Having lived atop "Fuller Hill" (hill between 48th & 49th St. on Harriet Ave) for 20 years between 1960 and 1980, I am the foremost expert on the history of sledding in the area. Before sanding and salting of the streets by city plows, we used to string our sleds together at the top of Fuller hill and glide right down the middle of Harriet Avenue in a surpentine motion. Maybe 5 or 6 sleds at a time. We saved the Fuller Park hill for our football games. After Sand and salt ruined the street sledding we moved to the sidewalk on Fuller hill for sledding. The key was to get the sledding in before Mr Storm shoveled his walk down to the cement. I still have my chipped tooth from sliding down the sidewalk on Fuller Hill. When Fuller hill became to wimpy for the kids in the Fuller neighborhood we migrated to the Washburn water tower hill. Very steep and quite dangerous if you made it to the bottom of the hill you were immediately in the street. There was also SUICIDE HILL. That would be the hill across street from the bottom of Harriet Ave at Minnehaha Parkway. Many great rides were had there. Just make sure to get off your sled before hitting the creek. If however you don't want to venture to the parkway you could always cross Grand Avenue from Fuller Park and slide down Old Man Spencers hill. Not a very long ride but quite steep.

There's a great sledding hill in St. Louis Park at Minikahda Vista Park, 39th & Inglewood. The hill is steep enough so that you go pretty fast, and reasonably long. I'd say it generates about a 10-second ride. Best of all, from a parent's perspective, it's absolutely wide open - there are NO trees.

The best sledding hill in Northeast Mpls is right behind the clubhouse on Columbia golf course. Central Ave & 33rd Ave NE, see ya there!

Maybe not the scariest ride, but very family friendly for all ages. The first whole on the Golf Course is not very steep, but is very long. It takes a little time to pick up speed, but is quite an enjoyable ride 10 to 15 seconds and you get going pretty fast by the time you reach the bottom. The bottom of the hills is flat so you can coast to a stop and you aren't in real danger of getting injured. There is a parking lot immediately at the bottom of the hill, which is nice when you have kids and are hauling around the sleds. There are also some quite interesting and dangerous shoots that come through the trees. They are very steep and you have to have good control of your sled or else you will crash into a tree. For the adventrous it is worth a try at least once. We went for New Years Eve 2005 and it was very fun. There are also a few other good spots on the golf course if I remember correctly from playing there in the summer, but I have not ventured to any other spots.

One of the best hills in Minneapolis is at 17th Avenue and Minnehaha Parkway, also known in the inner circles as 17th Hill.

It's steep at the top so you get a great start, then flattens out slightly at the bottom. Best of all, there's no road to slide into but if you go far enough you will slide right into Minnehaha Creek.

witta knows the ropes for the Washburn area. All those spots are great for sledding. Many times we ventured onto Suicide Hill only to bail at the very last second to avoid going into the road. Eventually, a snow fence was erected at the bottom, but then you had to avoid hitting that. The Washburn water tower was a scary hill, and much better suited for sliding down on the seat of your slippery snowpants since it made you go much slower. If you were adventurous enough to use a sled, you then needed to talk someone into being a 'scout' and standing on the curb across the street at the bottom to watch for cars.

There were the sedate Fuller Park, with its protective hay bales; the wilder Lyndale Farmstead, where makeshift ski jumps on the sliding bowl provided tooth-shaking impacts, and then, Wirth Park, home of flotillas of black inner tubes ($10 for the day) carrying screaming teens. Some of them were actually bushwhacking into the woods to take advantage of the cliff-like slopes, and then rocketing out of the trees. How they managed to avoid silvicultural collisions, I don't know.