Jill Harlow – Loveland, Colorado … The ski and snowboard club at Campion Academy in Loveland, Colorado, hit the slopes at Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Frisco, Colorado, on their three-day trip, March 22-24. They were thrilled to experience both fresh powder and sunshine on Sunday and warm Spring conditions on Monday.

The Leadville Seventh-day Adventist Church in Leadville, Colorado, generously hosted the students in their basement and bunk room. After beating a snowstorm by driving up Friday evening, the students put on the church Sabbath service for the local members on Saturday. The Students with a Testimony (SWAT) trip is an annual ski club tradition, and the members enjoy fellowshipping with the students.

Another tradition of the trip is sledding after the church service. “Sledding is always one of the most enjoyable parts of ski trip for me, and that’s mostly because you get to see the ‘science’ skills of the students truly emerge as everyone puts their best efforts together to see exactly how far (and more importantly, how fast) the sledder can truly go,” explained Euan O’Keeffe, senior student.

This year, student Jack Jordan brought a collapsible shovel and created jumps for the tubes. After sending people sailing off the first one, they built a second jump further down the hill.

O’Keefe continued, “We truly sought to answer the question, ‘How many ramps is a reasonable number to go down?’ The answer was one. Of the three people who were able to get down to hit the second ramp, three crashed. Great memories!”

On the ski days, the students grouped up according to ability, and they all challenged each other to improve their skills and try harder runs.

Student Elin Sorensen, one of the expert skiers, shared, “On Monday, Jack, Zach, Addison, and I set a goal to ski as many runs as possible in the morning. It was fun because we were just going really fast, and we were able to touch many different runs on the mountain.”

New to Ski Club this year, Joshua Profir, a freshman student, commented, “The best part of ski club is getting to know people you’ve never really talked to before, then becoming friends with them, and then getting to ski with those friends.”

Overall, the days in the beautiful Colorado mountains offered a chance for the club members to improve their skiing and snowboarding skills while enjoying each other’s company.

—Jill Harlow is the Campion Academy communication director. Photos supplied.