Why the university ski trip is the best week of your life
By Rupert Swallow
‘Another ice-cool grab from steezey* Starkie,’ bellows the commentator as a blonde hops her snowboard off the rail, spins round and stops, nonchalantly dabbing to the cheering crowd. The next skier steps up to the top of the mini-snowpark in the middle of Durham ’s town square. ‘Watch me rip the shit out of this,’ he roars. Under a marquee, DJ Piste & Love is mixing on a huge set of decks, occasionally fist-bumping passers-by. ‘Skiers have more fun,’ booms the loudspeaker as an air cannon sprays the crowd with free sunglasses. It’s the third day of Freshers’ . Two of my newly made friends and I, perhaps just a little hungover, find ourselves among a gaggle of brightly coloured hoodies and fur-lined parkas. ‘Hi, I’m Chloe, president for this year,’ says a brunette in a Moncler jacket and moon boots. ‘We built this just for the day. Five tonnes of snow is a lot to shovel.’ Following my gaze, she continues, ‘Yeah, that’s Trebs up there, such a show-off’ and chucks a snowball at the commentator who’s just started doing the worm. It turns out Toby (‘Trebs’ to his mates) is a veteran of the Durham ski trip, famous for his ability to down trebles (hence the name) and for once pulling a Cork 360 ‘by mistake’. He’ll be my college rep in resort, responsible for looking after me.
By Harriet Johnston
By Isaac Bickerstaff
All this is part and parcel of PalatinAlps , the Durham University ski trip, which, with 1,700 places, is one of the biggest of its kind in the world. The popularity of the uni ski trip has increased considerably since the Eighties, when just over 100 students went on Varsity, the Oxbridge trip, for a week of fairly serious racing. Last year, the allure of cutting loose for a week with your best mates, without even the occasional lecture to distract you, proved quite irresistible for over 15,000 students. Events such as the mountain meal – a cheese fondue with live music and a large helping of nudity – and the massive opening- and closing-night parties only add to the draw. It’s not a problem if you’ve never skied before; to help ease you into it there are both beginner and refresher sessions before you leave, as well as additional ones each morning in the resort. A friend enjoyed spending time with her dishy French instructor so much that she kept booking extra sessions. Sign-up day is one of the most eagerly anticipated moments of Michaelmas. Tickets for the Durham trip last year, starting from £394, sold out in under an hour. Optional extras like the pool party, freestyle lessons and upgraded accommodation were gone in minutes. For resorts, these trips are a dream come true. Sponsors shower students with giveaways, while competitions during the week feature prizes ranging from sunglasses to snowboards and unicorn onesies. On Above & Below, the annual British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) week, Yubl, a social media app, gave a €1,000 (£900) bar tab to Durham’s Uni Ski & Snowboard Club (DUSSC) for having the most entertaining group chat. Everything is bigger and more outrageous these days.
Fast-forward three months from the Freshers’ Fair and I’m finally getting off the bus in Tignes after a long schlep across France. Snow is bucketing down. I find my roommates, Angus, Alex and Owain, and we head for the hotel. Toby is waiting at the door to greet us. ‘You going out tonight?’ I ask him. ‘Course, mate – ski trip’ is the jaunty reply. Slinging our bags and skis into the corner of our new room, we head out to the Saloon bar.
I wake up the next morning with a hangover Kingsley Amis would be proud of. Having just about remembered my own name, I wander around the little apartment that serves as our bedroom, kitchen and dining room, wondering why Owain is sprawled on the table with a whole brie smeared on his chest. As I pull open the curtains, the blinding light of a bluebird day banishes any thoughts of a lie-in. A few restorative croissants and several paracetamol later, all four of us are flying up on the chairlift. At the top, Angus streaks off with shouts of ‘No friends on a powder day – see you later, losers!’ We’re off.
It’s not just about the larks, though – many students take advantage of the trip to add valuable lines to their CVs. For example, beer pêche, the Alpine equivalent of Pimm’s, is wildly popular on the slopes. While wiping it from their eyes during a particularly rowdy après, an entrepreneurial duo from Exeter realised there might be a market back home. Their brand, Jubel, is now served in over 100 bars and pubs in Devon and Cornwall . Another option is being paid to go. Heading over to the Jam bar, I meet Amanda, a friend on the Edinburgh Officer Training Corps (OTC) trip. ‘I spend most of my time here,’ she says, hitching up her floor-length Regency dress and clipping out of her skis. ‘Getting to Tignes was hilarious. We had to report at barracks for 3am, January 1st, and we’d all just come from this New Year’s thing. The president kept falling asleep and only answered if we called her the Princess of Nepal. It’s a miracle we made it.’ Once in resort, the routine is no less strict than at home. Cadets are expected to be up and ready for reveille at 0800 hours. ‘The O stands for "Oh My God, it’s early,"’ says Amanda. They catch first lifts at nine to spend the mornings working towards their Ski Foundation Level 2, which covers avalanche safety and mountain-rescue skills, as well as teaching and leadership exercises. Afternoons are spent working on skiing technique and formal write-ups of the day before they join everyone else at après.
