Students show passion for the mountain

The smell of snow and crisp winter air calls a snowboarder to the tops of mountains. On many weekends and even some weekdays students load their cars, carry their boards and leave the Zorn Dining Commons in full snow gear— boots and all.

Keene is relatively close to places to ski and snowboard, like Okemo Mountain Resort, Stratton Mountain Resort and  Mount Snow in Vermont, and Granite Gorge, Pats Peak and Mount Sunapee Resort in New Hampshire. These less-than-an-hour commutes may be the main reasons why some students are choosing Keene State College over other schools. Some students even base their class schedules around times when they get to the slopes.

KSC freshman Maddie Rice is one example of a student who has manipulated her schedule for the slopes.

“Tuesday and Thursday I have class eight [a.m.] to eight [p.m.], and only one class Wednesday, so I can night ski on Wednesday and have Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off to go during the day,” Rice said.

Junior Nick Piro also said he based his schedule around time to go boarding, but when he can’t make it to the mountain, he turns to his backyard. Rails and jumps have been set up on Winchester Court, which may be visible to students while taking a walk on the trail toward Walmart. For Piro, he idea for the mini terrain park all started with a doodle during class.

“It started from this basic design to this palace of features,” he said, “After looking into materials and prices, I thought, ‘I could do this,’ and figured it would be a fun thing to do during the winter.”

Piro noted that random students have even approached him and his friends to use their set up. Piro said some have donated items to make the backyard terrain park more interesting.

“This one guy brought a rail and another brought a conveyer belt (which helps give speed on drop-ins),” Piro said.

Piro is not the only student on campus with a backyard park. Junior Cade Nauman has created his own park as well. Nauman’s creation is located on a Coolidge Street property that he shares with his Alpha Pi Tau brothers.

“It’s basically a rectangle made out of two-by-fours. We have a platform set up that’s about ten-feet tall and we use a ladder to climb up,” Nauman continued, “There is a piece of plywood that we use when it snows to create a ramp to drop in on. When you ride down, there are two jumps on either side, and one connects to a box which is two rails with a piece of plywood in the middle, so it’s easy to ride on.”

However, physical materials are not the only element that goes into creating these backyard masterpieces — there has to be passion.

“Me and my friends set up jumps all around town, so I guess being in college has allowed me to pursue snowboarding more and have more fun,” Nauman said.

Rice, Piro and Nauman all snowboard at least two times a week and agreed they have noticed the number of students who ski and snowboard is rising. “It seems like every year the freshman class is getting bigger and everyone that comes here has at least skied or snowboarded once in their life,” Nauman said.

Junior Chris Crothers agreed, “I feel like everyone I know skis or snowboards.”

KSC’s close location to many mountains may be a reason why more freshmen are coming to KSC. Like Piro and Nauman, Rice said having mountains close by was a key factor in deciding where she wanted to go to school.

Rice said he looked into Plymouth State College as well as KSC before choosing KSC.

“I thought I would check it out [Plymouth State College], and I didn’t like Plymouth—and loved Keene,” Rice said.

 

Kendall Pope can be contacted at kpope@keene-equinox.com