In a state with the slogan “The Greatest Snow on Earth,” it’s no surprise that the University of Utah is home to a robust snow sports community. For them, their time on the slopes is a defining feature of their time in college.
“I always tell people that the University of Utah, if you look at the rankings from FREESKIER magazine, it’s like the number one ski university because it’s a great school and it sits right at the base of the mountain,” said Jim Steenburgh, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the U. “Skiing is like right outside your doorstep, practically.”
That appeal is what brought Kate Pitkin to Utah. Pitkin, a freshman double majoring in finance and political science, has been a competitive freeride skier since she was 13. She knew she wanted to continue competing in college, which made her decision to come to the U easy.
Having a big ski community on campus has connected Pitkin to students with the same interests. So when she thinks of her social experiences at school, she said most of them have happened on the mountain.
“With my class schedule, I can ski seven days a week if I want to,” she said. “That’s been just a huge game changer for my college experience.”
Alex Gehrke, a sophomore majoring in QAMO, said he intentionally picked his schedule this semester to give him free time to ski. While he doesn’t prefer some of the online classes he has now, he said the ability to ski has had a huge impact on his mental and physical health.
“I would say, having skiing as an outlet for me, personally, probably makes my school performance better,” he said. “Because I’m like, ‘okay I went skiing, but now I have to do this homework.’ Whereas, you can kind of procrastinate and do other things if you don’t have much going on.”
This year, however, Gehrke said ski conditions have fallen short of what he’s seen in the past. He noticed this year’s snowpack came later in the season than usual.
As of March 12, the snowpack in Northern Utah is near average. But it took a while to get to this point, according to Steenburgh, making it hard for resorts to open terrain early. Plus, this season follows the highest two-year snowfall in state history, which he said can make an average year seem underwhelming.
“So I think this year, at least for northern Utah, I just look at it as a little bit of a letdown compared to the last couple years,” he said. “And even though we’re at average, I would say it’s probably been a below average ski season so far.”
But the conditions haven’t changed how Gehrke feels about his decision to come to Utah. Record-breaking winter or not, he said he’s grateful for the opportunity to be on the mountain.
“My satisfaction in my soul is not affected by whether we have a lot of snow or not,” he said. “Just because I like just skiing, whether you know it’s [bad] or not.”
