Thanks to low temperatures in the winter, many regions all over the world have enough snow to offer conditions for winter sports despite relatively low altitudes. Due to the lack of mountains, traditional Nordic skiing in all its types is counted among the national sports in these regions. In the last few years though, a relatively new type of sport has established itself. Snow Tubing in specially landscaped parks. After all, rolling slopes are the ideal terrain for this particular sport. As a positive example of how a snow tubing park can be well-positioned, we present one of the largest snow tubing facilities in Europe.

The park is located in Otepää (Estonia) and has been in operation since 1999. Snow tubing lifts were initially installed to provide transportation for winter sport enthusiasts. Due to the ever increasing success over the following years, the transport capacity of the lifts reached their limits. The snow tubing lifts were eventually replaced in 2005 with two Sunkid Wonder Carpets to be able to handle the necessary capacity. Since pedestrians exclusively are transported on the Wonder Carpet, the number of crossings could be increased ten times as compared to the rope lifts.

With the theme “Wonderful wintertime for the entire family,” the Snow Tubing park in Otepää offers activities for everybody: 12 tubing lines, a mini-tubing park for kids up to 7 years old, a Sunkid Carousel, sled run, as well as a ski school. To accommodate low-income families, in particular their children so that they too can enjoy fun in the snow, the Snow Tubing park in Otepää lives up to its motto. An admission fee is charged for use of the large snow tubing facility only – the remaining attractions are available for children free of charge!

Aare Tamme with his wife can be named as pioneers in the field of "snow tubing”. Having established the Snow Tubing park in Otepää, during the period over 10 years both have evolved into sought-after experts in the field. The demand for their know-how is limited not only to Estonia, but extends far out of its borders reaching all of Eastern Europe as well. Additional projects, modeled on the concept in Otepää have either already been implemented or are currently being planned.

2012-04