Finn Hill Sledding

By
Christopher Oldcorn
-
30
Finn Hill Sledding

There are several great places to go sledding during the winter in the Soo. However, Finn Hill on Black Road is the most popular hill. Children have enjoyed it for decades.

Charlie Lachapelle-Smith, a committed sledder, sent a letter to Mayor Provenzano asking for several improvements. Children (and adults) get tired climbing up the hill repeatably. Local athletes run up the hill during the summer for conditioning. 

Charlie wants either a chair lift or conveyor belt to get up the hill for several reasons. One reason is to assist people with a disability to enjoy the hill. Another reason is to prevent sledders from getting tired out climbing up the hill. A lift or belt allows more people to enjoy Finn Hill. 

The Sault winters can be brutally cold. A potential warming hut added for increased enjoyment. Monday night at the City Council Meeting, Councillors Hollingsworth and Shoemaker proposed a resolution studying potential improvements to Finn Hill. It passed unanimously. 

Way to get things rolling Charlie!

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30 COMMENTS

  1. So. let me see… If they install a towrope system or belt of some kind, then there will have to be a city employee to operate it, and that only on certain hours of the day.. (Never mind the wages and benefits). Oh yes, and the liability insurance… The city couldn’t even afford to pay the cost of letting the kids play on the old train at Bellvue !!! Leave things alone, for petes sake, the kids (and the adults) can all use the exercise.. Not like it’s a four mile climb..And God forbid someone should get COLD in the Soo in the winter….

  2. Turn the hill around make it go the other way .. jk. But it would be nice to have a pump track at the bottom in the summer over to the side connecting to the snow machine trail and hub trail for a continuation of that healthy lifestyle.

  5. I’m neither for or against, but with the widening of Black Road, how is that going to affect Finn Hill??? I went last winter and we were sliding almost to the road, with it being even shorter now at the bottom, maybe something needs to be done for safety in that regard first.

    • I’ve noticed the same thing. They should limit hill access to about halfway up and if they want to provide a tow system do it at Elliot Park where traffic at the bottom of a sliding hill isn’t an issue.
      Besides, every special athletic/activity site in the city doesn’t have to be in the east end.

  7. I’m with you Charlie, when my son was young, I brought him there, yes a tow rope and heating hut would be a wonderful idea!!! There is so little for kids in this town especially in the winter, theres heating huts for skaters why not sledders!!! Keep on them Charlie!!!!

  12. That hill is one of the best forms of exercise for both children and adults. I like the hut idea but hope if the chair lift passes that there will still be the option to walk back up

  16. There’s a reason the tow/lift was removed from Finn Hill decades ago – the cost of maintenance was too high being one of them, and that back when the Soo had a decent economy.
    Now imagine doing this now, with failing infrastructure which has been largely ignored for decades and at a time when the Soo economy is weak.
    Sounds like a great idea to recreate a failed concept, but that’s status quo in good old Sewer Ste. Marie

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