Making a curved snow ramp

   A few friends and I took advantage of the unusually large amount of snow that dropped on us over snowmageddon and built a sled run. Mind you, it wasn't our usual straight ramp, this one was banked and we were going to start it off with a steep start (going down a flight of stairs). We built the ramp and tested and fixed things over and over and by midnight we had a pretty good run that started at the bottom of the stairs. By that point we were pretty exhausted it was too late to do as much work as was needed to finish it all the way up the porch steps.
   The next week, however, we were able to go back and finish it up. By the end we had the sled shooting out the end fast enough to potentially cause injury (fortunately there haven't been any). Lots of stuff was learned and will be utilised in next years project which will be epic to say the least. Perhaps it could be considered to be a low-speed luge?

Step 1 Layout

First you need to plan the layout, this is a critical step because if you don't plan ahead, you will probably spend hours refining everything. Since I know this hill by heart, I have no need for the satellite imagery, but I've provided it to give you a top down view of what's being built and a pattern of the resulting exit angles (based on where we hit the dock).

_{sattelite inage credits: Google Earth}

Comments

[happyjo]

This looks like the funnest most exciting and enjoyable time ever! :D

[The Ideanator]

It was! And if it survives this weeks semi-thaw, it'll be a death trap of speed.

[happyjo]

Oooh! WOW! Funness! :D! :D!

[The Ideanator]

Lethal sped FTW!!!

[happyjo]

Have fun! :D