How to make a slide of snow with your own hands

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Wait for the right weather and follow our instructions.

Downhill skiing is one of the invariable attributes of the New Year holidays. Do not deny children and yourself such joy. Build a slide of snow, and you are guaranteed a fun pastime and a good mood for the whole winter. In addition, it is done quite simply - and Lifehacker will help you with this.

1. Prepare everything you need

To make a slide, not so many materials and tools are needed. In addition to being in a good mood and suitable weather, you will need the following:

• a lot of snow;
• water from a watering can or hose;
• warm gloves;
• large rubber gloves;
• snow shovel;
• broom;
• mop with a rag;
• a pair of boards;
• construction trowel.

2. Dress warmly and protect your hands

You will be working outdoors for several hours, so dress warmly. At the same time, it is important that the clothes do not hinder your movements, because you will have to work with a shovel, bend over and actively move.

Since there is a lot of fiddling with wet snow and cold water, it is very important to take care of hand protection. Ordinary warm gloves will get wet quickly, so you need to wear household rubber over them. The main thing is that they are a couple of sizes larger and not squeeze your fingers. Otherwise, hands will immediately freeze.

3. Find a suitable place

The first step is to choose the correct location to build the slide. It is better to find a safe place away from the roadway, footpaths, as well as poles, fences and other obstacles. In addition, there should be convenient access to the ascent to the hill and free space next to the descent from it.

If there is not much space or there are traumatic objects on the way, you can make turns in the right places to change the trajectory and bypass obstacles.

If possible, it is worth using the natural relief. Existing elevation differences such as hills and ravines will make it much easier to create a downhill grade. It will be enough to mold the sides and make a smooth slope at the end.

4. Decide on the size

When choosing the height, length and shape of the slide, it is necessary to take into account who will ride it. For kids, a slide up to 1 m high is suitable, and for older children, you can build a higher structure - 1, 5–2 m. However, keep in mind that in this case you will need more space for a smooth descent.

It is not worth making the slide too high, because it will already be unsafe, and it is quite difficult to manufacture. It is better to make it longer - at least 5–6 m. If space permits, then more can be done.

It is also important not to overdo it with the tilt angle. For kids, 20 ° is enough, for older children - 20-30 °. It is undesirable to arrange a slope of more than 40 °: it will be simply dangerous to ride from such a steep hill.

The width is chosen based on what the children will ride on. For ordinary ice floes, 80–90 cm is enough, for tubing-cheesecakes - 1–1, 2 m. In both cases, it is necessary to equip the slide with bumpers from 15 to 30 cm in order not to fly off the track.

5. Think over the form

The straight slide is pretty boring. This can be done only for the smallest children. It is advisable to provide at least one turn at the end of the descent, and it is better to make several along the entire trajectory of movement. With the help of zigzags, you can easily avoid obstacles in a tight area and redirect people leaving in the other direction.

If you have enough patience and materials, you can build a slide with two parallel ramps to ride in pairs.

In the presence of snow, you can show imagination and make an arch or sculpt a slide in the form of a castle or some character like a dragon.

6. Form a slide

Now it's time to start creating the base of the slide. It is necessary to sketch a pile of snow with a shovel, carefully tamping each layer, and give the structure a rough form of a slide with the desired slope and turns. It is best to do this during a thaw or in a slight frost of about 2-3 ° C, when the snow is sticky and well compacted.

To simplify the task, you can make a lot of snow balls and mold a slope from them.

The base of the slide should be as strong and dense as possible so that it can hold out all winter. Otherwise, you will have to restore it after each thaw. If there is little snow or you don't want to mess around, you can use a frame made of boards, pallets, ladders or old tires, having covered them well with snow.

7. Align the descent

For the best sliding, the slope of the slide should be as flat and smooth as possible. The latter can be achieved when pouring later, but it is necessary to remove all irregularities and pits at the stage of forming the structure.

To do this, the descent is leveled and tamped with a shovel or board. Sweep over with a broom and cut off the protruding ice with a spatula. Depressions and dips are covered with snow and are also well rammed.

8. Sculpt the sides

In order not to fly out of the track, protective bumpers should be made on both sides of the slope. It is convenient to sculpt them from the snow mass, which is obtained by pouring snow into a bucket of cold water.

Moisture-saturated snow resembles in consistency something between clay and plasticine.

Directly with hands in gloves from this mass it is necessary to form sides 15-30 cm high on both sides of the descent. They need to be carefully rounded and smoothed before the snow is frozen. When cornering, the side along the outer radius should be higher and stronger so as not to fly off the hill.

9. Make a platform and steps

At the top of the hill, you should equip a flat area of about 1 × 1 m in order to calmly sit on the ice or tubing before descending. This patch is leveled with a shovel or board and tamped well. The site should be fenced with strong sides 40–50 cm high, which will protect against falling from the slide.

To climb, you need to make steps. They are cut right in the pile of snow with a shovel and trimmed with a spatula. Also, neat steps can be formed with two boards, forming a right angle from them. The height of each step is 15–20 cm, the width is 50–60 cm.

In order not to slip when climbing, the steps are made with an inclination inward and later sprinkled with ordinary snow or sand.

10. Fill the slide

The slide is almost ready, all that remains is to fill it, turning the surface of the slope from snow to ice. It is better to do this the next day or the day after the construction of the structure. And preferably in good frost.

Filling is carried out in two stages to achieve a perfectly smooth surface. After the first spillage, let the slide freeze thoroughly overnight and repeat the procedure the next day.

Warm water will not work; it will melt snow and leave holes. So leave the filled bucket in the snow for a few minutes and throw in some snow. When an ice crust begins to form on the surface, you can remove the snow and get to work.

Pour the slide, sides, steps and the end of the descent from the watering can, carefully distributing the liquid along the slope. All pits that form after pouring must be filled with sleet and shed again.

However, hot water can also be used, but in a slightly different way. You need to take a mop with a rag, and then sprinkle it with water and move it along the ramp. So the hot fabric will melt the top layer of the snow, turning it into a smooth ice crust.

Haste when pouring is inappropriate. It is better to shed a few times and achieve not only a perfectly smooth, but also a strong surface. For the slide to serve all winter, the ice layer must be at least 5 cm.

Bonus: examples of constructions of slides made of snow and not only

Finally, a few specific examples of the manufacture of slides of different types and designs. Choose whichever works best for you and repeat. Change and combine parts as needed during construction.

A small slide with wooden handrails for children 3–5 years old.

12-meter slide for adults with a plank top and attachment to the balcony of the house.

A slide with a construction pallet frame, which is well suited for situations where there is little snow.

Low-rise snow slide with multiple turns for tubing.