THE BEAUTY of sledding is, in part, that there are so many ways to fly down a hill. You can ride a handcrafted wooden toboggan or a high-tech carbon-fiber model, even a plastic trash bag or purloined cafeteria tray. But the question remains: Which sled is best?

To get to the bottom of it all, we canvassed our network of avid skiers, snowboarders and sledders about their favorite models. Responses from around the country (California, Colorado, New Hampshire, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming) helped us create a short list of five models,...