Rodeln: In Deep (you'll see why)

Joshua Charles, Pennsylvania stopped by early March, 2021 with his experimental home-built sled (JC-X). Karen and I gave him a taste of what it is like to slide local mountainsides and compared Torggler Sportrodels with the JC-X. We even put together a route never done before.
Charles is an engineer and his sled shows it. A lot of moving parts and linkages with steering controls. With wide skis as the running surface, it's faster in the straight and gentle curves, but sharp turns at speed are a problem. It's a soft snow sled. The prone position is more aerodynamic.
The Rodel essentially has no moving parts, though its frame is flexible. The narrow, sharp steels do not float like skis. Steering is accomplished by utilizing the shape of the Kufens (runners) and location of body weight. The Rodel favors hard snow and ice. It turns and carves VERY quickly. The recumbent riding position is not as aerodynamic unless laying flat out in the straights. If I had done that with the helmet cam, this video would have been mostly sky views.
We hit the last of the weather window to take this route in its entirety. Two days earlier would have been even better. The route was unusable the next day and gone for the season. Lucky.