How to Build a Toboggan Run

Wear snowshoes as you plot and build your toboggan run. Snowshoes will keep you from post-holing in the snow, making travel easier and your toboggan run smoother.

Start from the bottom of the run. Make sure you have a suitably long run-out so fast-moving tobogganers can slow down and stop without running into obstacles. The area and distance you need for the run-out will vary widely, based on hill slope, hill length, snow conditions and how frequently the toboggan run will be used. A good general rule is that gentle hills should have a run-out at least as long as the run down the hill is, while steeper hills should have run-outs that are at the very least three times the length of the hill. Don't shovel a path through the run-out area; the less packing or shoveling you do in the run-out area, the softer the snow will stay and the better it will slow down and stop tobogganers.

Work upward from where your run-out zone begins, using a shovel to clear away the top layer of snow and delineate a path about two feet wide. There's no need to make the channel very deep yet; just shovel a shallow path that maps out the route from the bottom of the run to the top. Walk beside the path whenever possible to keep from gouging into it with your snowshoes.

Shovel the turns on your toboggan run so that they're as wide, smooth and gentle as possible. Avoid turns that are sharper than 45 degrees. Dig an extra shovelful or two deeper on the inside of the turns than you do on the outside; this starts to set up a bank on the outside of the turn, which will make it easier to keep the toboggan inside the run.

Survey the path you shoveled from the top of the run. Work your way back down, deepening and widening the path you shoveled as you go. Shovel snow from the inside of the turns to the outside, deepening the inside of the curve and building a bank on the outside. You don't need to worry about packing down the bank you're building; the initial toboggan runs will do that.

Continue shoveling the path until it's well-defined -- usually just the one trip working up and then another pass working downward is enough. Then carry a toboggan to the top of the run and carefully work your way down. Assuming that you're doing this in soft snow, the toboggan should move very slowly, and it'll be easy to shift your weight to guide it through the turns.

Slide down in the toboggan repeatedly. This is the best way of packing the toboggan run down. Note how the banked turns help you maintain speed and stay inside the run. As the run speeds up, you'll notice the toboggan tending to lift up onto the banks of the turns, Note how high it lifts, and, if it looks like there is any chance of flying over the turn and out of the run, raise the bank higher and pack it firmly. It should curve from level with the run surface to straight vertical or nearly vertical on the outside of the run.

Use flexible poles as posts and string wire mesh netting across the outsides of any particularly sharp and fast turn. Poke the poles all the way down into the snow as far as they'll go, then twist-tie or zip-tie the mesh to them. This is a safety precaution that shouldn't take the place of having a properly raised snowbank to keep tobogganers inside the run.