Boot N’ Paddle: The First Chair

In a world dominated by easily-accessible pleasure, finding the motivation to do something that even requires a modicum of effort can be difficult. 

Instagram and Snapchat send you pictures of your friends and celebrities while TikTok and Youtube deliver hilarious, digestible content at the flick of a finger. The dopamine you get from this curated feed surely is equal to that you receive from the effort-based activity, right? 

In your head, dear reader, you just disagreed with me. You know the value of doing something you’re passionate about is greater than the value of living vicariously through the internet. 

Many pleasures in life are accentuated by putting in the extra mile: in the world of resort skiing, this can be found in the catching of the first chair.

For those who are unfamiliar, with them, chairlifts are enormous pulleys that haul skiers and boarders to the top of a hill so they can shred back down. Like gliding owls they fly over the snow, your is shadow dancing across the freshly-groomed snow. 

When the chairs start spinning at 8:30 AM, the base camp of athletes lunging at the ends of their collective leads let out a whoop. The dawn light has revealed snow fresh for the tracking, glades of powder from last night’s snow still untouched, a park with features unblemished by tumbles and tricks alike. The mountain has been reborn, a spring spouting memories, laps, and races ready to be collected in your basket of stoke.

Getting a first chair isn’t easy, especially from SLU. The drive to Whiteface from here is approximately two hours, which means at the very least a departure from school at 6:00 to account for conditions on the road. However, an ingenious group of SLUzers found a way around the early morning drive: you set up camp overnight in the parking lot.

Leaving campus early the evening of Friday, January 31, the group found themselves in the parking lot of the Flume, an occasional waterfall (only when the season suits it). There wasn’t much light, so the eight-person crew, led by OC trip leaders Hunter Corliss ’21, Jack Pattison ’20, Jesse Vining ’20, and Rye Murray ’20, began their set-up. In the frigid dusk, tents were pitched, sleeping bags unfurled, and gear laid out for the next morning. 

Then, participants and leaders crafted a sumptuous feast of dino nuggets and mac ‘n’ cheese. For Corliss, this was the best part of the trip; for Vining, it was “getting into a sleeping bag and getting so warm!” 

Conversely, Vining’s hardest part of the trip was “getting out into the cold in the morning.” Even after a chilled start, the crew had made it through the night to catch the first chair. But, even after an enjoyable evening, had the less pleasurable aspects been worth it?

“Yes,” says Vining. “At its core, trips like these are about a lot more than just skiing because you get to spend the night outside with a bunch of new people.” Corliss agrees: “the best part of this was getting to see people comfortable in the outdoors.”

After their adventure in the cold, the newly-bonded team headed out to Whiteface where they were met with another show of winter solidarity: a line of skiers and snowboarders at the lift for the first chair. Technically, our heroes did not succeed in their quest, as they did not catch the first chair. 

However, they did pursue something a little harder than the average day skiing, and a bunch of people had a blast doing something outdoors. The metaphorical chairlift was caught, even if the physical snow had been a little skied off.