The healing balm of sunshine and a snowy Sunday
On most days, it’s just a long green hill, tilting gently into the eastern edge of Hillandale Golf Course in central Durham.
But cover it with an inch or two of snow, and the hill gets promoted, providing a crucial service for the surrounding neighborhoods of Old West Durham and Watts Hospital-Hillandale.
It becomes the sledding hill.
Families appear from every direction, hauling sleds on snow-covered streets and down secret cut-throughs toward the laughter and joyful screams carrying across the snow.
At the top of the broad and sprawling hill Sunday morning, toddlers, teenagers and even grown men folded themselves onto tiny plastic disc sleds, circles of speed that weren’t slowed by the powdery snow.
By Sunday, Catherine Majestic and her family had visited the hill twice. First, soon after the snow began on Saturday, which was “very cold and a little bit unpleasant,” Majestic said.
By Sunday around 11 a.m., the sun was up, the wind was still, and the powdery snow had been packed flatter.
“This is a lot more fun,” Majestic said.
Josie Schneider, 12, was one of many kids repeatedly going down hill, cutting left, right, and sometimes right down the middle over a couple of snow jumps.
Like many kids in the neighborhoods that surround downtown Durham, Josie was disappointed when she woke up Saturday morning and didn’t find any of the predicted inches of snow on the ground. But then the snow started to come down in the early afternoon
“I was so excited. I just couldn’t stop staring at it,” she said.
Her first visit to the sledding hill this snowfall was on Sunday. The sledding was pretty good, but not as good as when it’s icy, she said.
Still, every snow requires at least one visit to the sledding hill, where people come to enjoy the snow while catching up with their neighbors.
“It’s a good space where everyone comes together, and they don’t talk about business or school,” Schneider said. “We just, like, have fun.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2026 at 1:55 PM with the headline "The healing balm of sunshine and a snowy Sunday."
