Lakeview’s ski club kicked off its season on January 11th. Every year Lakeview’s ski club goes all the way up to Clymer, New York to Peek’n Peak ski resort. With an addition of the 8th graders going up with the high schoolers this year, instead of only taking one coach bus up to Peek’n Peak they are now taking two buses up. 

This winter hasn’t seen a lot of snow both here at home or up at Peek’n Peak, either. With that being said the conditions up at Peek’n Peak weren’t the greatest. Being so early on in the skiing season here on the “North Coast” often makes skiing not so enjoyable in the early weeks of January with patches of bare grass and mud spotting among part machine-made snow and part actual snow. 

Lakeview’s ski club goes up to Peek’n Peak during the weekdays instead of going on the weekends like other schools. The students leave straight from school on the 4 Wednesdays that have been set for this year’s trips: January 11th, 18th, 25th, and February 1st. Although it may seem like the students don’t get a lot of time to go skiing during the weekdays compared to the weekends, they get to ski for a good amount of time as there is usually no one at Peek’n Peak during the weekdays. That is a lot better than going on the weekends and having to wait in line to go up the lift after every run. The lift lines can get pretty long to the point of causing a wait of 10+ minutes. 

When freshman Evan Hawn was asked about how his first ski club trip went here is what he had to say, “As an experienced skier, it was really fun. I got to hang out with all of my friends and try new things I haven’t done before on my skis. I’d 100% do it until I am a graduating senior. My expectation coming into ski club was to just ski. I really didn’t expect to have as much fun as I did during the first trip. It is a really fun and rewarding experience.”

Senior Rocco Ferraro was asked how his first trip to this year’s ski club went as he has been in ski club before, “I think it went great. The conditions for snowboarding weren’t the best, but that wasn’t a big deal because it was still a lot of fun. There normally aren’t a lot of people at peak during the weekdays so it is a lot of fun to just have the slopes to ourselves.” 

Senior Braeden Candor who has also been doing ski club for years now was asked about how this year’s first ski trip went, “The first ski trip was a lot of fun, although the conditions were not the best on the slopes due to the lack of snow we’ve been getting, it still felt great to go back out on the snow. It wasn’t busy and it took only a couple of minutes to get our passes and get out on the slope.”

Whether you have been skiing or snowboarding before or you are brand new to it all, ski club can be a fun experience. Peek’n Peak offers lessons to beginners every 30 minutes which you can take. The lessons are cheap and very beneficial to new skiers and snowboarders. The instructors are very experienced and know what they are talking about. If you are thinking about doing ski club and you have friends that do it, you should do it. You won’t regret it. You don’t need your own gear because you can rent at Peek’n Peak or go to Ski Chalet in Niles and rent gear for even cheaper prices than what Peek’n Peak offers.