Chilling out at the Slippery Slopes

The prospect of sliding down a slippery slope of icy snow holding on to a tire tube sounded to me at first like assisted suicide.

But then I looked at the ski resort brochure and looked at the backdrop of evergreens and wintry bush with streaks of mile long drops of snow.

Then I remembered my uncle from Scandinavia telling me that skiing is fun and then showing me pictures of his leg in plaster.

Then I heard the shouts of glee of my 6 year old and my teenager when I said that maybe we're going snow tubing.

And then I suddenly heard an ambulance siren in my head.

But then at this time, if you're still reading this, you must be getting bored of this to and fro, so to make a short story shorter, we went.

On our way there, pictures of snowconed mountains begun developing in the darkrooms of my head. I visualized people whizzing down the slopes and ski lifts with people wearing skis dangling like deadly accidents waiting to happen.

Half a mile to Whitetail, we can see the streaks of snow already. My kids went oooh and then they went aaah. My teenager begun snapping pictures, while my wife kept reminding me to keep my eye on the road. Just what I needed: a backup GPS.

So we looked at the Snow Tubing slope and read the rules. Then we watched how the mostly Euro-American guests who weren't even wearing bonnets slid down the slope like they did it everyday.

They were shrieking nonetheless. Or was it just their kids ? I could have sworn there were even some kids sliding down who were less than 3 years old. Although the rules said 4 and above.

Who cares ? I'm above 4. Besides, no one goes inside without signing a waiver.

So we finally decided to do it. But then we have to wrap ourselves up in layers of sweaters, thermal wear and jackets to survive the icy weather out there. Not necessarily in that order.

Then of course, the lip balm. We don't want our lips to be burned. Its very hard to eat Noche Buena when your lips are burned. Its not cool having chafed lips when we return for school/workday. So lip balm, but do it inside the car where they won't see you.

Well, anyway like I was saying, they make you read and sign a waiver which basically says "You're waiving your right to sue us just in case you break your neck."

A basic waiver and they let you sign it in pencil. "How very legal", I told my brain. "Lets have fun !' I told the kids.

So we went inside and found the slope to be less intimidating than from afar. "Its not that high, Dad", my teenager says, in our native tongue. Anyway, I agreed, it did not look too high. Maybe 50, 60 feet tops. Or maybe 100. But it was a gentle slope.

For my 6 year old though it must have looked like the top of Everest. When I suggested we take the lift and snow tube down he looked at me like I was suggesting he jump off a cliff.

So, in between cries of protest from our first grader, we rode up to the slope with our tubes in tow. They were exactly like salbabidas (lifesavers) back home but wrapped in some kind of green rubberplastic material. There's the solo tube and a combo tube for small kids and one parent.

On top of the slope you can appreciate the 80 feet. Not intimidating, huh ? Think again, so I put on my brave face and convince my skeptical son to ride with me. "No way", he said. "You can do it ! Its easy. Look ! Look at that kid, he did it alone !" I did not know if I was convincing him alone or I was also convincing myself.

So we slid down and halfway through the slope our tube spun around. I totally did not expect that, I thought we were going straight down. My son was screaming but I did not have that luxury. I am an adult for Pedro's sake. So I just closed my eyes, then opened it to look if we're still alive and found out that we were at the bottom of the slope, unharmed. "That was easy !" I told my son.

So we spent two hours of that. Up and down, up and down the slope. I experimented with my belly down solo instead of just sitting on the tube with my butt firmly stuck in the tube. The feeling was fantastic ! The chilly wind rushing to your face as you race down and the whirring sound it produced was simply priceless. I was even hit the end of the slope one time.

I heard a college kid said "There's three of us and just one of him and we can't hit the end. What does that say of us ?" I pretended not to hear that but I was smiling and I was reminded of my Daredevil brother V. back home. He will totally enjoy this.

I enjoyed it, my son and teenager enjoyed it but best of all, my wife enjoyed it. When our time was up, I wanted more. But we gotta rest so we went to our inn, ate and rested for the evening.

Next winter, I'm going skiing. I saw some people falling flat on their faces. But who cares ? There's no paisano here. Nobody knows me here.

And that snow tubing, it wasn't expensive at all. The night at the inn was free.