The warmer Florida winter turned into a freezing five day trip for the Maclay juniors and seniors as they headed to Breckenridge, Colorado for the 2022 ski trip on Jan. 8. Typically, the annual ski trip is only for juniors and is at Winter Park, but due to Covid, the seniors missed their trip last year and were able to enjoy this year’s snowy excursion with the juniors at Breckenridge. Justin VanTassel and Matthew Cave were the main coordinators for the trip.
At 1:45 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8, around 130 juniors and seniors arrived at Maclay to load the buses and drive four hours to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Early in the morning, the juniors found out that their connecting flight from St. Louis Lambert International Airport to Denver International Airport had been canceled. While half the juniors were able to join the seniors’ flight, which went to New Orleans then Denver, the other half had to wait all day for a straight flight from Atlanta to Denver. After these flights landed in Denver, the groups all had to drive to Breckenridge. Once the students arrived, they went grocery shopping and picked up their skis, snowboards and helmets.
“The junior ski trip will always be one of my fondest memories at Maclay,” junior Olivia Schroeder said. “Even with my lack of ski skills, everyday was a different experience and even more fun than the last. I really appreciate the faculty that made this trip possible.”
Despite the rocky start, the next three days went smoothly for the upperclassmen. Students could ski, snowboard, go into town, go swimming, go to the arcade or hang out at the hotel. However, the majority of the students’ time was spent on the slopes, and once the slopes closed, the juniors and seniors were able to eat dinner in town and then go swimming.
“My favorite memory was either taking all my beginner friends down blues on the last day or running around Breckenridge with my friends after returning our skis and throwing snowballs at each other,” senior Turner Beshears said.
In the early morning of Wednesday, Jan. 12, students loaded the buses once more and got to the airport around 9:00 a.m. to head home. They then flew to Atlanta and drove back to Maclay on buses. Typically, this kind of a trip leads to injuries, but even with the larger group, this year’s students returned fully safe and sound.
“Seeing all the new people skiing that have never seen snow and never skied before,” Vantassel said. “Kids like Blaise fallin’ all over the place but are still having a great time and having fun. That’s my favorite part of the trip.”
