Sleds on skis, oh my!

Dale DesJarlais’ sleds make the cheap plastic kind used at local sledding hills look like tricycles racing in the Tour de France.

The Post Falls man’s Gold Rush Sleds, made of bulletproof glass and steel, take sledders down hills at highway speeds.

They also “steer on a dime,” DesJarlais said. That might offer a little bit of comfort to those daring enough to belly flop onto one and fly face-first down a snow-covered hill.

DesJarlais recently began marketing the sleds for $350 on craigslist.org and applied for a patent for the design, which features steerable skis mounted beneath the polycarbonate deck.

Two fixed skis at the rear of the sleds are cambered to help glide in any sort of snow, and two skis on the front swivel for steering. The skis articulate just like they would on a downhill skier.

Boredom drove DesJarlais, who has a welding business, to design a sled for his kids two years ago.

The prototype had steel rails instead of skis and only worked “in real good snow,” he said.

He tried fixed skis before refining the design with the steerable skis featured on the Gold Rush Sleds.

Though he started crafting the sleds from Brazilian cherry wood, DesJarlais said it was too labor intensive. His brother-in-law, who sells plastics, suggested polycarbonate.

“You can’t break these things,” he said as he stood on one, bouncing. “They’re pretty durable.”

Feedback has been good, he said, and consistent: awesome.