February 29

This past weekend, we helped out at an aid station for the Leadville Loppett. The Loppett is a 22 km cross-country ski race, not unlike a marathon except on skis. Matt, Sarah, Karl, and Danny, members of the HMI faculty, all raced. We split into three different groups, taking turns working the aid station. We cheered on all of the racers. Our motivation helped Karl, one of our math teachers, ski on to take first place overall. After the race we went into town. A group of us went to the local outdoors store and then the thrift store. We have started a new tradition at the RMS called Themed-Thursdays so the trip to the thrift store (to buy our outfit) has taken on a whole new importance. We woke up early on Sunday to go to classes (which we didn’t have on Saturday so we could work the race). After classes, we officially began Ski Week. We donned our winter apparel for an afternoon at Ski Cooper. It was snowing hard; there was plenty of powder for everyone. We worked on some specific skills to get ready for the winter trip; then we just skied to enjoy the great conditions.

Because of Ski Week, we had a pretty awkward schedule, with classes at odd times for weird lengths, but that didn’t keep us from getting a lot done this week. In English, we wrote an analysis of Harriet Prescott Spofford’s short story “Circumstance” as compared to Transcendental ideals established by Henry David Thoreau. In addition, we discussed the romantic Old West and dissected Western stereotypes presented in “The Blue Hotel” and the film Stagecoach starring John Wayne. In US History, we debated the merits of examining the idea of the West as a process as opposed to a geographic place, and discussed the relationship between the lack of water to how the West developed. For activities, a bunch of us climbed on the HMI climbing wall. It’s little climbing wall, but don’t let the size fool you, it is sick. We definitely make the most it.

We went back to Ski Cooper on Wednesday to buff up on our skills and get some more practice on tele skis (the winter trip is just a week away!). This day was extra special though; it was our last visit to the ski mountain for a while, so it was the RMS dress-up-and-ski day! We invaded the mountain in ridiculous costumes including metallic spandex, super heroes, formal suits, and even some bathing suits. We skied down the mountain in unison looking absolutely fabulous in our outfits. That’s not the last of our dressing up this week, however.

Our student reps voted to have “Themed Thursday’s” from now on, so this Thursday’s theme was “would you be my friend if I wore this?” It was a sight to see here on Thursday; we had some great onezies (one-piece outfits), some typical nerd outfits showed up, and Jane even broke out her rollerblades for the occasion. In our great costumes, we still managed to get some schoolwork done. Science this week was filled with discussions about winter ecology and adaptations, which culminated today in a lab examining what factors affect plant life under copious amounts of snow. In P&P yesterday, we learned a bit about how we manage avalanche risk on the winter trip. Obviously, our instructors will still make decisions to minimize all kinds of risk on the trip, but it’s really cool that they empower us to understand how to make good decisions about risk in the backcountry.

This past week has been pretty spirited for the RMS XX students, full of dressing up and lots of laughs from everyone, including the locals on the ski hill. I just can’t wait until the winter expedition in less then 5 days. It’s sunny, and there’s tons of snow on the ground. It’ll be awesome.

By: Wiley Duchin, Gabriel Rosenstein, Dan Eppstein, and Heather Cabot