Hillsdale Students skiing at Bittersweet Ski Resort. Courtesy | Student Activities Board

Standing on a ski hill in Kalamazoo, Michigan, senior Jack Walker embraced the beauty of creation, just moments before skiing down from the summit.

The sunny sky and 30-degree temperatures made for ideal skiing weather as Hillsdale College students hit the slopes during Student Activities Board’s annual ski trip at Bittersweet Ski Resort on Saturday, Jan. 26.

“When you start skiing, the feeling shifts and you get a completely different angle on life,” Walker said. “All of a sudden, instead of serenity and calmness, it becomes chaotic and fast. You have to constantly be thinking.”

Walker said he has been skiing since he was 3 years old, and the annual SAB trip was the perfect chance to ski again.

“This year I’ve really missed skiing because I haven’t done it in so long,” Walker said. “And I used to when I was little. I would just ski all the time.”

Sophomore Mikayla Manna has been skiing for three years at Winter Park in Colorado. Manna said she loves to ski no matter where she is, especially on a beautiful day.

“I like to go skiing because you get to be outside and go really fast,” Manna said. “I love the snow. It makes everything gorgeous, especially in Colorado, but even here. Just being out in nature, God’s creation, it’s beautiful.”

According to Manna, skiing at Bittersweet was an adjustment, but it was a perfect day to try new tricks.

“It was a lot different,” Manna said. “It’s a much smaller hill, not as deep. All the blacks are pretty easy. But I still made it fun because I got to work a little bit more on technique, and going faster. I spent a lot of time in the terrain parts and trying to learn how to jump. I can’t really do it yet, but it was still fun.”

Sophomore Hijiri Cramer said she has been skiing a few times with her family before at two ski resorts in Indiana and Michigan, but this was the first time she skied a hill with more scenery.

“The one that I usually go to, the hills are really short, but this one had more scenic routes,” Cramer said. “You could go through trees, whereas at other places, everything was marked off by ropes and poles. There was a bit more to look at here, and I really liked that.”

Cramer said her goal for the trip was to improve her skills. She also hopes to eventually ski more difficult trails with Manna.

“I got to the highest peak, and at first I fell every five feet,” Cramer said. “One time I finally made it all the way down the hill. For me, skiing is about the excitement of not failing.”

She said she took advice from her brother to achieve her goal.

“My brothers, who are really good at skiing, tell me to trust in my skis and trust in myself,” Cramer said. “ I think leaning into my skis instead of pulling away definitely helped because if you aren’t leaning forward, you’re just gonna end up right on your back.”

Skiing takes time to master and Cramer said she is still learning but hopes to ski more challenging trails one day.

“When you’re going down a hill and it looks fast, you want to pull away,” she said. “Don’t pull away. Lean in. I think that was a technique that clicked for me. All of a sudden things got a lot easier. I still can’t turn to save my life though.”

When on the trails or the lift, Manna said she was surprised by the kindness of the non-Hillsdale skiers as they started conversations and wanted to get to know her.

“One crazy thing that I was not expecting was the people on the ski lifts, just random people, strangers were way nicer,” Manna said. “They would just strike up a conversation, and that usually doesn’t happen unless I’m the one to start the conversation in Colorado. They’re like, ‘Where are you from?’ or ‘How’s it going?’ And that was rather shocking”.

Manna said getting to know strangers on the trip made it special for her and made Bittersweet feel like a community.

“It was kind of fun just to meet all sorts of people,” she said. “There were a lot of people from Indiana that I met. A lot of people were skiing for the first time or they just come up once every couple of weeks. But it was really fun to meet all the different people.”

While Manna made new acquaintances on the trial, Walker said he partook in his tradition of eating chili after skiing.

“This has become a tradition in the past two years,” Walker said. “I wish I was sticking around longer so I could keep doing it, because it’s a great tradition of going and skiing and then getting chili at lunch. I was sitting at lunch and a friend looked at me. She was like, ‘You have chili again.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I do. You’re right. I did the same thing last year.’ Chili is so great to have after having skied for several hours.”