The Scene on Cap Hill Last Night

A crowd of 50 to 60 people gathered at the intersection of Bellevue Ave. E. and Denny Way, around ten o'clock. (Jeremy M. Barker)

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This is why we love living on Capitol Hill: Around ten o'clock last night, after being snowbound for most of the day and itching with cabin fever, we ventured out, following the sound of loud voices, and found a spontaneous snow party at the intersection of Denny Way and Bellevue Avenue East, where the steep, icy slope leading down to the closed overpass had turned into an awesome sledding slope.

Hipsters came from far and wide bearing half-racks of cheap canned beer; someone found a snow shovel and built at least two extra-steep starting ramps; and a variety of objects were employed as make-shift sleds. Plastic sheets worked extremely well; cardboard boxes less so. A few people had inner-tubes or sleds or toboggans, but the person who brought the windsurfing board took the cake for the night: not only did it work well, but it could hold six or seven people.

At the bottom of the slope, curious onlookers snapped photos of the sledders on their way down, most trips ending in a disastrous crash of some sort, the more comic the better. We were under the impression that that particular block was closed to traffic, and people had set up signs trying to block traffic, but the odd car still tried to pull through. Those that ignored the signs (or the wild gesturing not to turn onto Denny) risked a pummeling of snowballs, but aside from that it was a more or less friendly street party. [Ed.: that needs to be cleaned up, hipsters. There are two old mattresses and a bunch of bottles and cans littering the street this morning.]