Easy Ridge Tours

My best friend used to pull his infant son up the road to Deer Park in the Olympics.

I second the Artist Point idea. It's pretty much unbeatable as a scenic, reasonable, kid-in-a-sled tour. The following picture of my son Tom was taken in December 1997.



I did three sled trips with Tom between ages 15 months and about 2-1/2 years. The first one was to Artist Point, above. The second was to Surveyor Lake, near the top of Summit Central ski area. (We got ejected from the ski area by a patroller who told us to return to our car by traveling outside the ski area boundaries. I politely told him to shove it.) The third trip was to Windy Pass via the Cold Creek road from Hyak. These were all nice day trips. On the third trip I packed a pair of little plastic skis and Tom did his first "skiing" that day.

My brother Carl got a Kinder-Shuttle sled from one of his photo clients and he loaned it to me for these trips. As you can see in the photo, the sled had a completely enclosed cabin with a clear windshield. This enclosure was critical to Tom's comfort. After feeding and bundling him up, he would be toasty warm in there. Although we only did three of those trips, they are fond memories.

Second the recommendation for Hyak - Cold Cr Rd - Windy Pass, and there is lots of nice open gentle slope area off track at Ollalie Meadows. The sometimes groomed loop on S side of I-90 X63 Cabin Creek SnoPark would be a quickly accessible spot to try out a sled. Methow Valley XC ski trails are popular for the pulk towers, too, with variety of terrain and nice warm places to stop.

Also in Snoq. Pass, check out the forest road going up towards Kendall Lakes via the Gold Creek Sno-park. It's a fun tour with mellow exploring near the top.

One other thought...

I did my sled tours using light alpine touring gear and climbing skins. I haven't used fishscale skis much, but I bet they would have trouble pulling a sled up the steepest section on the way to Artist Point. On a gentle road they might be fine.

I had good results with both kids mostly on pretty easy terrain out of snowparks just east of Snoqualmie and also on the Mazama ski tour trails just north of highway 20 heading up to one of the huts. Sorry cannot remember the name of the trail or hut.

Regarding gaining turns with the kid in tow, I guess I would agree that it would be less than productive. Gain confidence gradually and you will learn what is best. Even still we did some pretty nice straight runs at descent speed using the flying wedge to control. Depending on how you design your pulk, you may find that the pole system may impart a strong torque to the sled when you turn your torso (and hence the harness) With some practice I generally used the harness very loosely around my waist such that I could twist without imparting too much torque. Kind of hard to explain until you experience it yourself. Some people make the design with the poles crossed, but I felt all that did was reverse the torque. That is probably why ski patrollers use hand held poles when controlling their rigs.

Alan