Published: July 29, 2007 01:03 am            

Resorts launch tube runs on winter slopes

CHARLESTON — To get a sense of the popularity of Canaan Valley Resort’s new summer innertube park, watch the squealing kids scurry back up the hill after completing a run.

“This is so much fun!” said Dillon Morris, 11, of Reedsville.

The slopes that thrill thousands of skiers in the winter at this Tucker County resort are no longer idle in the summer. U.S. ski resorts looking for ways to boost off-peak business are slowly embracing warm-weather tubing runs, which have already branched out across Europe.

David Vance, the resort’s assistant ski area manager, said Canaan Valley spent $56,000 for two 306-foot runs at the base of the resort’s Meadows I slope, becoming the sixth North American resort to install the technology manufactured by Italy-based Neveplast.

“By adding this new feature, it’s keeping our ski area business going for the summer,” Vance said. “Not many people come to see the ski slopes. With this, everybody gets to have a feel of how to do this in the winter.”

According to Neveplast’s Web site, the low-friction synthetic carpets, known as Tubby tracks, have the same slippery properties as snow.

“It’s a great summer venue source for ski areas, and the customers seem to be enjoying it — screaming all the way down,” said Ryan Locher, Neveplast’s U.S. sales representative.

Installation at Canaan was simple. Locher helped assemble the tube runs in about five hours.

The sheeting is fastened to the terrain. Each 4-foot-wide run has raised edges and slightly lowered centers to keep riders on the track. The resort’s inflatable tubes already used on winter slopes had shell linings attached to their undersides to help them glide along the orange-and-green track.

For enthusiasts, it’s hard to beat the price. At Canaan Valley, two-hour tubing sessions cost $10 per person. The sessions, limited to the first 50 people, are held three times daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Riders must be at least 42 inches tall.

“This is great for kids and grandparents alike and is something we can do together,” said resort guest Glen Jarrell of Charleston. “My grandson enjoyed racing me to the bottom.”

Neveplast, which also makes artificial alpine and nordic ski slopes and trails, has more than 300 summer tubing installations worldwide. There are 20 proposals out for more U.S. tubing parks in 2008, Locher said.

“It’s just catching on here,” he said. “Next year should be very busy.”

Neveplast appears to have a headstart in North America.

The National Ski Areas Association, the Lakewood, Colo.-based trade association for ski area owners and operators, is unaware of a similar product in use at resorts to simulate winter snow tubing, said Troy Hawks, the managing editor of the association’s trade publication.

Locher, who also is the mountain manager at Virginia’s Bryce Resort, heard about Tubby and had it installed at the resort two years ago. Bryce operates three summer tube runs.

It’s too early to tell whether the new tube parks will significantly boost resorts’ incomes. At least it’s creating a summer niche at some places.

The Tubby runs average about 200 riders at day at Oregon’s Mount Hood Ski Bowl and about 100 per day at North Carolina’s Sapphire Valley Resort.

“It’s so simple. That’s really the beauty of it,” said Bill Rouda, Sapphire Valley’s ski school director who financed the Tubby run with his own money because he was looking to open a summer business. “All you’re selling is gravity. You get on an innertube and slide down the hill. There’s no moving parts.”

Other resorts with Tubby runs are Massanutten in Virginia and Chicopee Tube Park in Kitchener, Ontario.

        

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