Sunday at noon, Jefferson Hill turned into a snow-covered playground as students grabbed sleds and whatever else they could find to make the most of fresh snowfall.
The event, dubbed “Snowday at Jeff Hill,” was organized by Ohio Snowcats, Ohio University’s ski and snowboarding club, and announced the night before on Instagram. By Sunday afternoon, students were flying down the hill, momentarily turning it into a winter playground.
“We were assuming a bunch of (people) were going to come out either way,” Ben Pirain, the president of Ohio Snowcats and a senior studying restaurant, hotel and tourism, said. “But, we did organize this. We did the same thing about two years ago.”
With plenty of snow on the ground, Snowcats took the opportunity to lean into the moment. Students slid down Jeff Hill on just about anything that could handle a downhill run, including sleds, snow tubes, boxes, lids, bags, skis and even dorm mattresses.
“I saw someone go down in a dorm bed, like a dorm mattress,” Pirain said. “That was good. I think the mattress was pretty funny.”
Pirain said the snow was icy and sticky, making it tricky to steer, especially on skis. Still, that didn’t stop him from strapping in.
“I’m using skis to go down and shred the gnar,” Pirain said.
Cole Burton, a junior studying engineering, said the snowfall felt like a blast from the past.
“(Going down that hill) was actually so crazy,” Burton said. “We were flying down the hill. It was so sweet. It was fun.”
By 2 p.m., Athens had accumulated just under five inches of snow as part of Winter Storm Fern, an unusually large winter system affecting much of the country, according to the Scalia Laboratory, OU’s official weather forecasting service. Snow was expected to continue into the evening, with temperatures and wind chills expected to create temperatures as low as 13 degrees below zero heading into the beginning of the week.
Ohio University Police Department officers first arrived around noon to warn students against sledding down East Union Street, the road running alongside Jeff Hill. About an hour later, officers returned and shut down the event.
“I was talking to them, and it kind of sounds like they’re going to come back,” Burton said before the event ended. “We’re trying to keep it open for as long as possible so it doesn’t get shut down, because this is so fun.”
The event wrapped up around 1 p.m., after students had already spent an hour racing down Jeff Hill and soaking up a rare snow day moment.
