Snowboarding, sledding and winter enjoyable throughout town

Austin didn’t precisely beat the ice storm — nevertheless it positively performed with it.

As dangerously chilly air locked town in a uncommon stillness over the weekend, Austinites improvised, documented it on-line and someway made it enjoyable. By Sunday, Reddit had turn out to be a spotlight reel of a metropolis discovering winter sports activities it technically doesn’t have the infrastructure for.

Before most individuals have been awake, Reddit consumer u/BowlFinal4039 posted a selfie in full ski gear on the South Congress Bridge, captioned, “Carve up some powder.” Downtown views, frozen lanes and a sport Austin doesn’t personal. A little bit later, u/throwawayEMS56 posted a photo of the identical skier round daybreak, writing: “To the man skiing up Congress at 5 a.m … Hell yeah brother. Keep Austin Weird.”

That put up hit a minimum of one individual proper the place it wanted to.

“I woke up and saw that someone was skiing down Congress at 5 a.m., and it reminded me that I have a snowboard gathering dust in the garage,” mentioned Gordon Siegfriedt, who later posted a video under the username u/gosieg exhibiting himself snowboarding down Rain Creek Parkway.

The first run didn’t go as deliberate. “At first I was just going to ride down our street, but it was hard to get any speed,” Siegfriedt mentioned.

So he upgraded. Rain Creek Parkway — a steep hill just some blocks from his home — seemed totally iced up. Siegfriedt mentioned he grabbed his digicam and went for it, counting on muscle reminiscence from years of working the neighborhood.

Steep on the high. Flat on the backside. Send it.

Not everybody reached for skis or boards. For households and neighborhood adventurers, sledding grew to become the principle occasion. u/StraightRip9828 posted a photograph of a child belly-down on a sled, captioned, “Sledding in Cherrywood.” In the replies, u/ab_lon99 added a evaluation: “The hill next to the church in Patterson Park was sick today. We

spent almost two hours on it!”

Others leaned totally into winter-sports cosplay. In a shared video, 7-year-old Everett Dean dressed head to toe in Dallas Stars gear, skated down an iced-over residential avenue whereas taking pictures at a hockey aim arrange on the sidewalk.

All of this performed out whereas Central Texas stayed locked in excessive chilly. In Austin, temperatures have remained beneath freezing since Saturday morning and aren’t anticipated to climb above 32 levels till Monday afternoon. Sunshine might assist soften lingering ice, however officers proceed to warn that roads can keep slick even once they look clear.

Still, between climate alerts and frozen pipes, Austin discovered a option to have enjoyable with it. Bridges grew to become ski runs. Neighborhood hills was sled parks. Empty streets briefly seemed cinematic.

It wasn’t sensible. It positively wasn’t secure. But it was peak Austin.