Due to a winter storm, Bloomington received more than 7 inches of snow last week with temperatures as low as 17 degrees on Feb. 15.
Bloomington locals and IU students enjoyed the snow day in different ways. Some went out and played in the snow as if they were in a sandbox, some built snowmen, some went sledding and some just made snowballs to toss around.
Carson Conrad is an IU sophomore studying recreational therapy who moved to Bloomington when he was young. When it snows, he said he prefers to stay warm inside and spend time baking, binging a series on Netflix or playing party games like Scattergories or Taboo with his family.
“I think that’s the perfect activity to do when it’s snowy and cold outside,” Conrad said.
After this most recent snowfall, Conrad said he and his friends went sledding on inflatable pool floats. This isn’t even the strangest substitute sled. He said he’d heard of someone using a broken television set to go down a snowy hill.
Carson remembers sledding as a kid down the hills of Sherwood Oaks Church, which is in the middle of town. He recommends sledding, visiting one of the frozen lakes, grabbing a hot drink, building a snowman or just staying inside if it’s too cold.
This past week he made an unconventional snowman.
“No carrot, so we used a corndog as the nose” Conrad said about the snowman.
Peter Grumbling is an IU sophomore studying environmental science and is the vice president of IU’s ski club.
“We don’t get much snow in Indiana, but when we do I get very excited,” Grumbling said.
Grumbling is always happy to hit the hills with either his ski gear or snowboard, which he has been doing since he was 7. This winter he has mostly been going with some of his friends to set up rails for snowboarding at the tailgate fields to take advantage of the extra snow.
“There’s actually a lot of stuff you can do in Bloomington with skis and snowboards,” Grumbling said.
He recommends sliding down the hills of Bryan Park, Ninth Street Park and Tri-North Middle School for snowboarding or sledding. However, he cautions that people should learn how to ski somewhere like Paoli Peaks or Perfect North Slopes.
He said he’s seen many interesting substitute sleds this week, including a cardboard box and laundry basket.
Emma Rodes is an IU sophomore studying theater and media. She said Tri-North Middle School immediately jumped to her mind as the place locals would usually go to for their sledding needs.
“People would bring sleds, but they would also bring kayaks and Rubbermaid containers,” Rodes said.
The hillside would end up littered with the plastic scraps of shattered sleds, but that might be a thing of the past as they’re building a new school and possibly making the hill harder to access, Rodes said.
Rodes recently went to Griffy Lake, which was frozen over, and saw several people playing hockey on top of the ice. She said she recommends going out to nature to make the most of the season, especially any forest for the picturesque scenery and wildlife you can see.
“The trees aren’t just these brown skeleton things, they’ve got a tiny little line of white on them,” Rodes said.
