Snow tradition at Mount Trashmore slides into oblivion

VIRGINIA BEACH

Someday, when the kids are older and grown, you can tell them, “We used to sled on Mount Trashmore.”

But that was a decade ago.

That was before The Year The Sledding Stopped.

And the sledding won’t come back – not for many, many years. Not until Mount Trashmore II is completed, and nobody really knows when that will be.

“Tens of years away,” said Cindy Curtis, the Virginia Beach parks director. “Not in my professional career.”

But ask anyone who remembers 1996 in Virginia Beach. Ask them if they went sledding that year on Mount Trashmore.

Ask them if they broke a rib.

Or manned the ambulance at the bottom of the hill.

Two years earlier, in 1994, the city banned sledders from the north and west sides of the hill, the steeper sides facing the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway (now called Interstate 264) and Edwin Drive.

Most sledders obeyed, although some tore down the fencing and sledded there anyway.

Then came the snow of 1996. It was a good snow – or bad, depending on your point of view.

On Feb. 3, 1996, more than 5,000 sledders jammed the hill. It is 65 feet tall and sloped just right. Hundreds of riders hit the hill with vinyl tablecloths, inflatable boats, trash can lids and even a canoe.

It was a mess. The slope was packed. Sledders ran into fences and trees and parked cars: 20 were injured; 13 were taken to the hospital; two required surgery for abdominal injuries. Rescue workers reported broken bones and dislocated shoulders.

At one point, medics waited in ambulances for the next crash.

The city started limiting access to the hill at 1 p.m. By 5 p.m., they closed the park entirely. “Both hospital emergency rooms asked us to close it,” City Manager Jim Spore said at the time. “It was unsafe.”

Added then-parks director Susan D. Walston: “This park is not equipped as a winter resort area.”

One mother sued the city. Her 12-year-old daughter slid down the hill on a boogie board and hit a fence. According to the lawsuit, the girl suffered a ruptured spleen and permanent kidney damage. The city later settled the case for $33,600.

And that was the end of sledding as we knew it.

The following year, 1997, a committee recommended changes. No more sledding on the steep slopes. No more canoes, or surfboards, or car hoods. Bales of straw would be placed in strategic places on the hill.

That didn’t last, either.

In 2000, after three years of allowing limited sledding, the city banned it altogether. “It’s not that we’re trying to take away the fun,” said Rick F. Rowe, city parks and recreation supervisor. “It’s just unsafe to sled at Mount Trashmore.”

At the time, city officials said the ban was temporary. They said it was prompted by construction work on the hill.

But sledding never returned, and it never will, Curtis said. Recapping the hill a few years ago made the problem worse, she said. The slopes are steeper and there are more outcroppings.

“There is no intent to reconsider” the ban, Curtis said.

Of course, sledding could return when Mount Trashmore II changes from a landfill to a public park. That hill is even higher than the original Mount Trashmore, and more tempting to snow-day thrill-seekers.

“It is our desire to create an area there that would allow for sledding,” Curtis said.

When will that happen?

Nobody knows. Maybe when your children have children. The day is so far off, it’s not even on a city calendar or budget.

And who knows? At this rate, it might not even snow till then.

Marc Davis, (757) 222-5131, marc.davis@pilotonline.com