Learning to Ski Before Titus

By Maggie Bednaz Last updated Mar 7, 2024

Two skiers on the lift getting ready to hit the slopes at Titus Mountain. PHOTO CREDIT: MAGGIE BEDNAZ ’26

Titus, an annual event hosted by the Outing Club every March, is advertised primarily to those who ski or snowboard. In order to make this event more inclusive and something all should enjoy, the OC named a DEI Titus Chair: someone who looked at diversity, equity, and inclusion specific to the event. Before Titus weekend, the Outing Club put together several learn-to-ski events. The main purpose of these events was to encourage people to learn something new, get outside, and remove any financial barriers that may prevent students from doing so.

The first learn-to-ski event took place at the end of January, soon after returning to campus from winter break. Members of the OC gathered all personal skis, boots, snow pants, and helmets they had and took them to the quad. The event lasted for 3 hours and was a huge success, with over 25 students dropping in to learn to ski. Both the participants and the rookie ski instructors had huge smiles.

After the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the first event, the Outing Club set out to host another learn-to-ski event, this time at Titus Mountain itself. After figuring out the logistics of costs for both rentals and lift tickets, the OC set out to find funding. There was consistent communication with Ashlee-Downing Duke and the Thelmo E-board, who eventually pointed us in the right direction. Student Activities and Fishing Club both gave us generous donations to support the event, which paid for 7 participants’ lift tickets and rentals for the day.

Thanks to constant communication with Jules Antonio, a member of KDS and BSU, we were able to open this Learn to Ski Day to members of BSU and its surrounding community. A week before Titus, a group of 3 OC members and 7 participants headed up to the mountain. After lots of skiing on the magic carpet, a few hard falls, and plenty of laughs later, we are happy to say the day was a huge success.

The OC hopes to host more learn-to-ski opportunities in the future and would like to thank the entire St. Lawrence community for all their help and support.