First established in the late 1980s, early 1990s, the Alpine Race Club continues to welcome new students into their community of skiers and snowboarders.
“Alpine” refers to the act of downhill skiing and snowboarding rather than cross-country skiing and snowboarding, hence why their name was changed from it previously being the “ski team” to specify, according to Jasmine Morse, the president of the Alpine Race Club. The secretary of the club, Erek Bickford, added that they did not want the University to be misled into believing that they didn’t accept snowboarders.
Their competition season begins in January and at the moment they are focusing on recruitment, fundraising events to decrease the costs of dues, advertising and team building.
“We want to make sure that you’re a part of a team you feel comfortable on and that you want to be a part of, and that you like the people you’re going to be really close with,” Morse said.
When the season begins, competitions take place every weekend for the first six weeks of the new year, starting in January, according to Bickford. Their mornings begin early on Saturdays and they spend their days on various mountains in Vermont, Maine and New York where they participate in two races a day. If a member is disqualified in the first race, they still have the second race they can participate in. Some of their races have rail gym events where members can do freestyle tricks and race on the halfpipe.
The team hosts a training camp before the season each year to welcome any individuals who haven’t skied or snowboarded before.
“You can take it as competitively as you want to, which is the good thing,” Morse said. While some students shoot for gold, others can enjoy their time on the mountain surrounded by their teammates.
Aside from competitions and long days, the Alpine Race Club establishes a sense of community that many URI students may have a hard time finding outside of their daily academic obligations.
“It’s really refreshing to have a group of people where you can leave all the school stuff aside, and you just care for each other,” Morse said. “You’re building actual connections with these people based on similar interests and common mindsets.”
With a team of 30 students, Bickford stressed the significance of the Alpine Race Club’s role in helping him establish his friendships on campus.
“I spend six weeks straight seeing them every single weekend, it made me really expand my whole social circle and meet new people,” Bickford said. “The sense of community is awesome.”
The Alpine Race Club holds alumni races, as well, allowing these friendships to follow them after graduation. The people on the team find that it becomes rooted in their lives, as alumni come back every year to see each other and race together, according to Morse.
After having difficulties with recruitment in 2020, the team has more than doubled since. Morse said that, as the president, this is something that she’s become very proud of in college: having a team go from 100 to zero, then back to 100 again.
If staying in an Airbnb with 30 closest friends at the beginning of a new year sounds like something of interest, the Alpine Race Club welcomes anybody with open arms to create permanent bonds with each other.
The team can be reached at @urialpine on Instagram for further information on their season and how to get involved.