Comedy Trio of Sledding Cluelessness in Central Park

Saturday in New York City. A perfect winter day, sunny and cold with snow blanketing every untrafficked part of the city. Three gals finished brunch, almost left their plastic purple sled under the table, and headed off to Central Park.

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Three California girls: Miranda, Charlotte, and I all grew up in San Francisco. At this point we’ve survived many east coast winters. We know how to stay warm, we’ve mastered winter accessories (warm must win over cute. Sigh). But not one of us had more than a clue about sledding. That wasn’t going to stop us from trying.

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The snow was pristine in the fenced off areas of the park. No sign can keep an angel out!

San Francisco is notorious for its hills. New York is not. Usually the three of us are what you might call “hill snobs”. What, you call that a hill? Please, that’s barely an incline! We searched for the perfected slope for our sledding maiden voyage. As we walked, Miranda shared what she knew about sledding, “My friend Dave broke his arm sledding a few years ago,” she paused,  “And you remember Naomi? She went sledding in college, slid into a broken bottle and had to get stitches all up her arm.” Suddenly every hill we saw, every bump in the road seemed too steep.

We finally found a incline hill that didn’t scare the shit out of us seemed just right. I was elected to go first as I had been sledding before. Once. Six years ago. Unfortunately my mind was void of memories of that experience, filled instead with thoughts of broken arms/stitches/teeth getting knocked out/not having health insurance. I wouldn’t let my friends down. I plunked the sled down in the snow, awkwardly sat upon it, grabbed on to the purple plastic handles, and shuffled my feet to give myself a push. Then I was flying through the air, sliding down the pathetic excuse for a hill at perhaps the speed of a squirrel. Fast enough to have fun!

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After a few trips down, we all felt a little more confident. We decided to go look for a better hill.

Soon we came across the perfect hill. Lots of other sledders seemed to think so. Sure, they were all under the age of six. I’d like to think they had just as much (and probably more!) sledding experience as we did!

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Despite our initial tentativeness, we had a blast. It was so fun. We didn’t need to go down big hills! We shrieked with delight, sliding down two at a time on our purple saucer, the third person playing camera man.

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I really needed this reminder that it is fun to go outside in the winter! Central Park is so gorgeous covered in snow! It’s always tempting to stay in and warm and hibernate all season. Must resist! I can’t wait to go sledding again. What are other fun outside winter activities?

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About New York Cliche

NYC lifestyle blog by Mary Lane. Events, adventures, epic mistakes, dating, life, humor. A 30-something trying to make it (and make out) in the city of dreams.

20 thoughts on “Comedy Trio of Sledding Cluelessness in Central Park

  1. That’s fantastic. Thanks for the white flashback. I was Central Park in May. Plenty of frisbee catching dogs but no snow though. Be tough to catch frisbee there now. Love the site. We spent about a week in NYC (Harlem 135th st)

      1. Ten blocks. Depending on which direction… that’s weird,we were supposed to stay at a place on 125th st but got conned and ended up 135th and Adam Clayton. Not that it mattered just one change on the subway down town. My highlight was scoring txt to Letterman. And we scored two tx to Wicked in the lottery.

  2. Love it! Although right now, if you’re outside in Chicago for more than 6 min. you’ll get frostbite…so sledding is out for me right now. *Tear

    1. I would loooooove to make a snow fort. Calvin and Hobbes definitely put fantastical ideas in my head of what one could do with snow. Having next to no experience with snow, I never really realized what was easy on paper was impossible with actual white stuff!

  3. I have never been sledding, and the idea of a pitiful excuse for a hill actually sounds great to start off with 🙂 Considering I pathetically failed at snowboarding and skiing when I tried them, sledding might be a good alternative. If I’m ever actually somewhere where there IS snow, that is. Great photos! Glad you guys had fun 😀

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