings, closures, etc., for the above activities.
Fourth, There are occasional newsy items that interest me that may not appear in normal channels, such as cycling legislation at the state level, fishing legislation, quota changes, openings/closings, etc.
Fifth, There is some advantage to using it as one-stop shopping place for trusted pages ("liked pages") and relevant announcements - things like National Forests, Fish and Game, National Marine Fisheries, and various professional/educational announcements, like new product releases from Amazon Web Services, or my own employer. Oh, and musical interests (also a great source of entertainment during the pandemic), sports annoucements and highlights, etc.

It helps to remember that you really aren't the customer of most social media sites (paid or not) but rather the product. Have you noticed over the last 10 years or so you cannot purchase very many things online anymore as an anonymous user? Everyone wants your data for marketing purposes.

I would say that this site does qualify as social media, in some form. Nobody is required or encourage to use their real name, although some do. The platform offers "Friends" and "Likes" (disabled) and private groups (not used much if at all) and many other social-media inspired features.

Tim

 

[Mike P.]

Technically the small sleds are basically glissading, something covered in Freedom of the Hills. People used to go in just their snow pants before those pants became $300+ Gore-tex bibs. As others mentioned for a couple of years several VFTT'ers were using them. I even bought one back when EMS had a store in Hartford. (90's) I had to re-do the belt as it was designed as a kid's toy, however the one I bought you wore like a harness. (Never been used, the trail I've glissaded down the most is the Mt. Avalon trail.) You are still responsible for control and not running people over.

My favorite quote of mine that my kids hate is "Social Media is neither" It's ripe for acting anti-social and is perfect for spreading lies.

I remember back when we did Friends and Likes (and Rocks On TOP was around) it quickly turned into a group that basically friended and liked everything their friends said. if you were in that group, you could have said, "I Like Eggs" and you'd get a dozen likes. You could become a Mountain Master or whatever the highest rating was just because you had friends, you could have been clueless.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Don’t confuse green squares (reputation) with likes. But yes, that was the effect of reputation and I believe when it was shut off that Mohamed pointed out that they had encouraged puerile behavior. Likes have not ever been enabled. They behave just like Facebook in that everyone can see them and who they came from.

Tim

 

[skiguy]

Don’t confuse green squares (reputation) with likes. But yes, that was the effect of reputation and I believe when it was shut off that Mohamed pointed out that they had encouraged puerile behavior. Likes have not ever been enabled. They behave just like Facebook in that everyone can see them and who they came from.

Tim

So we could all actually like each other here then?