The Brown & White

One of the most active clubs at Lehigh is the men's and women's ski team. The team has dominated in recent years, qualifying for the national stage several times over the past decade.

With a total of 30 men and women, the team races every weekend from the second week of January until mid-March.

The team is a member of the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association, and it participates in multiple sanctioned events.

The team is intended for competitive skiers and not for beginners. However, it remains one of the only club teams that does not make cuts.

"We take anyone that has some skiing experience. Kids can learn how to race, and some kids have just been at it a long time and can teach beginners," said Corey Tolkin, a senior and head of the ski team.

The team competes in two types of events: slalom and giant slalom. Slalom is an alpine skiing discipline that involves skiing between sets of red and blue gates. The giant slalom is similar, but the gates are at a greater distance from one another. For the men, the number of gates in a single race ranges from 56 to 70, and for women, 46 to 58. Giant slalom and slalom racing are considered technical disciplines.

This season, regionals will be held at the Blue Mountain Ski Area in the Pocono Mountains. The national competition will be held in Sunday River, Maine from March 1 to 6. Rivals Rutgers and Fairfield universities will pose as threats to the men, the University of Pennsylvania for the women.

Last season, the men's team won regionals, and the women placed second. Both men's and women's sides were also invited to nationals.

The team has high hopes for this year's finals in Maine.

"We want to win our conference, get our conference championship sweatshirt and then move on to the regionals and I hope to nationals," Tolkin said.

With two weekends left in the season, the members of the team are enjoying their time together.

Tolkin said, "It's really relaxed and fun, yet we do really well competitively. We have so much fun with each other."

Club dues are $300 for the season and cover everything except food. Most members own their equipment, but those that do not rent for an entire season. The team carpools to practices and events. For a typical practice at CamelBack Mountain, the team meets around 4:30 p.m., travels to practice, which lasts from about 6 to 8 p.m. and returns to Lehigh around 9 p.m. Most of their events are nearby in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.