Camelback Mountain and more spots to go snow tubing this winter
The tube shaming has got to stop. For years, skiers, snowboarders, bobsledders, biathletes and the like have looked down with arrogance, hurling insults and worse, at those whose preferred method of descending a mountain is an inner tube, believing that anyone can do it. This is simply not true. In most cases, you must be at least 40 inches to snow tube (or 33 inches with a parent) and comfortable exerting yourself down a mountain on an inner tube. That is not easy in a world such as ours, which values adrenaline junkies and extreme pursuits to the exclusion of all others, and looks askance at those who insist on wearing a helmet even while sliding just a few hundred feet down a hill.
"Why is he wearing that?" a boy asked his father, seeing yours truly preparing for my descent one lane over at Camelback Mountain, a premiere venue for tubing enthusiasts in the Poconos. The day was clear and a warmish 38 degrees, the views from the top were stellar, and the excitement was palpable among the 18 or so of us who would soon descend simultaneously when given the signal by an attendant at the resort, which — during peak winter conditions at least — features more than 40 lanes for tubers.
I was wearing a helmet because I’d been advised to by colleagues I (formerly) trusted, people aware of my age and propensity for clumsiness, and people who insisted that tubing is more dangerous than it seems. This was also a lie. So why the helmet, I asked them later. We thought it would look hilarious.
"Ready?" a Camelback employee asked us while standing a few feet down the gentle slope, striking a dramatic pose with her arms raised high a la Natalie Wood in "Rebel Without a Cause." Throwing them downward, she shouted "Go!", whereupon a few tween hotdoggers dived headfirst onto their tubes and began speeding down the mountain, even as several others pushed off slowly and carefully, and at least one (guess who) was detained by a scraping posterior and only able to depart after considerable scooching.
Depending on your location, Camelback is roughly two hours from Long Island, a 100-plus-mile drive along I-80, where you’ll likely see lovely forests and the backs of 18-wheelers struggling up its hills. But there are lots of ski resorts within a few hours of here, many of them offering two-hour sessions of sliding fun for a price. (Camelback’s start at $59.)
Though slow to start, my tube rapidly picked up speed, so much so that I soon felt the need to brake with my hands, one of the few mistakes one can make while tubing. "Dragging your hands and feet can send you into a spin to make the actors of ‘Top Gun’ jealous," warned one site. And while many spectators were watching from the bottom of the hill, they were likely less envious than amused by the sight of a man in an inner tube spinning wildly out of control while wearing a baby blue helmet. For a moment I was completely powerless against forces of a gravitational and centrifugal variety, and briefly feared an imminent wipeout. But that’s the other thing about tubing. It’s dangerous enough to leave you exhilarated, but not so much that you’ll risk serious injury.
That’s been true throughout snow tubing’s history, which is shrouded in mystery and goes back a lot further than you’d think. By some accounts, it dates to the 1820s, when early Americans supposedly used pneumatic inner tubes to carry people and goods across snowy terrain, supposedly because pneumatic tubes weren’t invented until the 1840s. Nothing much has changed snow tubing-wise since then — other than, say, the invention of vulcanized rubber — although the International Olympic Committee briefly considered including snow tubing in the 2010 games. (Take that, Shaun White!)
After spinning its occupant to the verge of nausea, my tube finally came to rest at the bottom of the Camelback course, which arcs upward helpfully, like a runaway truck ramp. Exiting, I was happy to discover how convenient the course was to a magic carpet conveyor belt that whisks tubers back up the mountain for more sliding fun, and even happier to discover its proximity to a food truck.
Camelback Mountain, 193 Resort Dr., Camelback, Pennsylvania, 855-515-1283, camelbackresort.com. Two-hour snow tubing sessions are available from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays, noon to 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets cost from $59 to $95, depending on days/times.
WHERE TO GO
The following are some of the ski resorts with tubing courses closest to Long Island. Reserving tickets in advance is highly recommended. Tubing sessions are typically two hours, and prices may be higher on certain days and times.
Ski Big Bear, 192 Karl Hope Blvd., Lackawaxen, PA, 570-226-8585, ski-bigbear.com, $33
Catamount Mountain Resort, 78 Catamount Rd., Hillsdale, NY, 413-528-1262, catamountski.com, $30
Holiday Mountain, 99 Holiday Mountain Rd., Monticello, NY, 845-796 3161, skiholidaymtn.com, $25
Hunter Mountain, 64 Klein Ave., Hunter, NY, 518-263-4223, huntermtn.com, $39
Plattekill Mountain, 469 Plattekill Rd., Roxbury, NY, 607-326-3500, plattekill.com, $40
Shawnee Mountain, 401 Hollow Rd., East Stroudsburg, PA, 570-421-7231, shawneemt.com, $38
White Lightning Snowtubing, 124 Golf Dr., East Stroudsburg, PA, 570-588-6661, poconomountains.com, $60
Windham Mountain Club, 19 Resort Dr., Windham, NY, 518-734-4300, windhammountainclub.com, $55