GSC Ski Trip

Now for the update on the Graduate Student Council Ski Trip to Sunday River, Maine!!

I and 500 other MIT graduate students went on a 3 day trip to ski some of New England's tallest slopes. What a blast!

Those of us who were hardcore :) would ski all morning, munch on a granola bar for lunch, ski until sunset, ski in to the condo (directly off one of the trails! I didnt even know this existed, but condos which you can ski in/out of are FANTASTIC!), relax in the hot tub, ski out from the condo and do a couple hours of night skiing, and then shower, eat and head out to the nightly MIT party.

Having just gotten back from skiing at some of Lake Tahoe's most powdery (and largest) slopes, I was a bit spoiled, but zooming down slopes of beautiful mountainsides can be made a fun experience anywhere.

Unfortunately, the group lessons we were offered as part of our package were not nearly as helpful as I had hoped, but I still think I'm improving well enough on my own. I feel completely comfortable on all the blue slopes I've gone on, but the jump from blue to black seems significant since many black trails are mogul-filled and therefore require a completely different set of skills. Don't worry- that didn't stop me from going on 3 or 4 of them anyways :)



Mike, Me, Satoru, and Charles (condo mates)


The trail leading directly onto the slopes from our condo


Mike and I at the top of Jordan Peak. You can't tell from this picture, but the coooold wind was blowing so hard it was almost impossible to stand up straight. That day was quite definitely the coldest I've ever felt in my life.


Night skiing! Although only very easy trails were open for night skiing, this was such a fun thing to do anyways. It was so peaceful and quiet. At this point, skiing truly felt like dancing with the mountain.



At the party. Mike ordered some fancy s'mores plate.




There was racing going on at one of the trails


I convinced Mike to go with me down our first black trail on free terrain. This was all-natural skiing with the addition of moguls. This was a lot of work (first time I've sweat when skiing), but really exciting!