Buellership DAY 8!

Liam McKinley
18 years old
Sugarbush, VT
"Collegiate Aptitude"

Last March, two of my best friends and I took off to Utah on a trip to "visit some colleges". To the displeasure of our girlfriends/teachers/moms/ect, we skipped an entire week of school to "see if these schools were the right fit". Blue bird days, fresh snow every night, perfect parks, trees, friends, and the Red Iguana Mexican restaurant... These "schools" were pretty sweet. We skied Snowbasin, Park City, three feet of pow at Solitude, and then met up with some east coast friends and lapped Brighton's park for two days. Without a doubt the trip of a lifetime. Five straight days of some of the best skiing on earth while our friends back in VT were sitting in pre-calc. Although I later failed pre-calculus, was dumped by my girlfriend, and did not end up attending Westminster in SLC (although I may next year), the trip was worth every bit of it. Thats what skiing is all about. Skip class, do it for the story.

Jarrett Smith
Red Mountain BC
"I Wish I had been Skiing"

Monday April 11 2010. My home mountain's closing day. I had to go. I would hate myself if I missed closing day. This fall I'm leaving home to move to Utah, which means I don't know if I'll be back at Red Mountain for a long time. Red is like my home away from home. I know everybody there and I can tell you exactly were to go on a powder day. I'd sleep in the lodge if they let me. I felt like it was only proper for me to ski my favorite runs one more time and say goodbye to the place I grew up at.

But it was a school day. There was no way of talking my parents into letting me skip school. They just didn't understand. I was afraid to do it cause I knew I'd be in deep shit if I got caught. I had to skip without anybody knowing. The night before I skipped I waited until everybody was in bed. Then I carried all of my ski gear out to the car and hid it in the trunk.

The next morning I got up, showered, ate breakfast, put my books in my backpack and whined about having to go to class. Pretty typical school morning for me. I got in the car and drove away. I got to the light on main street. If I turn right I go to school. If I turn left I go skiing. I panicked a little and thought about how pissed my parents would be if they got a call from the school asking why I wasn't there. But I thought about how much I'd regret it if I chickened out. I turned left.

I got there and it was just dumping. I couldn't believe it. I was going to get face shots on closing day. I met up with some friends who wanted to check out this cliff I had been wanting to hit all year. It was by far bigger than any cliff I've ever hit. I stomped the hell out of hit. The rest of the day was the best day I had all year. There were no lift lines and every run was awesome. By the end of the day I had met up with everyone else I usually ski with and we caught last chair. About 15 of us lined up at the top of Link's Line. We dropped in with reckless abandon throwing front flips and back flips off every drop and jump while people from the lift hooted and hollered.

We were sitting in the lodge about the time school got out and my sister called me and asked me to take her home. I said, "Umm I can't right now. Right now I'm ummm. I'm going for a run. Okay I have to go bye." And I hung up on her.

I said goodbye to my friends, changed back into my school clothes and drove home. Right when I walked inside the phone rang. I picked it up right before my mom. It was a recorded message from the school. "This is a message for the parents of Jarrett Smith. Your son has missed periods one, two, three, four, five and six." That was close. My mom asked me how school was and I just said, "I wish I had been skiing."