Post by tim on Jun 8, 2010 16:51:57 GMT -6
The Dangers of Snow Tubing
Many people would argue that snow tubing is safe and fun. However, I have learned the hard way that snow tubing is by no means safe or even fun. I hope that anyone who enjoys this activity will agree with me after reading my story.
It was the midwinter of 07'-08' and my Boy Scout troop was going up to a snow lodge on Mt. Hood in Oregon. When we set off in the morning we had noticed that there had been freezing rain the night before. But this didn't matter much; we all set off on the road trip to Mt. Hood which took far longer than usual thanks to seasonal traffic and closed bridges. When we finally arrived we all carried supplies from the parking lot to the lodge a quarter mile away. When I had finished bringing in all required supplies and my stuff I asked the leaders if I could attack the slopes.
They said yes and I was the first one out in my troop. I started off on the faster, less-bumpier hill and found it quite boring. I decided to upgrade to the slower but far bumpier inner-tube run next to it. After seven runs down that I found that it lacked some much necessary speed and I kept going higher up the slope to get more speed. Then on my tenth run another scout said something like this: “I wouldn't go higher if I were you.” If only I had listened to that.
Rather than listening to him I just went higher and I suffered from it. On my eleventh or so run down the slope I came off of one the large jumps and my left leg slipped from the inner tube (I had my legs tucked into the tube) and my boot plowed into the snow and broke my tibia. (shin bone) The sheer pain was like that of being dropped from a tall building on to solid concrete. I was then carried into the lodge where the leaders who had some expertise in first aid examined me. At first, I only thought I had just sprained my ankle badly. (or that is what I had hoped) They splinted me up and decided that it would be a good idea to send me off to the closest urgent care facility to get an X-Ray of my leg.
At the urgent care, I had an X-Ray and they quickly determined that I had a broken leg. They then proceeded to fix me up by first giving me painful injections of morphine and another drug to balance the morphine and then they set my leg in a proper splint. Which I can say is very, very painful because they have to twist the leg a bit so that it is set in the proper position. I then had to go on a long car ride down the mountain that night and go to a doctors appointment on the following Monday to set my leg properly in a cast and further examined. All in all I was deemed handicapped for three months until I finally got to walk without the help of crutches or a walking cast and almost a year before my leg could become fully healed.
By this evidence I conclude that snow tubing is not a supremely safe activity and I found that the three month ordeal was by little means fun. Therefore by this simple mathematical equation of SF = good experience (S = Safety F = Fun) that inner tubing does not have a very high score. However I could have avoided this first I could have just not gone and save myself pain and eight hours of car-rides through snow. Or what I really should done was change my technique. I had made the mistake of tucking my legs in to keep them safe from the onslaught of snow jumps. So here is my advice to you if you want to go snow tubing either stay at home and play video games, watch movies, OR make sure that you do not tuck your legs in!