Canadian toboggan hill map gets Reddit style upgrade

A 2015 crowdsourced map of Canada’s favourite tobogganing hills originally created by an Edmonton man named Charles Heard is getting upgraded thanks to the support of Reddit’s r/Canada users.

The toboggan hill map was stumbled upon by Reddit user “yoordoengitrong” and he decided to post it on the Canada subreddit due to how sparse the map seemed. Since it was written on December 26th, the post has received 618 upvotes and a lot of new hills have been added. One cheeky user even decided to tag Mount Everest as a prime Canadian tobogganing location. Others have decided to tag more realistic locations such as Graydon Hall Park in Toronto, Doidge Park London Ontario, Government Hill in Edmonton, Brookvale Prince Edward Island, and many more across the country.

Some users have raised suggestions for the toboggan hill map, such as different icons for different types of hills and a colour rating similar to those that ski hills use.

But of course, we can never have the good without the bad. In this case the bad comes in the form of recent bans on tobogganing have been popping up around the country.

In Hamilton, tobogganing was banned for numerous years. Only recently, four hills opened up to the public there after a large backlash from concerned parents and multiple petitions. Popular tobogganing hills in Toronto have bans in place, Edmonton wont let you use their hills if they’re deemed unsafe, and worst of all, the city of Calgary expect you to use a helmet if you want to toboggan. Okay, well maybe that last one makes sense, but so what if a hill has a bit too much ice on it, doesn’t that just add to the fun factor?

“When you’re looking at an outright ban, there’s a number of problems with that, one is that we actually want people to get out there, we want people to be physically active, and we’re dealing with an obesity epidemic… A ban that’s eliminating yet another source of physical activity is counterproductive to those things.” Said Mariana Brussoni, an assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at UBC on banning tobogganing to the CBC.

Brussoni believes that this all comes in hand with over cautiously wanting to protect children.

“I don’t think it’s specific to tobogganing. We’re seeing this across all sorts of issues around children’s safety. There’s been increasing concerns around keeping children safe, and that has affected them in a variety of ways.” Added Brussoni.

Some say that the best place for tobogganing is not on a hill in the middle of a city, but rather a closed ski hill. Although it is almost certainly not legal, it definitely sounds like a lot more fun.

“I work at a ski hill, the few weeks that we are closed still but have snow are by far the most dangerous. All of us groomers and lifties take GT racers, crazy carpets, and sleds down the runs. It’s insane!” says Reddit user “lyndy650”.

So, if you can do it legally (or without getting caught) it definitely sounds like an amazing way to mix things up. In the meantime, Canada’s toboggan directory will satisfies most of those with a jones for crazy carpeting or sledding.

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