Over the course of the two years a student spends at Booth, there are virtually unlimited opportunities to hang out with friends, go on unique trips and build even stronger networks. Having just come from the Booth Ski and Snowboard Group’s annual winter trip, I wanted to use this week’s posting to share my experience at this phenomenal event.
By the time the holiday season rolls around, school has been in session for almost four months. While the first quarter of the academic year always seems to be very busy with classes, recruiting and generally just getting back into the swing of things, there is no shortage of fun; even so, there is one event that is on the minds of almost anyone who skis or snowboards (and even some who don’t) – the annual Booth Ski and Snowboard winter trip. This trip, arranged by the ski group’s four second-year co-chairs, is a seven day extravaganza that takes place in a Rocky Mountain resort during the first week of winter break.
This year’s location was Sun Valley, Idaho, and it was a great turn out. With a little over 200 first and second-year Booth students rolling into Sun Valley on December 12th, our school pretty much took over the town. Although it was a long day of travel to get there, as we started trickling into the resort our bags were taken and we were directed to a reception where the co-chairs had set up a reception with free food, drinks, and music. Almost as soon as people entered the room any stress that might have been present due to travels or finals vanished amongst friends. Just an hour into the trip and surrounded by a great group of Boothies, it was clear this was going to be an amazing week.
Over the course of the trip most people started each day off by meeting up at the slopes and spending the morning and afternoon skiing or boarding together. While it was unbelievable snow (we got several feet of fresh power while we were there), the skiing and boarding was just a fraction of the trip. The winter trip was, as it always is, a big deal at Booth and the co-chairs went above and beyond in ensuring that the trip this year was something no one would forget. Backed by corporate sponsors and discounts from the mountain, every day after skiing there was a new location where we all joined up again for après ski (a get-together after the last ski runs of the day) for free food and drinks. Following après, most folks decided to go back to their rooms, clean up, and likely take a much needed nap prior to the evening’s activities. At night there was something new and exciting every day as well: tubing down the mountain after it had closed for everyone else, scavenger hunt teams (we had to run around the town and get pictures of our team with things from a predetermined list), a winter carnival (a competition of a bunch of goofy events), a hot tub party night, ski movie release night, and a few theme nights where we just hung out at different venues in town.
The trip was incredible; the only real challenge of the trip was just knowing when to call it quits for the night so you could still make it up for first tracks on the mountain. As the trip came to an end, however, the co-chairs held one final event for us – a formal dinner where awards were presented to some of the more noteworthy, memorable, or funny experiences of the trip and a slide show of pictures from the week. It was a perfect end to a perfect trip (I attached some pictures at the end of this posting).
As you have heard me say before this is just one experience from one group but by now I hope you are starting to see a theme across the Booth experience: a world-class education, an incredibly tight community, and an overall great time. At Booth there are over 70 student led groups like the Ski and Snowboard group that all hold events for their members. While not all events are trips or socially related, regardless of your interests, I can almost assure you that at Booth there is a group of students with similar interests holding equally fun or engaging events.
Until next time, best of luck on applications and I hope to see the folks who were accepted during round 1 at Admit Weekend (there is no better way to experience Booth than to come to campus and experience the stories and atmosphere I write about).
Hanging out at one of the venues during an 80's theme night
Take Care,
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