Returning to grey old Durham after the ski trip is, I must admit, a bit of a comedown. The Funeral to PalatinAlps social in the second week of Lent had over 100 mourners in attendance. Instagrams and post-trip edits fill your newsfeed for weeks afterwards. But in the midst of this, a notification pops up: ‘PalatinAlps 2018 – we promise, you won’t want to miss out.’
steezey — Anything done with both style and ease chelfie — A chairlift selfie bluebird day — A cloudless, sunny day, perfect for working on your goggle-tan shredding the gnar — Having an epic time on the slopes, ideally waist-deep in powdery snow stacking it — When you try and pull an audacious trick and make a real mess of it naprès — A booze-fuelled snooze taken after après and before a night out on the tiles gaper gap — An unnecessarily large gap between your goggles and helmet (avoid at all costs)
By Isaac Zamet
By Astrid Joss
Ellen Fasham's Blog
Aprés-thoughts on the uni ski trip..
I wrote this in December 2021 after having returned from Palatinalps, the Durham University ski trip , and felt like it would be worth retrospectively publishing it to the blog. In a couple of weeks I’m going skiing again in Quebec, Canada. Keep your eyes peeled for a follow up post!
I have just returned/recovered from my first ski holiday (excluding the one I can’t remember in 2007) and have found the day after my return structured by the familiarly depressing yet indulgently comforting post-holiday routine. The formula goes as follows: 1) While lying on the sofa, I will first spend hours sifting through the shared iCloud album. The photos bring clarity to a narrative otherwise obscured by expensive French pints. 2) I then take a trip to the notes section to type and re-type a caption for my Instagram post, attempting to manufacture something that is incredibly witty but also feels offhand and throwaway. 3) I look at others’ photos on Instagram (accompanied with the obligatory and transactional ‘like’). I look at my own photos again, google ‘how to go skiing for cheap’, check Instagram again, and google ‘Val Thornes 2022’. 4) This is continued until my eyes begin to hurt from clinging onto the feeling of gliding above the clouds in the French Alps via the screen of my iPhone.
Unsurprisingly, Instagram can do little to fill the void left by my newly discovered love for skiing. My next attempt, hence, is writing about it. The feeling of soaring 3000km high, overlooking some of the most breath-taking scenery on this planet, before heading to après ski for golden evenings of partying, basking in the glow of alcohol and the warm light of the sun as dips below the snowy peaks. Palatinalps was one of the best opportunities I have had the privilege of experiencing. But as the trip progressed, I became more and more aware of the way this ‘privilege’ is tied to class and social inequality.
As one of my friends put it, Palatinalps was like ‘Durham on steroids’. Durham is a bubble of disproportionate affluence and privilege, with almost 40% of students having been privately educated. With accommodation, travel, equipment hire and PCR tests, Palatinalps totalled at roughly a grand, and while many would find this price tag difficult/impossible to justify for one short week, about 2000 people, or 10% of the student population, attended the trip. Attendees ranged from those who had done a ski season on their gap year (pronounced ‘gap yahr’; rhymes with ‘rah’) to those who balked at the self-catered accommodation and relied on the memory of their family chalet like a comfort blanket. I am exaggerating for effect, and there were those who seemed fairly sober in the overpriced bars because unexpected trip expenses had rinsed them dry. Nonetheless, it was impossible to remain oblivious to the preconceptions of students from other unis that we shared the slopes with for a week. I got the sense they thought that we were all pretentious poshos, and to be completely honest they weren’t too far off.
In the Facebook page “Durfess”, students anonymously post funny truisms, anecdotes or opinions about the Durham way of life. In #Durfess16824, posted during the 2020 Palatinalps trip, one student wrote this:
“Heyyyy Guyyyyyys did you know I’m on Palatinalps rn?! […] If you’ve never heard of it, it’s where the most exclusive, raucous bunch of us Duz students jet away to the Alps for a week to splurge daddy’s cash on après.”
The satire is on the nose and the criticism impossible to miss. The author highlights the ‘exclusivity’ of Palatinalps, an elite experience reserved only for those from families rich enough to afford it. Durham is a disproportionately middle-class institution, and ‘Durham culture’ includes wearing a Schoffel/North Face coat, enjoying port and cheese, and forking out for the annual Palatinalps trip. As the Welfare and Liberation Officer Ewan Swift stated, ‘there needs to be an acknowledgement of how many students feel alienated at Durham when they don’t see themselves in others’. Perhaps there also needs to be a consideration of the role the annual ski trip in compounding these issues of inequality and elitism.
