The Tyrone Ski Club took their triennial trip to Smuggler’s Notch Vermont over the President’s Day holiday weekend.  For three days 28 students enjoyed beautiful skiing, snowboarding, sightseeing, and relaxing. Sprawled across three different mountains with over 50 open ski routes to enjoy, the group spent nearly every second of daylight outdoors.

Well, most of them did.

“The condos were comfortable, it was hard to get around all the stairs with a hurt back, but I guess that’s my own fault,” said sophomore snowboarder Zack Webster. Halfway through the second day of the trip, Webster had taken quite the tumble and hit his lower back and head. Luckily for the helmet he’d rented, he didn’t get a concussion nor did he break anything, but standard Smuggler’s Notch protocol had required that any back injury had to be sent to a nearby hospital.

“Doing certain tasks still hurts– even two weeks later, but that’s the danger of snowboarding. I just have to live with that,”said Webster.

When asked about the trip, senior skier Erika Voyzey said, “Being there is such an experience because you get to ski on more slopes than around here. You have more options, and it snows nearly every night. Simply put, it’s just beautiful.”

Smuggler’s Notch had about half the mountain’s slopes to enjoy, mostly easier slopes and some expert slopes.

However, they weren’t on the slopes the entire time. In fact, they had to go off at 4 p.m.– not because that’s the time the advisers set on a whim, rather because that is when Smugglers’ closes.

Smugglers’ features numerous activities including a pool and hot tub, and a place called Teen Alley where students enjoyed foosball, two Xboxes, table tennis, and billiards.

Tyrone departed on February 11th, made a stop at Sheetz and tried to sleep the rest of their journey to Vermont.

On the way home was a different story. “Because the ride was through the entire day, it seemed much longer than on the way up, we didn’t stop much either,” said Webster.

The group stopped at a small store while they were still in Vermont for everyone to collect some mementos and Vermont foods. Once they left, there was one other stop, a Cracker Barrel in New York for a late lunch, or early dinner. Take your pick.

After an unusually long 13 hour drive from Vermont, as it should only take nine hours,, everyone arrived okay physically, but of questionable mental state.  Regardless, the students of Tyrone High left with memories that should last a while. The freshman are definitely looking forward to doing it again in 2019.