Recent residential college ski trips have allowed students to travel as far as Vermont and Massachusetts to break out of the “Yale Bubble” and hit the slopes.
Several residential colleges — including Jonathan Edwards, Saybrook, Morse and Grace Hopper — have held ski trips for their students over the past two weeks. Spots on the trips filled quickly for some colleges, while others had to recruit participants to achieve full attendance. These annual trips have historically been a highlight of the year, Saybrook operations manager Micah Luce wrote in an email to Saybrook students.
“I’m talking about the annual, joy-inducing, friendship-building, always-thrilling, too-early-to-get-up-on-a-Saturday-and-sit-on-a-bus-for-3-hours-but-ends-up-being-worth-it-anyway excursion of excursions,” Luce wrote.
The trip allowed expert and beginner snowboarders and skiers alike to spend a day on the mountains. On Saturday, Feb. 9, Saybrook and Jonathan Edwards went to Mt. Snow and Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont, travelling nearly 114 miles. The next day, Morse College made its way to Berkshire East Mountain Resort in Massachusetts, which is just under 100 miles away.
Participants were charged a nominal fee — ranging from $30 to $50 — to cover their travel, rental equipment and lift tickets. Some residential colleges even provided lessons at the respective resorts for first-timers.
Morse was among the residential colleges that did not pay for lessons, which proved to be a challenge for first time skiers. Still, such participants said they made the most of the experience.
“I’d never skied before, and thought that the trip subsidized by Morse was a great way to give it a go!” Tat Wei Lee ’21 told the News. “There weren’t organized lessons included, so I was basically falling around trying to intuit it the first couple hours. I got better though, and by the end had a lot of fun! The ski trips are certainly valuable experiences, and will be one of the highlights of my college journey!”
Saybrook College held in-person sign-ups at their college office two weeks before the trip, yielding so many eager students that the line forming outside the office stretched up four flights of stairs. Many students landed a spot on the waitlist with the hope that someone would give up their spot.
Morse and Jonathan Edwards Colleges, on the other hand, had extra spots even days before the trip. Accordingly, both allowed students outside each residential college to join. Ying Ying Koh ’20 — a Saybrook student who was on her college’s waitlist — opted to join the Morse ski day.
“I really enjoyed my ski trip. The views going down the mountain really made the 6am wake up call worth it!” Koh shared.
For many participants, it was their first time skiing or snowboarding. Saybrook College had over 20 individuals taking lessons out of the 49 on the trip.
“I got a lot of bruises, and muscles I didn’t know that could get sore got sore. But it was a really fun trip, and I’m already looking forward to the next trip,” Tran said.
Typically in the United States, a ski season lasts from late November to early April.
Brooke Alviar | brooke.alviar@yale.edu