DECEMBER 12, 2025 | FEATURES | By Polina Panasenko
When I heard that Colorado College was an outdoorsy school, I didn’t expect to find myself building a ski jump at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday morning.
I was walking to my dorm from the library around midnight when it started to snow. Heavy white flakes were landing on the ground and immediately forming chunks of perfectly compactable snow, ready to be piled into a kicker just big enough to jump onto the handrail.
Half an hour later, three of my friends and I were hard at work hauling snow, packing down the jump and praying that Campo didn’t kick us out before we got to land a good trick.
This example of creative and passionate teamwork aimed at squeezing in an extra couple of hours on the snow is not new to CC.
Preserve Hill has long been a spot for desperate skiers who would rather spend their day out in the mountains but can’t afford to miss a day of school on the Block Plan.
In an effort to compensate, students use dining tables as ramps and PVC pipes as rails. The hill that once hosted half the school for lunch during the fall becomes a makeshift ski park over the course of a couple of hours.
Before street skiing at CC became a spontaneous movement, the freeride team would organize a rail jam: a freestyle skiing and snowboarding event that focuses on tricks on small, man-made features. Traditionally, it was a community-focused event featuring music, low-stakes competitions and a lively atmosphere for spectators.
The event is hosted by individual teams across colleges and sometimes even high schools. For example, a year ago CSU hosted its first rail jam in a decade, attracting around 2,000 spectators and utilizing 15 tons of ice to build the park features.
High school students at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine host their own rail jam to raise funds for the local kids association and show off their best tricks in front of a crowd of peers.
Students had not been cleared to organize any ski or riding competitions on campus for the past five years due to safety concerns and liability issues.
“Unfortunately, the safety concerns are something that we can’t necessarily negotiate with the college on, especially given that the sport undeniably has a certain level of risk associated with it,” said Burke MacLeay, captain of the CC Freeride Team.
Despite this challenge, the Freeride Team has seen a significant increase in student engagement over the past few years and is preparing for an active season of training and competitions.
MacLeay expressed his excitement about the increasing number of upperclassmen joining the team and pointed out that some notable events this year include collegiate competitions at Breckenridge, Winter Park and Copper Mountain.
“The uptick in interest for competitive skiing and riding has become a growing part of campus culture in recent years, something that we’re proud to be able to facilitate more and more each year with the team,” said MacLeay.