The New Dutch Henri Snowtubing Hill

This year the students in Heavy Equipment Operations Lab have established the first tubing hill on Dutch Henri. The snowtubing hill has four lanes including two lanes that’s for beginners were the slope is not steep and the last two lanes are for tubers who want to go fast down the gradually steep slope. This sounds fun for civilians and tourists to enjoy the new tubing hill, but what about injuries on the hill?

To answer this question, let’s go back where the tubing hill first originated. The tubing hill was first located next to Dutch Henri where Leadville high school students train for their downhill competition. There’s fencing in between these two premises and the Cloud City building is located at the bottom of Dutch Henri, but guests cannot use the facility, only students and coaches. There’s no walkway up the tubing hill, except the treacherous local imbedded footprints where they could slam their body into the fencing wall, and there is no tubing incline walls to control the tuber and no stoppage, except flat ground. So last year students from ski area planning established and planned the new tubing hill on the right hand side of Dutch Henri where next year’s Ski Area Operation students will train to operate heavy equipment, excavating dirt work and Snowmaking students will be train to make snow. The Heavy Equipment class has already finished the tubing hill; now it’s time to wait and see if the tubing hill will establish new tourists and see if the foundation is well built.

To me, this can be a great start for CMC and city of Leadville if the project is planned right and built right. If the project was performed sloppy and incorrectly, this can lead into issues where city of Leadville and CMC might have disagreement. Now what about the tubers; how will CMC eliminate the risk? Well, there are two issues that will have to be eliminated. One, where will the tubers’ walk in order to tube down the hill? This is still an issue from the last tubing hill. The new tubing hill is a little bit better because you’re not walking along the side of the fencing where other tubers flying by. The new tubing hill has a walkway where tubers can walk along the side of the tree area where tubers don’t worry about tubers going down when they are walking up. This still stands as an issue today because weather conditions can change any time. For example yesterday had no clouds and temps were above 32 degrees Fahrenheit all day. The next day it’s windy with crusty snow and temps were below 32 all day. Do you think tubers will be hurt yesterday or next day? Actually, both because we don’t know the experience levels of tubers and there’s no employees attending the scene to watch for any accidents or incidents. We can never stop Mother Nature’s work, but we can pay attention of temperature changes and pay attention who’s tubing. There are incline walls to stop and control tubers colliding from each other, but do you think families will want to take pictures next to the incline wall? Yes. This will be another issue because people will want to take pictures next to the incline wall where they are in danger of the tubing lane. This risk can be eliminated if there is a location for a proper signage where tubers can stop and read the note carefully and if attendants can watch over the tubing hill and stop anyone from getting close to the incline wall. There will be other issues that will be encountered like parking spots, traffic jams on the tubing hill, signage, and fencing, but all this can be stopped if there are attendants watching Dutch Henri.

Having attendants there will be hard, but nothing will work better than attendants watching and making sure people are tubing safe. Dutch Henri is on the rise to become a ski area. Faculty members and others have contributed plans to continue working on Dutch Henri where there might be a conveyor lift (magic carpet) or a terrain park. This will be great for students in the SAO program to learn different experiences in building a ski area. However, I don’t know if this will ever happen, but if Dutch Henri does build a conveyor lift, CMC might want to consider attendants for top and bottom. For all ski areas in Colorado, all ski areas must have at least two attendants for one ski lift: one at the top and one at the bottom. The Colorado Passenger Tramway Board will have to inspect the lift and liability issues will have to be eliminated too. This sounds worst than turnip greens, but if Dutch Henri is going to establish a tubing hill and establish other plans, CMC might want to consider putting in a risk management plan. This can be done by SAO students where they can learn the process of putting together a risk management plan and SAO students can build their resume by supplying their commitment to Dutch Henri. This can be a great start if CMC can put the foundation correctly and can attract tourists and students for CMC in Leadville. In the end, CMC must encounter the risks and issues and resolve any issues that might interfere if they want the tubing hill to be successful in the long run.

by Vilous Fox