I don’t like cold weather and being from Louisiana, I don’t have much experience with snow. Yet I found myself bundled in ski pants, ear muffs and snow boots when we visited Sapphire Valley Ski Resort in North Carolina this past weekend.
Although, the resort offers snow skiing, we decided to try tubing instead. The skiing seemed too complicated given that our children have never skied. When we suggested ski school to them, Thing 2 freaked out. “No, I want Daddy to teach me to ski,” she cried out. Thing 1 was indifferent as she’s not really an outdoor type of person.
For $26, we purchased a tubing session for an hour and 45 minutes. Since they don’t have an online ticket purchasing option, the Sapphire Valley website recommends arriving first thing in the morning to buy tickets for later that day. Our session began at noon.
The tubing section lies between the ski run and the beginner bunny slope. Once we schlepped through the snow to the tubing entrance, we pulled our inflatable tube from the pile and got in line with other eager participants. Thankfully, there was a moving sidewalk to carry us (and the cumbersome tubes) to the top of the slope where we queued up in three separate lanes. The other two lanes were inexplicably closed on this holiday weekend.
I expected this would be similar to sledding on a garbage can lid in our front yard when we have a snowstorm every few years. The only difference would be that I wouldn’t have to worry about hitting a tree or car in my neighbor’s driveway. I sat in the tube and slid down the hill.
Whew-whee!
This was fast.
This was fun.
Hmm – this was getting to be bit too much fun. How do I get off this thing?
Now I’m slipping to the right. I might go over the snow hump into the other lane.
False alarm. Now I’m tubing towards the left side and I slide into the other lane.
How fast am I going?
Oh – here’s the end. Darn! Let’s do it again.
Because of the crowd, it took at least ten minutes for the next run. This time I got into the tube headfirst and it was even more exhilarating. The children and my husband were enjoying it as well.
Soon, I noticed that the line was thinning out and the staff would spin the guests and tubes down the hill if they wanted. DH did this and looked pretty green by the time he got to the bottom. ”Once is enough for me,” he said. Even though I tend to get dizzy, I asked the staff person for a “gentle spin.” Let’s just say it was a good thing I hadn’t eaten anything that morning.
After about an hour, the line was almost non-existent. The sun was out and we began to shed our hats and gloves. Tubers began to form “trains” down the slope by holding onto each other’s tubes. We started forming trains with the children and found that with the weight of DH, we went down at a much faster clip – adding to the excitement.
After our session ended, we watched the snow boarders and skiers on the slopes. Next time, we’ll try the skiing, but for this trip, the tubing was perfect. For more detailed information about activities and hours, visit their website – http://www.skisapphirevalley.com.