By Guillaume Bouyoux and Anna Garrison
In the final days of winter break, over 180 Sternies took over Breckenridge, Colorado in honor of snow sports and mountain festivities. Friends reconnected, bankers and consultants re-emerged from interviews (or wrapped up final interviews in the early morning hours of Mountain Standard Time), hot tubs overflowed, skiers and snowboarders carved up Peaks 6-10, and the TBar will never be the same. The week started with excellent groomed conditions, but things really picked up with Tuesday’s fresh powder dump which started around midnight and continued all day. Sternies flexed their unique interpretations of ski attire on the trip’s Costume Day (shoutout to the zebra, piñata, fairies, and the all-neon getups). Off the mountain, Breckenridge’s apres and dining scene did not disappoint. And all week long, the International Snow Sculpting Championships took place across the street from the group lodging. Teams from around the world transformed historic downtown Breckenridge into a temporary outdoor gallery as they hand-carved 25-ton blocks of snow into massive, detailed works of art without the use of power tools. Overall, the trip was a smashing success and the Adventures’ Club ski vertical looks forward to next year’s trip – perhaps in the Alps or Japan ?
Special 2022 highlights include
- The Rhinestone Cowgirls (Kathleen Halpin, Kate Leder, Doris Lynk, Lizzie D’Apice, Katie Jagodka, Mia Jacobson), who we are pretty sure had more fun than anyone in town
- Parker Callaghan’s unbroken streak of making first chair every day
- Kennedy Salveter’s arm wrestle competitions
- Guillaume Bouyoux’s commitment to the piñata costume, complete with a backpack of candy
- Snow tubing at Copper Mountain
- Nicole Ripka for strong-arming Whiskey Starr into handing her the aux cord, and delivering an incredible impromptu final night bash
- Jane Kennedy’s morning meeting with a pair of moose
- Sai Bhandari’s Breck Bar Crawl – #RMUForever
- Manfredi Alliata’s numerous beginner and intermediate ski lessons on Peak 8
- Boot pack hikes up Peak 6 and Imperial
- RIP to all the gear left behind in Thursday’s rush to the buses (a red super puff jacket, a black Michael Kors wool coat, a pair of goggles, and all the other odds and ends we will never see again)