DEC 13, 2024 | SPORTS | By Anya Potsiadlo and Nolan Diffley
Just a few weeks into the school year, Pike’s Peak was blanketed in snow. A light dusting down here on campus made its second-straight Halloweekend appearance, followed by a large storm on Election Night. By Nov. 7, snowmen were popping up on campus quads. It wouldn’t be long until, in true Colorado College fashion, students dig out their ski boots and gear up for another season on the slopes.
Copper and Winter Park fired their lifts up on Nov. 8, drawing a pilgrimage of eager students willing to brave the limited number of open runs and abysmally long lift lines.
“It was like crazy windy,” Noa Mor ‘27 said of her opening weekend experience. “it was literally just ice, like straight ice, so it wasn’t very great. The bottom was kind of nice because it was a bit more powdery, but also because everyone was skiing it got a bit more slushy.”
However, CC students who compare it to their home mountains give the early season ice a touch of forgiveness. Maddy Johnson ‘27, who grew up skiing in North Carolina, recalled arriving in Colorado’s mountains last year. “I got out there and said, ‘Wow this is amazing,’ and [friends] said ‘This is the worst snow I’ve ever seen.’”
But returning to the mountain, even if it wasn’t yet in peak condition, meant returning to beloved ski day traditions, like lunches at the lodge and fun interactions.
“We met a few people in line, had a beer with some guy,” Olivia Harris ‘27 said, standing in line for Rastall Dining Hall. The fries and Diet Coke at Rastall’s she says, don’t compare to those at Aerie Lodge in Copper, her spot of choice for a midday break. Others enjoy the lodge food more unconventionally, like Jack Baskfield ‘27 and his friends. “This is a little bit gross,” he warns before saying, “but we go to the…lodge…and we just look at the trays with everything and take the food on the trays.”
Baskfield skied last weekend at Copper with his likely group of suspects, Will Michaels, ‘27, Will Dahmen, ‘27 and Max Burhop ‘27. He gives a specific shoutout to Burhop, who he dubbed the “best ski partner of all time.”
With 17-out-of-23 lifts open at Copper, currently the snowiest mountain in Colorado, Baskfield and friends had more to explore and ran the Sierra lift on repeat. Despite dislocating his shoulder at some point throughout the day, Baskfield had mainly good things to say about the snow conditions. “It was all chalk. It was a little bit thin. I hit a bunch of rocks, but it was fun. It was way better than I thought it would be for early in the season.”
Perry Davis, ‘27, went to Winter Park last weekend and reported that the snow there was good, too. With 18 open lifts, compared to Copper’s 17, Davis noted no crowds on the mountain.
Another Ikon Pass favorite that claimed the first day of the season title for some students is Arapahoe Basin, lovingly called A-Basin by locals and students. A-Basin, which now has a 27-inch base depth after getting two inches over Dec. 10 and 11, was the location of choice for the first Freeriders Union of Colorado College (FUCC) bus of the season, which took passengers up to the mountains last Saturday.
Sam Rosen, ‘28 was one such passenger. Along with being his first ride on the FUCC bus, it was also his first time skiing in Colorado.
“Skiing above the tree line, that was really cool,” Rosen said.
During what he determined his day of “zen” solo skiing, Rosen got his first taste of the CC ski season phenomenon of running into fellow students on the mountain. “Some junior went up to me, and he was like ‘I know you…you dropped my Spanish adjunct.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that was me.’”
With great stories to tell from just the first couple of weekends, it’s abundantly clear that the 2024-25 Colorado ski season has much in store for students at Colorado College.