2008 Woodie Awards
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
SSU Ski and Snowboard Club giddy over recent Tahoe snow and upcoming Whistler trip
Matt Macaulay, Sports Editor
Issue date: 12/7/05 Section: Sports
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That same storm moved east and dumped more than a foot of snow over most of the ski resorts at and around Lake Tahoe leading the SSU Ski and Snowboard Club to peel away the cobwebs from their skis and boards in preparation for the 2005-06 season. But while some of the lower elevation resorts have recently opened, the majority of the prime lodging won't be opening for weeks to come.
Members of the club aren't completely satisfied settling for the local conditions of the Sierra Nevada - or the United States for that matter.
The club's president, Eric Lindemann, is finalizing the arrangements for more than 300 people from four California universities to jump on busses and planes in route to a resort in the small, but world renowned ski-town of Whistler, British Columbia during the semester break.
Whistler is located in a valley in Canada's Costal Mountains where it is dwarfed by the Whistler and Blackcomb mountain peaks that rise more than a mile above the town. The two peaks offer over 8,000 acres of slopes and are recognized as the largest above-tree-line ski terrain in North America.
Lindemann estimates that 45 SSU students and more than 250 students from Chico State, Sacramento State, and Berkley will be making the trip. Those who choose to ride the bus rather than fly will spend about 24 hours on the road across the border into Canada.
Unlike Tahoe, Whistler has already received enough snow this year to make snow conditions better than average.
"Whistler's usually not open this time of year, but they're up at 100 percent right now, which is weird," said Lindemann
The Ski and Snowboard Club is currently comprised of about 50 dues-paying students who continuously organize day and weekend trips throughout the ski season and will soon be arranging a gathering for a showing of the film "First Descent," which was just released last Friday.
"First Descent" is a documentary highlighting the growth of snowboarding from its infancy in the 1980s to its meteoric rise in popularity throughout the 1990s and to what it has become today. The film focuses on five snowboarders, three from the "old school" and two of today's prominent riders, who are leading up to their first trip down ridiculously steep and previously untouched slopes in the jagged mountains of Alaska.