Posted by Roger Taylor on January 22, 1998 at 08:40:48:
In Reply to: Toboggans posted by Robert Dilley on January 19, 1998 at 20:23:24:
I think the main reason is that we have different type of snow... mostly.
Certainly here in the south we have wet snow which tends to be quite hard
when laying on the ground. In this instance a sledge with runners will be
a bit like ice skates and run very fast. I say this from experience after
ending up under the holly bushes at our local hill many times! A flat toboggan
will have much more friction and not travel so fast or far in these conditions.
However in dry snow which is powdery the runners will dig in and the flat
style is all that operates. We do have dry snow in Britain most often in
Northern England and Scotland.