MANKATO — For participants, it’s been likened to sled riding on steroids.

For ski resort operations, it’s provided a new cache of paying customers.

And the beauty of it lies in its instant access to young and old. Which is to say, no athletic skill required.

That’s no as in zero. Just plop yourself into a tube and let gravity do the rest.

Snow tubing, unlike skiing and snowboarding, is an egalitarian pursuit that combines the simple fun of childhood hill sliding with the amenities of a ski resort.

Mount Kato Ski Area in Mankato added snow-tubing runs about a decade ago.

“It took some time to catch on, and there were years when we wondered why we did it,” said Jeff Putrah, Mount Kato general manager.

But catch on it has.

Putrah figures two-thirds of Minnesota’s ski areas have snow tubing operations. Nationally, 41 percent of ski resorts offer tubing as a means of attracting a formerly elusive market niche.

“Snow tubing is more for those who do not want to learn to ski but want to participate in a winter activity,” Putrah said.

It’s also a non-intimidating way to introduce people to slopes far more imposing than the typical sledding hill.

“Some of these kids have never even seen a ski hill,” Amy Hellevick said this week as she chaperoned a group from Christ the King Catholic Church in Medford.

About 30 youths spent a couple hours tubing down runs more than 1,500-feet long. Some were participating for the first time, but not Alyssa O’Connor.

“I like this better than skiing,” she said. “Skiing is harder, but anybody can do this.”

Hill lift operator Phillip Oeffler agreed.

“This is just controlled sledding,” he said, though he admitted that at times tubers must be controlled — for their own good.

“Once in awhile you get people who try to stand up on these,” he said.

Mount Kato has four tubing lanes with snow-bermed sides to prevent tubers from veering astray.

Traditionally, winter hill sliding meant exhausting climbs back up with sliding apparatus in tow. But at commercial ski areas, sliders just hitch their tube tethers to the tow line and up they go.

Although anyone can snow tube, not everyone may. Like other ski areas, Mount Kato has a policy: You must be at least 42 inches tall to partake.




Fun in the sun
Snow tubing in summer? It’s being done — minus the snow, of course.

Minnesota ski areas have yet to bite on the attraction, but a handful of U.S. ski resorts have implemented “dry slope” tubing as a way to generate off-season revenues.

Participating ski areas employ a technology manufactured by Italy-based Neveplast that employs low-friction synthetic carpets boasting the same slippery properties as snow.

There are hundreds of such synthetic slopes worldwide, but only about a half-dozen in North America.

One, Canaan Valley Resort in West Virginia, spent $56,000 for two 306-foot runs.
— The Associated Press