Also, are there places in the mountains where I can go, pay to use their lifts, and use my tube to go down the hill?
I bought a giant inner tube from a tractor (it's amazing what you can find on Amazon!) for the purposes of tubing or sledging as you call it here. Since I am new to Switzerland, I figured I would ask what is the etiquette regarding using it. Is it OK to just slide down any hill that is in a public place or will this result in dirty looks?
You could probably use it anywhere there are sledging runs. In the resorts they often allow people to ride up on the lifts (chair or gondola, probably not the T-bar) with their sledges to reach the tops of the sledge runs.
Maybe call in advance to see if they would allow you to use your tube or just turn up but be prepared to switch to sledging if they stop you.
Otherwise, you could take the train up the Uetliberg - there are a couple of runs up there, as well as a few decent slopes on the way up which are often busy with people sledging.
Bottom line is just use your commonsense - don't go anywhere you are likely to end up flying out onto a main road or into a tree or into a crowd of people.
IIRC Stoos has an airboard run - just not sure whether you can take your own tube.
Even then I'd avoid "proper" sledge runs - a tube is going to be twice the width of a normal sledge and you're likely to cause a whole load of accidents blocking so much of a run.
Stick to hillsides you can walk up and exist on common land.
Just in case anyone else was thinking about using a tube for sledging, I would recommend against it. It turns out, you need a specially prepared hill with just the right conditions for the tube to go down at a decent speed. On your average hillside where people go sledging, the snow conditions are not right, and the tube will not go down. Any place that has a specially prepared hill will usually rent out the tubes, and the cost is included in the lift ticket.
The second time we took the tube out, we have a real sledge that was used to push it from behind, and that worked OK, however it still wasn't nearly as fast as the sledge on its own.
inner tubes work just fine. If the snow conditions aren't great, you may have to go down a few times to pack the snow and make a designated run. You can go much faster on those if you wax the bottom..
how do you brake?
edited: damnit
I picked up two inflatable sledges recently, planning to try them this weekend.. I also thought about how does one control them.. But hey, it'll stop eventually!
When the hill runs out
Assuming you meant brake.
you mean brake?
you don't
if it gets going too fast, best to roll off of it and tumble to a stop.
IIRC, the norm is to build a big jump at the bottom of the hill and you stop by flying off the tube in mid-air and landing in a heap on the snow.
Are you guys from the tropics or something? You never did this as a kid?
like this!
I was poor and used plastic trash bags :P
Or just regular wooden sled (where you can use your feet to handle)
One other thing I forgot to mention. Turning with the tube is nearly impossible. You have to use hands and feet to get it to somewhat turn. When you do this, it adds extra wear to the course.
My siblings and I had a collection of sleds for different conditions. The best was, and still is IMO, the Flexible Flyer:
It was an annual ritual to pull the sleds out of the cellar, sand and polish the rails with steel wool, then add some fresh wax with an old candle and a blow torch.
The neighbors weren't too happy one year when they came home and we were wetting the street down with a hose so it would ice up and make us a perfect sled run..
Wait for summer and use your tube to float down a river!
[QUOTE=Sandgrounder;Otherwise, you could take the train up the Uetliberg - there are a couple of runs up there, as well as a few decent slopes on the way up which are often busy with people sledging.
[/QUOTE]
I think a lot of families have had the same idea. The high number has caused train delays
Jeez I screwed up that quote above !!