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Opinion: City discouraging sliding down Burnaby Mountain. Booooo!

One of the greatest parts of growing up in North Burnaby was the rare times it snowed enough to slide down Burnaby Mountain. We would use literally anything we could get our hands on to slide – inflatables, toboggans, chunks of cardboard.
snow fam
Eusooki Dae, Eric Courchesne and two-year-old Jamie brave the snow on Burnaby Mountain.

One of the greatest parts of growing up in North Burnaby was the rare times it snowed enough to slide down Burnaby Mountain.

We would use literally anything we could get our hands on to slide – inflatables, toboggans, chunks of cardboard.

In the 1970s, it wasn’t as easy to get up to the launching point because the roads were rougher and the snow-clearing equipment less sophisticated.

But it didn’t matter – nothing would stop us from getting up there and sliding down the hill at breakneck speed for hours of winter fun.

And nobody told us not to do it. Sure, it might have been dangerous, but this was the 1970s, where safety for kids was sometimes an afterthought.

But this is 2020 and so everyone feels it necessary to issue warnings about everything.

Weston snow
Five-year-old Weston Clarke loses his hat on a snowy Burnaby Mountain. - Jennifer Gauthier

That’s why the City of Burnaby felt the need to put this sentence on its website about snow conditions on Burnaby Mountain.

“Tobogganing on Burnaby Mountain is not encouraged due to steep slopes and plentiful rocks and trees that can create unsafe conditions,” reads a statement on the City of Burnaby website.

Boooooo!

Sure, I appreciate the sentiment. They want people to be safe, but seriously? Was this really necessary?

Overbearing bubble parents are already sucking the fun out of childhoods with their helicoptering – we don’t need to give them another reason to prevent kids from having fun.

Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.