By Mason Vargas and Blake Kim
This year, our beloved Ski Week brought upon us a wonderful trip. During our February break, our friend group decided to take the name of the week literally and traveled to Arnold, California. After months of thorough planning, our trip finally made its way into the world. We left on Monday, the 18th, in three separate cars. The trip up to Arnold lasted a fast passing three hours. Every minute of this car ride we squeezed in music and games—ensuring our drive felt quick. On the first night of the trip, we unloaded the car, unpacked our bags, and settled in. Some of us played pool in the cabin’s frigid basement, and some played on the Xbox (Unfortunately we only had two playable games due to no WIFI). A staple of the trip was our “family” dinners, always filled with laughter and prayer. Everybody in the friend group paired up and cooked a meal as a way to save expenses. Each meal filled out mouths and stomachs with delectable food and vital nutrients. Excited, our group visited Bear Valley Ski Resort on the second day. The majority of our group were first-time skiers and snowboarders and had lessons for the first two hours after arriving at the ski resort. Following our lessons, we slowly built up confidence on a green slope known as the “Bunny” slope; however, our beginner lessons couldn’t save us all. Our dear friend Shivansh Kelkar, a junior at Westmont, was snowboarding down the ski run and caught a vicious edge. Catching an edge is when the downhill edge of your skis’ or snowboard snags the ground resulting in an immediate fall. We were both on the chair lift and watched Kelkar’s descent. We hurriedly got off the chair lift and quickly rolled down the mountain to Kelkar. He was escorted down the slopes by Ski Patrol, and later they determined he needed to visit the hospital. We all drove back to the house in Arnold and sent Kelkar on his way. Update, he broke his right collarbone (Fun Fact: He had already broken his other collarbone a few years prior). On our third day, the rest of us warmed up on the easy “bunny” slope and eventually worked our way up to the next difficulty: blue. We all plummeted down the run and to our surprise, there were only a few falls. The rest of the day consisted of lunch and a few more runs down some entertaining slopes. When we returned to the cabin, the majority of us were tired and had a relaxing night, filled with movies and tri-tip steak. Most of the nights, actually, consisted of amusing Poker games—packed with deception and bluffs. We all had lots of laughs during our poker nights. Eventually, we all packed and went to bed. The drive home was quick and easy as we didn’t make a lunch stop and the majority of us slept. Overall, the trip was very fun. Arguably one of our best ideas yet, as it fostered memories that will last a lifetime. There’s nothing better than hanging out with the people you love.