As someone who is in their final year at Exeter I reckon I can give relatively good advice to those who have just joined our fair university. Where to go for a night out, where to eat and what things are really worth doing are all questions that I believe I could answer. All too often, freshers and even 2nd/3rd years are conned into events that are billed as the Exeter equivalent of ‘Project X’ when really, all they are buying a ticket for is a night out in a club with a couple of locals and a room smelling of the night before. I know this because I have done it in the past, and there is no worse a feeling.
So back in my first year, tired of money hungry promoters and ‘Ex4 on a Sunday’ flyers I asked a third year friend what he would recommend. His answer? ‘Ski trip. Best week of your life – do it’. I walked away thinking he was probably fighting the corner of a mate on the committee or was perhaps drunk; surely a ski holiday can’t be the best week of your life……. How wrong I was.
Having been on two Exeter Ski Club trips I can confirm that these weeks in the Alps are nothing short of incredible. The two trips, to Val Thorens and Tignes, were uncontended highlights of both my first and second years at Exeter. The people you meet, the skiing you do and of course the dancing that gets done on the Folie Douce tables create an aura around the Club that is not matched anywhere else.
The Club accommodates skiiers and boarders of all abilities and promotes skiing/boarding in a totally social, non-competitive environment. The freedom you get as a member on the trip is nothing like that of any school ski trip or even family holiday! You ski when you want, where you want and with whoever you want. The Club loves its après ski and ascends on slope side bars and clubs religiously after a good day on the hill. They’re pretty difficult to miss, most members are in fancy dress or engaging in some sort of semi naked (fully naked if you’re Higson) dancing.
What I found on both trips was that the Ski Club are a very welcoming, chilled out club. They’re not too intense, they don’t take themselves too seriously and they appreciate that not everyone who goes on the trip is a die-hard skier, hence the emphasis on après ski! Everything is organised for you, from travel and accommodation to a social schedule that differs somewhat from the standard ‘bar followed by club’ instruction.
If you’re someone who is yet to do something really worth while then I cannot recommend the Ski Club and the Ski Trip enough. I guarantee that on the trip you will make a whole load of new friends, enjoy an unbelievable atmosphere and maybe even experience the best week of your life. I’ll leave you with what a friend said to me the other day: ‘I see the Ski Trip as a right of passage, something that I have to do before I leave. To be honest I’m gutted I didn’t go on the one last year’. Don’t be that guy/girl to regret not going. Be part of a Club that will give you the best week you could wish for whilst at Exeter.
If you’ve got any questions regarding the Ski Club or the Ski Trip, email: exeterskiclub@hotmail.co.uk
Photo Credits: snow-forecast.com, hg2tignes.com, facebook.com