When I told my mum I wanted to write about my thoughts on the ski-trip and its fundamental middle-classedness, she laughed. ‘You can’t write that;’ she said, ‘you would be a hypocrite!’. And yes, I worry I might be. Despite my attacks on the ‘Durham culture’, I own a North Face coat, I love a good Wensleydale with carrot chutney and, obviously, I had the time of my life on Palatinalps. I recognise that I am a part of the problem, and as I get older I’m finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile my privilege with my morals, and the belief that this kind of inequality has no place in higher education or wider society. I’ve recognised this contradiction since starting private school in year seven, but back then it felt more like my parents’ dilemma than my own. I’m uncertain on how to grapple with the role I play in a culture of elitism and exclusivity. I suppose writing about it can be a start. It may seem hypocritical, but it is an attempt to try and understand the relationship between my privilege and a student culture of class inequality.
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FROM LAST LECTURE TO FIRST LIFT
VARSITY TRIP RETURNS THIS DECEMBER! 01/12/23 - 09/12/23
VARSITY TRIP
About Varsity Trip
Varsity Trip is the annual ski and snowboard trip organised by, and for, Oxbridge students. Taking around 3000 students to the Alps, Varsity Trip has become more than the average ski trip. Known for its festival style parties and on the mountain après-ski, Varsity Trip has held host to a number of internationally renowned acts.
Skiers and snowboarders of all levels attend the trip with up to a third of participants being complete beginners. In recent years the destinations of the trip have included Val Thorens and Tignes. Varsity Trip gives the opportunity to attend an incredible week of snowsports, competitions and events, all at student prices.
This year the trip will be returning to Tignes from 1st to 9th December!
Trip information
Durham University Ski and Snowboard Club
Durham University Ski and Snowboard Club (DUSSC) is one of the largest sports clubs within Durham University. Members compete in snow sports competitions across the country and enjoy some of the best social events in the city.
The club aims to enable all students, regardless of ability, to enjoy the benefits of snow sports at the university. We also aim to provide the best snow sports coaching, great social events and discounts to our members, whilst also raising money for charities at our annual Snow Ball.
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NUSSC is notorious for sending it large every Christmas and Easter when we head to the Alps for a week of shredding and tomfoolery.
Whether you're more interested in après than air-time, wear hand-me-downs or Moncler, we can guarantee one thing: you will love every second. Easter 2023 saw us head to Val Thoren, where over 1200 of us tore up the slopes. Our trips include pond skimming, igloo & pool parties, insane après, DJ takeovers and massive nights out. And all that disgustingly low prices. Have we got your attention yet?
Val Thoren was absolutely MASSIVE, NUSSC pulled it out of the bag, heading to a snow-sure party resort boasting some the best skiing France has to offer. A unique resort meant a unique week of events, both on and off the slope. All alongside the insane sounds of DJs such as Bou, Ed Solo, Deekline, Northbase and O'Flynn. Want to see what we got up to? See the photos here and the edit here .
Just after Christmas, during Newcastle's buffer week, we headed to Tignes. NUSSC went large, getting rowdy in Cocos, playing Game of Gnar all over Val and Tignes alongside a hefty load of quality skiing. But the 2023 trips are behind us. Your goggle tan has faded, your hands are feeling empty without an infamous beer pêche and your legs from a distinctive lack of skiing and dancing. And that's just sad so... What's next?
The legendary NUSSC Easter trip will be back and better than ever in 2024. Follow our social media to stay up to date with everything NUSSC, so you can join us for the best week of your life. Think new venues, huge artists, crazy events and (hopefully) a whole lot of snow.
The powder will be deep and the hangovers will be long so prepare to splurge your savings.
Let's make the trips this year MASSIVE.
Any questions!
Contact [email protected]
EASTER TRIP 2024 - Unreleased
Resort drops, après info, event news – never miss a thing! Follow our Instagram to stay fully up to date
See you on the mountain x
SOUND LIKE YOUR CUP OF SKI?
To come on any of our huge overseas trips you need to be a member of NUSSC.
Fancy a bit of light reading? Check out our club constitution and risk assesment 🙂
UNH Ski Sale Set for Sunday, Oct. 30
9/8/2022 6:41:00 PM | Skiing
New and used equipment for sale at UNH Field House from 8:30 a.m-4:30 p.m.
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Varsity Trip
Varsity Trip is the annual ski and snowboard trip organised by, and for, Oxbridge students. Founded in 1922 to facilitate the blues ski races between Oxford and Cambridge University, the event has...
*** Sign up to the Varsity Trip 2022 mailing list here: https://www.varsitytrip.com/fairs/cambridge-uni ***
Varsity Trip is the annual ski and snowboard trip organised by, and for, Oxbridge students. Founded in 1922 to facilitate the blues ski races between Oxford and Cambridge University, the event has become the largest student run snowsports event in the world. Taking around 3000 students to the Alps, Varsity Trip has become more than the average ski trip. Known for its festival style parties and on the mountain après-ski, Varsity Trip has held host to a number of internationally renowned acts including Basement Jaxx, DJ Fresh, and Calvin Harris. Skiers and snowboarders of all levels attend the trip with up to a third of participants being complete beginners. In recent years the destinations of the trip have included Val Thorens and Tignes. Varsity Trip gives the opportunity to attend an incredible week of snowsports, competitions and events, all at student prices.
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