It looked for a while as if sledding on Capitol Hill would not happen during this snowfall. Appeals by Eleanor Holmes Norton had fallen on deaf ears. A petition that went around brought forth no response from the Capitol Police, the Architect of the Capitol, or the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. But then, a number of Hill residents decided that this was not acceptable, and that if we simply showed up en masse, there was little that the Capitol Police could – or would – do. And thus, 1 PM was declared 0 hour, and about a hundred residents descended on the Hill on the SW corner of the Capitol, with winter clothing, sleds, and – most importantly – kids.
The following pictures give a taste of the day:
The sledding conditions were far from optimal, but that hardly stopped locals from coming out. Here, Denise Krepp pulls her daughter and husband down the Hill.
There were, as it turned out, almost as many members of the media out as there were sledders. In fact, in the beginnings, you had to pick your course down the hill quite carefully, lest you run over one of them.
Jason Petty arrived with a protest sign – and good cheer – and soon found himself at the center of a media scrum. Fortunately, the media was just as amused as the sledders.
Here, a reporter from SkyNews borrows a sled to try out the slope for himself – and to give the viewers in Britain a better idea of what was going on.
It seemed as if each run was photographed, often multiply.
This particular slide resulted in almost taking out a reporter from USAToday – and getting the sledders’s picture on that website.