While it is hard to imagine hitting the slopes in early October with the temperatures still routinely in the high teens, the DU Snowsports club is gearing up for their annual ski trip in just over three months’ time, with tickets already selling out on Monday September 29th in under 40 minutes.
Angus Meade, Club Captain, described the trip in one-word as “intense”. It’s a “push of the mind and the body.” An average day on the trip consists of getting up, beating your hangover, getting out on the slopes with a self-made packed lunch, getting back in time for apres, going back to your room to rest and have dinner, and then head out for the night.
Every apres and club night is themed, ensuring that no part of the trip ever feels repetitive.
However, if clubbing every night is not quite your thing, no problem. “The trip is what you make of it” says Meade. “If you want to be up skiing at 8am on the first lift, you should.”
The Club has already done significant preparation for this year’s trip, with things such as the selection of which resort to go being a highly rigorous process. While Andorra was a great destination for the trip last year, Risoul-Vars has been chosen for its excellent mixture of beginner and advanced slopes.
In Andorra, there was only one red slope down from apres which is naturally not the best idea to ski down when the drinks have been flowing. Risoul, instead, has forty blue pistes for beginners, increasing not only accessibility for new skiers but also safety following apres.
But don’t assume Risoul is only for beginners. As a matter of fact, it has the fastest downhill ski slope in the world, called “Les Vautours., featuring a gradient of up to 98%. There is also plenty of off-piste. While off-piste skiing can be dangerous, Risoul is north-facing and has plenty of trees so the off-piste snow is safe and powdery. Risoul receives approximately double the snow of Andorra.
Money is also a crucial element in the destination selection process. This year’s trip has a flat cost of €569. While this seems like quite the lump sum, it is considerably less than the €670 per person rate the club was quoted for Val Thorens. Though Val Thorens is exceedingly popular and would more than likely sell out if chosen as a destination, the club realises that the cost of going out in Val Thorens makes the trip fairly inaccessible to many, far beyond the base cost.
Above all, the Snowports club is an “adventure club”, Meade emphasised. “Our goal is to give people new experiences.” Risoul was thus chosen as the best combination of value and snow they could get.
Don’t assume the Snowsports Club is only about the Ski Trip, however. The Club runs plenty of other events throughout the year for its members. In freshers’ week this year, the Club hosted two events. On opening night, they collaborated with the Surfsoc for their annual “Surf vs Snow” competition. Later in the week, DUSSC joined FrenchSoc to host an apres-ski mixer featuring beer pong and trivia.
At the time of writing, the club is about to host its “crazy bingo”, with the theme being ‘dress as your degree’.
The Club aims for as much input from Trinity students as possible, with reps from each year. While this is fairly standard, Meade argues that the Snowsports Club stands out by nominating Freshers reps particularly early, with new 1st-year reps being allocated on September 24th this year.
Furthermore, the Club’s “Chicken Rush” competition is an annual highlight. “It’s basically a challenge-based scavenger hunt,” Meade claims. Teams of three or four go round Dublin completing often chicken-oriented challenges, as well as aiming to find the committee member wearing a Chicken costume who is hiding somewhere in the city, with the prize a bar-tab. The Snowsports Club often receives the reputation of being uncompetitive, party-oriented, and exclusive.
Meade hopes to shift the Club’s emphasis away from being strictly a “go-crazy” society. In particular, the Club is aiming to increase its sustainability and environmentalism, hosting a vintage market last year and collaborating with Sustainability Society and Fashion Society this year. Snowsports recognises the environmental impact of “raves in trees”, Meade argues. He hopes that these actions, along with incentivised litter cleans ups in the Dublin Mountains, will mark a move away from the stereotypical careless reputation the Club sometimes receives.
Beyond this, the Club hopes to host some calm meet ups during exam times for coffees and hot chocolates, further expanding beyond the party-only base.
Exclusion is naturally a hurdle which the Club hopes to overcome. It is a daunting prospect to spend over €500 on a sport you have never participated in before. As such, the ski trip – and society as a whole – is mostly dictated by those privileged enough to ski while they were growing up.
The club does its best to mitigate this by offering subsidised beginner ski lessons at the Ski Club of Ireland in Kilternan for just €20 a lesson (down from €50), while keeping trip rates low wherever possible. The Club’s inclusion officers work to further the membership base.
Snowsports is a club that’s quickly gaining momentum.. In his first semester as Ents coordinator, the society saw eight events – the same number as in the previous two years combined. Also, the Club aims to distinguish itself through the “love of the committee.” “The people on the committee are just good human beings, who want to improve the lives of those around them” Meade states. “It feels like a family, no other club feels like Snowsports” he adds.
Competition is key to the club, contrary to stereotypes. The existing annual competition is “colours” against UCD. Meade hopes for the club to join BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport) this year, as there is currently no snowsports competition in Ireland. While the relationship between Snowsports and the Ski Club of Ireland is entirely courteous, creating an inter-Ireland competition “requires lots of infrastructure to be put in place, while the Ski Club of Ireland have a power monopoly,” Meade confirms. “The wheels turn slowly.”
In terms of future ambitions, the club hopes to join BUCS, grow its culture beyond partying and drinking, and see people stay committed to the club who are mission-aligned. With regard to culture, Meade emphasises that DUSSC are “not drawing it back, but growing elsewhere as well.”
In three words, Meade described the Club as “adventure, fun, environmentalism.”
It might just be time to dust off your boots and helmet and get your ski legs ready. If you can stomach the cost, January’s trip to the Southern Alps may well be the week of a lifetime.
