Last Tuesday, the Campus Activities Board (CAB) organized a winter trip for students to Beech Mountain – an evening full of skiing, snowboarding and cold weather.
A group of about 15 students left the Milligan campus at 3:20 p.m. by bus. The drive to Beech Mountain took about 45 minutes. Thanks to a discount provided by the university, everyone was able to buy their lift tickets for a lower price.
After arriving, the students rented their skis and snowboards. About 20 minutes later, they got on the lift and headed up the mountain. Half of them skiing and the other half snowboarding. Beech Mountain offers five slopes and a terrain park with rails and poles. Another slope features man-made jumps, which many students tried out.
Once on the mountain, the group split up, and most people rode down the slopes in pairs. The weather conditions were tough, as it was very windy and cold. The slopes were also icy and had less snow than expected. Since the slopes are not very long, the lift ride up sometimes felt longer than the actual ride down.
After almost two hours on the slopes, a few students took a break. They went inside to warm up, eat food, and drink hot chocolate. About an hour later, they returned to the mountain and skied for another hour until the lifts closed at 9 p.m. For the final run of the night, everyone rode down together.
After returning their equipment, the group got back on the bus and headed back to campus, arriving around 11:30 p.m.
“All in all, it was a fun adventure with my friends, but the snow didn’t feel really good and there was a lot of ice,” said freshman Frederic Zinn.
Photo: Students on the slope