Not necessarily wrong with the sliding sports. British aristocrats holidaying in St. Moritz, Switzerland were using local delivery sleds and later the American Flexible Flyer to race down the streets of the town. This started becoming hazardous to the local population and generated an increasing flood of complaints to the local hotel owner. Not wanting to risk losing his wealthy patrons, he came up with the idea of building a dedicated sliding track, and banking the turns to allow higher speeds. To this day the St. Moritz Toboggan Club competes on a natural ice track that they build every year called the Cresta run. The sleds are similar to the skeleton but the traditional sled has a “seat” that moves more and has knives at the back for additional stability in some of the turns (they’re not banked as much and it’s possible to leave the track at times). Taking two sleds and connecting them together led to the first rudimentary steerable bobsleds, but I don’t think they run those on the Cresta anymore.

It costs 700 Swiss Francs to book the beginners’ school, where they’ll try to get you 3 runs in 1 day, and after the first day you’re promoted to the Supplemental List which costs CHF 500 for an additional 5 rides and CHF 55 per ride afterwards. I’m fascinated by the sliding sports and if I were younger, in better shape, and had the money to go to Switzerland and pay for it I would love to try it.