Photo by: Rachel Conkey
Colorado’s skiing is famous for the champagne powder of newly fallen snow and this past weekend did not disappoint.
More than 600 DU students, traveled to Winter Park for DU’s annual Winter Carnival celebration. Below is my account of the activities I participated in.
Thursday Feb. 4:
Four friends and I carpooled and left campus at 6 p.m. Since none of us had classes Friday, we were able to make our escape a day early and also avoid Friday’s notorious traffic jams. Fortified by a quick stop at Wendy’s, we made the drive to Winter Park without any problems.
We were staying in a three-bedroom cabin right outside of town. After unloading our gear, we claimed beds and waited for two more friends who had arranged to bunk with us. That made seven in the cabin.
We spent the rest of the night eating a cake purchased earlier at Safeway and playing a board game, Dirty Minds. Girls won.
Friday Feb. 5:
Our day began at 8 a.m. After breakfast, we headed for the slopes. The weather was perfect and so was the snow. I had skied before, but decided to learn how to snowboard. As the others headed up the slope in search of knee-high powder, I tumbled down the beginner’s green runs for most of the day.
That evening, two other friends joined us. Now a group of nine, we went to the bonfire at the base of the mountain. We checked in with DUPB at Starbucks and received our free hot chocolate and hats with Boone embroidered on the front.
Later, we returned to our cabin for spaghetti for dinner and then left again to drive to the Frasier tubing hill. Tubing was absolutely fabulous and in addition to creating an adrenaline rush, it allowed for many laughs at less-than sober graduate students.
After two hours of arm yanking, screaming, smiling and fun, we went back to the cabin where four more friends were ready to move in.
Saturday Feb. 6:
I awoke to the residual feeling of being hit by a semi truck (and bitter questioning why people like snowboarding), but still wanted to work on improving on my boarding. So, I tagged along with my friends to the ski resort again.
An inch of new powder had fallen during the night and conditions were excellent on the slopes. My friends skied up the mountain, while I stayed lower down.
At the end of the day, we drove back to the cabin and hopped directly in the hot tub. Since all of the guests were members of the DU Grilling Society (D.U.G.S.), we made a dinner sponsored by the organization. Bratwursts, chicken, salad and cheesecake made for a celebratory end to a fabulous weekend.
The night ended with a few board games, long conversations, a broken toilet (yeah), poker and the girls victorious once again.
Sunday Feb. 7:
The smell of bacon wafted throughout the cabin at about 9 a.m. and drew most people out of sleeping bags and up to the kitchen. After breakfast it was clean-up time and because all were eager to get back in time to watch the Super Bowl, the house was empty by noon.
The drive home was rather snowy, but surprisingly easy. On the way, we stopped in Empire to eat at Dairy King, where we gorged ourselves on burgers, fries, cheese sticks and ice cream from one of the oldest and tastiest ice cream shops in Colorado.
The weekend fun ended when we pulled back into the parking lot between Nelson and Nagel dorms.
