what better way to spend a beautiful christmas eve than with friends tearing down a steep hill dusted with fresh powder on a toboggan?

well, it’s all good as long as nobody ends up in the emergency room!

this might look dangerous, but mister koppa is actually demonstrating advanced sledding techniques by locking the kid in with his legs so they can’t go flying with a sudden stop and using his freakishly long arms as outriggers to improve stability. nice form mister koppa!

if you haven’t been hurtling down the side of a steep hill on a toboggan in years, you really should give it a try. it can really get the heart racing.

more Advanced Sledding with Mister Koppa.

tired sledders would literally crawl past your intrepid sledding photographer. like any photojournalist i refrained from becoming part of the story and lending a hand unless absolutely necessary 🙂

veda makes it look easy and relaxing.

oof – makes my knees hurt just looking at it!

odin surveys the run just moments before defying everyone’s expectations and successfully making it to the bottom of the hill on his cross country skis ( definitely a hill more suitable for downhill skis but odin didn’t care ).

at the bottom of the hill he took off his skis and got ready to start back up the hill as some folks made the last run of the day in the toboggan. then, in just an instant, the toboggan went just a bit off course and odin, not knowing they are hard to steer, didn’t move thinking that the toboggan was going to change direction.

it was a heart stopper to watch him take a direct hit from the toboggan still going at a good clip and literally go head over heals and not get up. there was absolutely no doubt in my mind by the time i got to the bottom of the hill and found he was still not moving that we were in for a trip to the hospital emergency room. it turns out, he’s a sturdy kid – while he had the wind knocked out of him and was a bit stunned and in pain, he didn’t suffer any broken bones.

i’ve heard many toboggan horror stories since the accident, some involving body casts and extended-stay hospital visits, so we’re counting our lucky stars that odin just came away with a few tears, stiffness that would linger for a few days and a good story to tell his friends and cousins over the holidays.